Sounds of The Past

 


Here is a picture I took in an antic store in Seattle's Industrial District. For young people who don't know what the classic items in the photo are, they are an analog telephone and a typewriter. How these gadgets work is another topic and we will not go there.

Every time I see the picture I go back in time and hear the distinctive sounds that each gadget makes. Those sounds are engraved in me and most of my generation's memories and some of us still cling to those sounds. I don't know anyone who looks back nostalgically to the sound of the typewriter unless maybe their parents were writers but many like me are still trying to hold on to the sound of the analog telephone by choosing "Old Phone" ringtone in our mobile phones. 

It is strange how memories are stored in our brains. I still hear the typewriters clicking loudly whenever I remember my trips to the principal's office at school where the secretaries are usually typing the next test or exam. Those trips were always not pleasant because you don't go to the "office" unless you are in some kind of trouble.  Unlike the sound of the typewriter, the ringing sound of the telephone was always a pleasure. As the youngest member of the family, I had the duty of answering the phone which every child enjoyed at the time. As soon as we hear the phone we stop whatever we are doing and dash to the telephone and answer it before the caller hangs up. ( For those who are wondering why I had to go to the phone to answer it, all phones are attached to a wall.)This is a very important job since you will not be able to tell whose call you have missed if the caller gives up waiting too soon. The only choice that you have is to wait for them to call back but often they will not call back because of the bad telephone lines or they have to move. 

The duty doesn't end just by answering the phone you have to fetch the person the caller wants to talk to because often the call is not for you. Depending on where you live the trip might be an expedition to the neighborhood since not everyone is fortunate enough to have a telephone in their house. If you can't find the person you have to go back and inform the caller that whoever they are looking to talk to is not home. If you are lucky they will leave a message, if not they might ask to talk to another person and you have to do everything all over again. 

This all sounds crazy for a person who is born in the digital age but I am sure they can relate to us in some way because people remember with all their senses. It might not be the same sounds but every generation has its nostalgic sound which brings back the good old days. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accidents don't Happen For A Reason They Give You A Reason

Image
Accidents don't happen for a reason they give you a reason. In February 2016 I thought I had it all. I was happy with my life, work and everything I do. Everything was going my way exactly the way I want it to go. I was in control. There were no surprises or misfortunes. Physically I was in good shape, I go to the gym at least three times a week, play basketball three days a week, swim almost everyday and mountain biking for two or three times a week. I juggle different responsibilities at work. My colleagues think I was working hard but I had never felt that I was working hard because everything I did was done with passion.  I was high with life, I was invincible, I was on top of everting until that cold February morning which paused everting.  On the morning of, February 16,2016  I had no plan to cycle or do some mountain biking. On the previous night, I had a good run playing basketball and it was a late-night pick-up game at the German Embassy school. S...
Read more

Old Lady of Lalibela

Image
This is about an old lady who had seen a lot in her days. She had been a child, a girl, a woman, a daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother. That doesn't matter anymore now she is just an old lonely woman. What is that she is thinking about? Is it the beauty of her youth or the fate of her Children? Is it about the loss of loved ones and the beautiful old days? Is it the love that she lost years and years ago? Life had been hard on her. Like her, the tree on her background all wrinkled and shrank with age. Like the old dead tree, she will be dead too soon. I wonder if she is worried about or cares about death at all. She is praying with her prayer stick close by but for what is she praying for? Is she really praying or drifting away in nostalgia when she hears the prayer chant of the priests. Chants that she has heard since she was little. Maybe she is doing both cherishing the good old memories and praying to live in paradise after death. I am sure her long years had never bee...
Read more

Reflection of a Half Century

Image
  Reflection of a Half-Century  Part One 1973-1991 The average life expectancy of an Ethiopian is 67.81 years in 2023. It had been as low as 46.13 years in the 90s when war and the high infant mortality rate kept it low. An improvement was made in the 2000s when basic health services managed to reduce the high infant mortality rate. I am living in the United States now which has a life expectancy of 74 years for men. That means I have about two decades to enjoy planet Earth. I am at the beginning of an age where you have more stories to tell. So that is what I am going to do.  Self Portrait 2023. Keeping a tradition of Birthday Portrait.  My generation has gone through so much in a lifetime that life reflects our country’s break from thousands of years of tradition to stumbling into the unknown, experimenting with ideology and theories that had not been proven to work with the country.  I was born in December 1973 during the last days of the last Ethiopian Emper...
Read more