Eight-Six-Seven-Five-Three-Oh Ni ee ine
Before I begin, have you hugged a renter today?
Every once and awhile I wish I could go back to a simpler time. No, I'm not going as far back as when the word 'gay' still meant happy. I'm talking about a time of all VCRS and no DVDS. A time when Garbage Pail Kids trumped a Texas Hold 'Em hand.
A time when the prank phone call was an art form.
Back in the day, prank calls were commonplace, even dare I say, endearing. But just like hair band rock, we didn't know what we had till it was gone.
Picture this- you'd be sitting down for dinner after a long day at work or school and the phone would ring. On the other end of the phone there would be a heavy breather. You'd try to get said breather to talk but now way no how were they budging.
Looking back on it, the fact that we tried so hard to get that person to speak amazes me. I mean really. As if they had anything to say that you needed to hear. It wasn't as if they were going to breathe heavy for five minutes and then suddenly turn out to be your mom, telling you to pick up more milk.
But all prank phone calls were not of the heavy breather variety. Some were just regular people like you and me, making corny jokes like "Is your refrigerator running? Well, you better go get it!" or there were a gaggle of girls, giggling on the other end of the phone, caught up in the moment. Then again, I'm not only a member of the Prank Phone Call Appreciation Society, I'm also a client.
I remember making one or two prank pc's in my day. All of them were harmless fun, or so we thought. One time a friend and I tried to track down a high school crush and looked him up in the phone book because we didn't know his number. Phonebooks, by the way, were real, live books that people used to use to find out all the information they can now Google. We didn't end up reaching him, however, the midnight phone call did scare the bejesus out of his grandparents who also lived in the area.
Of course, not all prank phone calls were fun and games. One time my grandparents, who lived 45 minutes away, got a prank call from a young girl, crying saying her mom was bleeding and lying on the floor. My grandmother heard young girl + crying and automatically assumed it was me. So she asked the girl if it was Janet and she just went along with it, although the name Rosalie also came out at some point too.
So instead of calling our house line back to see if we were ok, my grandfather got in the car and drove 45 minutes to our house to see for himself, driving by following the white line on the road mind you, since he was not supposed to do any night driving anymore. I can still remember how much excitement there was once they showed up. Somehow everyone was amazingly slightly pissed at me. They forgot the minor detail that I was not the one who made the call in the first place.
Then there was the time when I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar as a temp at a local community college. One night I started getting really freaky, distrurbing phone calls that revealed personal information about me including where I worked and what kind of car I drove. Because they divulged information about me they couldn't possibly have known without "knowing" me, I reported it to the police. They did a trace and the details are hazy after that. All I know is that the phone calls stopped. Of course, the examples listed above are instances of what not to do when prank phone calling.
Either way it's a moot point since the beauty of the prank phone call died a long time ago, buried next to the eight track and the fanny pack. Yes, video killed the radio star and caller ID killed the prank phone call. As soon as you could no longer be anonymous and be horny or silly, the stock in prank phone calling plummeted fast.
Not only did prank phone calls lose some of their luster once Caller ID gained in popularity, shortly thereafter the Caller ID nazis came around. You know the type. You dial a number by accident, hanging up before anyone even picks up the phone. But a minute later your phone rings. It's wrong number girl, wanting to know what you wanted. Umm. Nothing. I wanted nothing. Otherwise I would have waited for you to pick up and asked you for something, but I didn't. These people have entirely too much time on their hands. My guess is these are the people who ironically, used to use their extra time to make the prank phone calls.
Just when I was about to write RIP on prank phone call's tombstone, my boyfriend goes and gets a phone call the other day. Not just any call, a prank call, on his cell phone no less. On the other end were innocent girls. The giggling kind. The good kind. Out to have some fun and annoy the hell out of their "victim" with their neverending laughter and need to redial.
Had it been 10 years ago he might have been pissed by that phone call. But getting a prank phone call now is like finding an endangered species wandering around in your backyard. It's rare and it's beautiful, and so he played along. You know, for old time's sake.
Every once and awhile I wish I could go back to a simpler time. No, I'm not going as far back as when the word 'gay' still meant happy. I'm talking about a time of all VCRS and no DVDS. A time when Garbage Pail Kids trumped a Texas Hold 'Em hand.
A time when the prank phone call was an art form.
Back in the day, prank calls were commonplace, even dare I say, endearing. But just like hair band rock, we didn't know what we had till it was gone.
Picture this- you'd be sitting down for dinner after a long day at work or school and the phone would ring. On the other end of the phone there would be a heavy breather. You'd try to get said breather to talk but now way no how were they budging.
Looking back on it, the fact that we tried so hard to get that person to speak amazes me. I mean really. As if they had anything to say that you needed to hear. It wasn't as if they were going to breathe heavy for five minutes and then suddenly turn out to be your mom, telling you to pick up more milk.
But all prank phone calls were not of the heavy breather variety. Some were just regular people like you and me, making corny jokes like "Is your refrigerator running? Well, you better go get it!" or there were a gaggle of girls, giggling on the other end of the phone, caught up in the moment. Then again, I'm not only a member of the Prank Phone Call Appreciation Society, I'm also a client.
I remember making one or two prank pc's in my day. All of them were harmless fun, or so we thought. One time a friend and I tried to track down a high school crush and looked him up in the phone book because we didn't know his number. Phonebooks, by the way, were real, live books that people used to use to find out all the information they can now Google. We didn't end up reaching him, however, the midnight phone call did scare the bejesus out of his grandparents who also lived in the area.
Of course, not all prank phone calls were fun and games. One time my grandparents, who lived 45 minutes away, got a prank call from a young girl, crying saying her mom was bleeding and lying on the floor. My grandmother heard young girl + crying and automatically assumed it was me. So she asked the girl if it was Janet and she just went along with it, although the name Rosalie also came out at some point too.
So instead of calling our house line back to see if we were ok, my grandfather got in the car and drove 45 minutes to our house to see for himself, driving by following the white line on the road mind you, since he was not supposed to do any night driving anymore. I can still remember how much excitement there was once they showed up. Somehow everyone was amazingly slightly pissed at me. They forgot the minor detail that I was not the one who made the call in the first place.
Then there was the time when I was working
Either way it's a moot point since the beauty of the prank phone call died a long time ago, buried next to the eight track and the fanny pack. Yes, video killed the radio star and caller ID killed the prank phone call. As soon as you could no longer be anonymous and be horny or silly, the stock in prank phone calling plummeted fast.
Not only did prank phone calls lose some of their luster once Caller ID gained in popularity, shortly thereafter the Caller ID nazis came around. You know the type. You dial a number by accident, hanging up before anyone even picks up the phone. But a minute later your phone rings. It's wrong number girl, wanting to know what you wanted. Umm. Nothing. I wanted nothing. Otherwise I would have waited for you to pick up and asked you for something, but I didn't. These people have entirely too much time on their hands. My guess is these are the people who ironically, used to use their extra time to make the prank phone calls.
Just when I was about to write RIP on prank phone call's tombstone, my boyfriend goes and gets a phone call the other day. Not just any call, a prank call, on his cell phone no less. On the other end were innocent girls. The giggling kind. The good kind. Out to have some fun and annoy the hell out of their "victim" with their neverending laughter and need to redial.
Had it been 10 years ago he might have been pissed by that phone call. But getting a prank phone call now is like finding an endangered species wandering around in your backyard. It's rare and it's beautiful, and so he played along. You know, for old time's sake.
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