"Julia, You Have a Call in Phone Booth Three"

Residents are moving into college dorms this week across the country, including my alma mater, the University of Memphis.  It was 46 years ago that my parents drove me the 100 miles to Memphis and my memories are still vivid of the building, the reception and meeting area, and my room on the third floor.

One feature of West Hall's reception area was to be almost as important as our own rooms.  It was "communication central" and is in stark contrast to the cell phones and other technology students have available today.  It was also a step down from the princess extension phone I had in my bedroom at home.  Across one wall were ten or twelve phone booths.  At first, it didn't register exactly how important the booths would be to my personal life.  The first hours and days were spent in getting acquainted with other dorm residents, making new friends, attending dorm meetings, and going to classes. 

Going to classes and the student center introduced another element to my life -- meeting new boys and developing new relationships with them.  This is where the phone booths came in and why they became very important.  There were no phones our rooms; there were no phones in the halls on our floors.  If someone called for us, we were notified through an intercom system and we went down to a phone booth to take the call.  I was not the most popular girl in the dorm, although I did receive my share of those exciting announcements of a call downstairs.  It must have been exhausting for some of the more popular girls, running up and down the stairs to the phone.  Since it was 1964 and not 2010, there were also expectations about how a resident should look in public; you never knew who might be coming in or going out, so you tried to look presentable when you took your call.

I learned about another means of communication after I pledged a sorority.  The entry to one part of the student center had a series of bulletin boards, one for each fraternity and sorority.  These were used for announcements of events and other chapter information, as well as honors, engagements, and other news about individual members.  The boards also served as a posting place for notes to the members.  We stopped by the boards several times a day to check for notes, the most important of which were from guys.  I think that, for some of us, you could trace a courtship from the early notes ("Meet me for a coke at the Sigma Phi table at 2:00?") to the engagement ("I love my ring and I love you!").

I still have some of the notes I received during that time, as well as some of the messages taken when I wasn't available for a phone booth conversation, and the "sign-out" cards which recorded where I was going, with whom, and when I would return.  Some of the notes are reminders ("Don't forget to pick up your Ole Miss football ticket. Larry") and some are sweet ("You are a fine woman with a great personality and much beauty. Ric") They are an informal record of my first months of college that now seem quaint.

Today, visits with children and grandchildren often include a third party -- the cell phone.  My college-age granddaughter places hers on the table while she talks to me and a vibration tells her that her boyfriend has texted her.  Instant connection - no waiting - no anticipation.  She's never picked up a love note from a bulletin board and I doubt that she's ever used a phone booth to talk to a boyfriend.  She doesn't know what she's missing.