Go To The Payphone, and Wait For The Call

You know how there are things that happen in your life that just kind of stick with you? I'm not talking about major life events here. Clearly, things like weddings, the birth of a child, or an amazing vacation to some tropical paradise are going to stick. The things I'm talking about are much smaller. Even seemingly insignificant at the time they happen. Ususally it is something that someone says that somehow makes an impact and it just sticks. Such is the case with the phrase "Go to the payphone and wait for the call". It happend when I was a probably thirteen-ish years old.

My family had spent the weekend working on building a cabin on humble piece of property in the middle of nowhere. The weekend was coming to a close and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I'm not talking about tornados and driving rain, but the temperature had dropped significantly and a stiff wind had begun to blow. I was cold and ready to go home, but there were a few loose ends to tie up before we could leave. In an attempt to protect myself from the unbearable elements I was forced to endure, I put the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and cinched the strings as tightly as I possibly could so that I basically sealed the hood of the sweatshirt around my head- leaving me with a hole about the size of a quarter through which I could see. I'm certain that I looked ridiculous. In that moment, I had a phrase flash in my mind. I walked up to my sister, leaned my face close to hers and, in my most secrative tone, uttered the phrase "Go to the payphone, and wait for the call". Then I spun on my heels and walked away. It was inexplicably funny.  And we laughed. A lot.  Then, to compund the hilarity, my nephew, who would've been about 6 kept asking us what was so funny. We couldn't explain it. We didn't know why it was funny, just that it was. The more he insisted that we explain, the funnier it got.

Eventually, we finished up and headed home. But the phrase had left it's mark. Go to the payphone, and wait for the call. We still say it to one another from time to time. And it's still funny when we do. Especially now that the prospect of finding a payphone to wait at, is borderline impossible. (I think they may still have some in airports- but I may just be imagining that.) You know how there are things that happen in your life that just kind of stick with you? Those are probably the important things.