“Mr. Allen, help me!”

Last night I was downstairs about to go home, and I saw two students using the payphones. One of them was not working, but the other was ignored. Want to guess which was which?

That’s right, the lonely pink phone on the right wasn’t being used. I told them, “go use the pink one!” But, they didn’t want to. “I don’t know how!” they said.

They prefered the “touch tone phone” on the left. The phone on the right is called a “rotary dial phone.” I used to have one at my grandparents’ house when I lived with them as a boy. To use it, you put your finger in the dial and spin it to make the number. If people had a lot of zeros or nines in their number it was annoying because it took so much longer to dial.

But, that technology shaped the English we use with phones. The word “dial”, which is the round spinning part, is also used as a verb. For example: “Dial this number to talk to our school.” “I dialed the wrong number.”

We haven’t used that technology for a long time since touch tone phones, and now cell phones, are the new standard (except for our awesome pink friend here!). I wonder how long it will take for our language to catch up to the change in technology? Perhaps it has already started, as I feel many people say “call this number” rather than “dial this number”.

Anyway, next time you need to use the phone, try the pink one. It may be your only chance to do so.