Get a phone book?
This is the Manhattan Yellow Pages, circa 2014. It's a very slim, trim yellow pages, just about the size of an iPad. I had the surprise of the week when I found it in my mail box last week, tucked in among the pounds of junk mail. It's not quite half an inch thick and it didn't take up very much room at all. I had just about forgotten about phone books and it was a shock to see my old friend again.
I used to love getting the new phone books. They were so big they were delivered and they never could have fit in apartment house mail boxes. The Manhattan ones -- separate ones for white pages and yellow pages -- were twice the size and probably ten times thicker than this new one. I used them all the time, the white pages to find the phone numbers for friends and the yellow pages to find the phone numbers for just about everything else. I was so excited the first time I saw my name in the Manhattan phone book. It seemed a real sign of being grown up.
I don't remember when the phone book disappeared. Maybe it was ten years ago or maybe only five years ago, but at some point they stopped coming and I discarded the thick directories that just took up a lot of space. I didn't even miss my old friends. But old habits don't totally fade away and I was happy to find the white pages in my hotel in Dublin this summer. I did what I had done so many times and I flipped to the last pages to see if there was anyone with my relatively obscure last name in Dublin. Alas, there wasn't, but unknowingly I was paying homage to my old friend, the phone book.
It was a lovely first day of autumn. I'm happy to report a return visit to the gym, then a quick stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond for a few needed kitchen supplies and coffee with a friend earlier in the day. I had hoped to do this post earlier, but for the first time ever I watched "The Voice," and was glued to the television. I'm not one to watch competition shows, or much television at all, but I was totally taken with the auditions. I'm not sure if I will watch the rest of the season, but I can see myself drifting back for the next episode. Is anyone else a "Voice" watcher?
As always, thanks for visiting and take good care!
