INFORMATION PLEASE......

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When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our
neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the
wall.  The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to
reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother used
to talk to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an
amazing person - her name was Information Please and there was nothing she
did not know. Information Please could supply anybody's number and the
correct time.

My first personal experience with this genie-in-the-bottle came one day
while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool
bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was
terrible, but there didn't seem to be any reason in crying because there was
no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing
finger, finally arriving at the stairway - The telephone!   Quickly I ran
for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up I
unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear.  Information
Please I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear. "Information."

"I hurt my finger. . ." I wailed into the phone. The tears came readily
enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me." I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?"

"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open your icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off a
little piece of ice and hold it to your finger."

After that I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for
help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me
with my math, and she told me my pet chipmunk I had caught in the park just
the day before would eat fruits and nuts.

And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary died. I called
Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, then
said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was
unconsoled. Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring
joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers, feet up on
the bottom of a cage?

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Paul,
always remember that there are other worlds to sing in." Somehow I felt
better.

Another day I was on the telephone. "Information Please."

"Information," said the now familiar voice.

"How do you spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the pacific Northwest. Then when
I was 9 years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my
friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back
home, and I somehow never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that
sat on the hall table.

Yet as I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood
conversations never really left me; often in moments of doubt and
perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I
appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have
spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in
Seattle.  I had about half an hour or so between plane, and I spent 15
minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without
thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said,
"Information Please".

Miraculously, I heard again the small, clear voice I knew so well,
"Information." I hadn't planned this but I heard myself saying,
"Could you tell me please how-to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess that
your finger must have healed by now.

I laughed, "So it's really still you," I said. "I wonder if you have any
idea how much you meant to me during that time.

"I wonder, she said, if you know how much your calls meant to me. I
never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls.

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if
I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do, just ask for Sally."

Just three months later I was back in Seattle. . .A different voice
answered Information and I asked for Sally.

"Are you a friend?"

"Yes, a very old friend."

"Then I'm sorry to have to tell you. Sally has been working part-time
the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago." But
before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was
Paul?"

"Yes."

"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down. Here it is I'll
read it. 'Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He'll
know what I mean'".

I thanked her and hung up.

I did know what Sally meant.

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