How could we communicate without our refrigerators?
January 27, 2012 · 0 Comments
By: Dale M. King
Have you thought much about the history of communications? It’s a fascinating subject, how we have gone from pounding out messages on hollow logs to punching up apps on our high-tech telephones.
Just the telephone alone has morphed through a variety of changes since Alexander Graham Bell first uttered those excited words, “Watson, come in here, I need you.” Now, I’m sure, Alex could probably get a recording that said, “To reach Mr. Watson in English, press 1; to reach him in Spanish, press 2.”
But I digress.
What I really wanted to talk about here is a communications device that has really gotten short shrift, probably because its main task is not communications. I was thinking about it the other day when I was on the phone, taking a message for my wife. I wrote the message on a piece of paper and looked around. Where should I put it so she will see it? So, I took a magnet and stuck it to the refrigerator.
Yes, how many of us use some type of adhesive device to leave messages on the refrigerator? I mean, where would we be without that big, flat door to place messages?
I have been in some homes that actually have calendars on the refrigerator door. Then, there are kids’ drawings, flyers from various organizations announcing upcoming events. A lot of us place doctor appointment cards on the doors of refrigerators.
I’m sure Alexander Graham Bell would have had a tough time reaching Watson if he tried to leave a message on the refrigerator. I don’t think they were invented yet.
When I was a kid, my mother would never have abided attachments on the refrigerator door. She liked to keep appliances free of encumbrances and the like. I do suspect in her later years, she eased up a bit on that requirement.
Of all the homes I’ve been in, I can’t think of any in which the refrigerator is not used as a means of communications. In our home, the refrigerator does triple duty. Not only does it keep things cold, but the front door is used for messages and the sides are used for the placement of magnetic cards for doctors, the veterinarian, gate house numbers, the alarm company, a 2012 calendar (for some reason, it is upside down – I’ll have to fix that), the pet groomer and a list of things you should not feed your dog.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, someday, someone were to invent apps for the refrigerator door.
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO
I was going to tell readers in this column to remember to vote in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary next Tuesday. Then, I realized that I was not a registered Republican, nor is my wife.
When I called the Supervisor of Elections office a few days ago, I was told that it was too late to change party affiliation. That had to be done by Jan. 3.
But we do have until later this year to change our registration for the Primary Election. A very nice woman at the elections office said she would send two applications to our home. That is very nice.
You see, my wife and I are still thinking like Rhode Islanders. In the Ocean State, you can go to a polling place on Election Day, change your affiliation on the spot, vote, and then change your affiliation back to what it was on the way out the door, after you have cast your ballot.
It’s a lot less cumbersome. But, then, again, Rhode Island is a much smaller state.
