How does the saying go? Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Here's a better one - good manners never go out of style.

I was thinking lately about phones. You know, the thing that (almost) everyone has with them all the time these days. I had to laugh because someone at work - seriously - didn't know what a "local phone call" was. I told him there were four kinds of calls - local, in state long distance, out of state long distance, and international. Surprisingly, while local was "free" the cheapest of these others was usually out of state calls, and the most expensive were sometimes the "in state" calling, so certainly distance didn't seem to be a factor most of the time. He replied with "oh you mean calling people that have a different plan." Sigh,

Not that long ago, there was one phone company, remember? Then someone decided it was a monopoly and broke it up and the prices for many went through the roof. I love how the government "helps" us like that.

Here's something you might not remember. Party lines. Yes I grew up with this. For you kiddo's that don't know what that is, it is when 6-8 houses down a street didn't just share the area code and exchange, the actually had the same number! When someone would call you, all the phones in all the houses would ring. You always had to answer the phone even when it stopped ringing to see if it was for you. While you might think this was a bad thing... hmmmm. , .

You see, you were forced to be very nice to your neighbors. First off, since you all shared the line it was to everyone's benefit if you didn't hog it. I mean if you did that, then your neighbor would do it to you, and pretty soon it was very inconvenient to use the phone, Secondly, think how useful this is! When you dialed your own number, everyone's phones would ring. You could talk to your neighbors all at once as they answered the phone. I recall our neighbor having a real emergency and needing all hands on deck, and this worked. But you learned not to abuse it, and to be friendly, or folks wouldn't be friendly to you.

You had to watch your language, too, because you could hear the "clicks" during your call of neighbors listening in. Not so much that they were eavesdropping, but they might have a call to make and were hoping to see if you were about done by the way you were talking or who you were talking to, You'd be surprised how reasonable people could be if you told them you'd be done in 10 minutes, because they would 9 times out of ten say that was fine and it was. It would seem like this went hand in hand with gossip, but actually it curbed it - if you were caught talking about someone they would hear it for themselves! You learned not to do that, and it carried over to when you were off the phone.

In fact you learned to behave yourself because your neighbors would drop the dime on you (another old phone-related saying!) when your parents got home, especially if you were bragging up your latest achievement of misbehavior to a friend. All in all, even ill-mannered folks were forced to get along and I really think it did a lot of good, Good manners is a lot like love - it isn't natural, you learn it.

However, nowadays we have these personal communication devices. I see people enslaved by the fool things, unable to live without it and it is sooooo funny (well, it is to me!) to see someone break theirs and watch them go berserk trying to cope with the lost of this toy. Because of this some people have a couple. Some people buy those funny phone buzzer things so if they get more than 10 feet from the phone the buzzer goes off, Seriously, are we so important that we can't shut them off now and then?

Because that's my point - as much as the party line thrust good manners on us, these modern monsters take it all away. People can't seem to drive anywhere without using them, and risk my life (or sloooow down) using them at the wrong times. They won't turn them off at church or other places in case "someone calls" and I can't tell you how often I am talking to someone and they get a call from the silliest person and they TURN THEIR BACK ON ME to talk to a hairdresser, or whatever.

It reminds me of something I was thinking during Wally's lesson last week on attendance. Some say since they are members of the universal church there is no need to be a member of a local one. Maybe you think you just can't get along and this is your "plan." Just remember that when you need help and your phone is broke. The rest of us, who attend in person, in a way simply walk next door and find a friendly face during a crisis, because we live on the same street and have learned to love.

Randy