Answering Machines

I got to thinking about answering machines earlier today. I'd called an elderly customer I hadn't called before. While the phone was ringing I started wondering what I'd do if he didn't have an answering machine. Some people still don't have them. Drives me nuts. How times have changed.

I'm not sure when answering machines first became commercially available. Wikipedia says the first commercially successful machine was made available in the '60s. Whatever. I don't think I had even heard of an answering machine until probably the late '70s or early '80s.

It really pissed me off when I first started dealing with them. I'd call someone up and just get an answering machine! Grrrr...and it wasn't just me. I remember telling people at work about trying to call someone up and just getting one of those damned machines. Everybody would shake their heads in agreement. They hated them, too.

I believe I got my first answering machine in the '80s when I was living on Trinity Street in Myrtletown. I don't remember why, or when, I broke down and got it. That machine recorded on a cassette tape and it didn't take long before I couldn't live without it. That one broke at some point and I bought a new one that used a mini- cassette tape. I felt really high tech with that one.

Then that one died. I had no idea it wasn't working until a friend told me I should get an answering machine. He tried to call me but the phone just kept ringing. I checked and the machine had eaten the cassette. Changing the cassette didn't help so I bought the one we have today.

We've had this General Electric one for probably 20 years. It's all electronic- no tape. Has two greeting buttons so you can switch greetings should you feel the need. It also has three mailboxes so each person can have messages placed in their own box. We just use the main mailbox. 

Neat machine and I recommended it to the guy who used to own the now defunct West Coast Internet. Internet went down all the time with WCI so you'd call to see what the problem was. I'm sure everyone else did the same. You might get one of them actually answering the phone. More often than not you'd get the regular voice greeting from their answering machine, which told you nothing.

I suggested more than once that they get a machine like ours. They could use the second message to tell people they're aware of a problem and are working on it. That might save them a lot of headaches with people calling and bugging them. Nope. They didn't seem to care.

At least they had an answering machine. Every now and then I'll still run into someone that doesn't. Had a customer around the corner from my house I tried to call once and the phone just kept ringing. I was beside myself. When I finally met up with the guy later I asked incredulously, "You don't have an answering machine???". He just laughed. Grrrr...how dare he not have an answering machine!

How can someone live like that? Then again, I suppose I could as I can count on one hand the number of phone calls I get in a year. But the wife gets lots of phone calls. Having that machine saves me from answering the phone for her five times or more a day. In that regard, despite my not needing one for my calls, it's still indispensable.

And the handful of you that still don't have one, best get one now. Times have changed. You don't want me calling and not being able to leave a message.