October 21, 1944: Long-Distance Call

Postcard from Opa to Grandmother October 21, 1944

10/21/44

Dearest,

Too occupied in indulging in non-activity tonight. I shall let this card be a substitute for the letter I should write, and a preview for the one I'll write tomorrow. It has been an easy day, crowned by celebrating with Johnny. Long distance call didn't work, since you were "out." Shall try again tomorrow. Wished they had television (or do I?).

Love, 

Tom.

Not exactly sure why the random racist postcard - but here we are.

My favorite line of this card is ... since you were "out"... Opa calling out Grandmother for having a life. She wasn't sitting around at home waiting for him to call. He teases her about it here, but I think the tone is friendly. They spent a lot of their early marriage apart, and while they missed each other, neither was waiting around for the other either. Grandmother was in graduate school while Opa completed his basic training and began his military career.

The other day I was talking to my Dad about the first cell phone plans with their time limits (only so many minutes, and extra charges for long distance). I remember when calling after 9pm was a good deal so you’d plan all catch up calls for that discounted time. Now- I’m writing this blog post on a bus home from my job in DC. On the internet, with a portable charger for my phone. What a time to be alive! And yet- the bus is silent. No one interacts except to maybe say excuse me or smile at a frequent co-passenger.

Opa wonders if he wished he had TV- I’m not sure what he meant by that but I just looked it up and TVs were relatively new at the time of his writing- not yet ubiquitous in every home. Technology would soon hit a rocket’s pace in development in nearly every industry (I don’t have the stats to back this up but I think it’s at least somewhat accurate). 

Here I am talking “back in my day” about limited minutes on a cell phone.