Take Me Back to the Rotary Phone!
Despite my title’s reference to the rotary phone, I’m not going to start bashing phone companies. Instead, I had hoped to plant an image in the minds of those that still remember such equipment and a simpler time.
A few weeks ago, my 6-year old daughter and I were walking around in a used furniture store trying to find a dresser for our guest room. As I was checking the price tag on one of the items, my daughter called me over to a nightstand where a rotary phone was sitting and asked me, “Daddy, what’s this thing called?” I smiled and told her it was a rotary dial telephone.
She studied the numbers on the faceplate and then began to place her finger into each hole and pressed the numbers as though trying to make a call on our phone at home. I began to laugh out loud and then showed her how to “dial” a number. She couldn’t quite get the hang of moving the dial all the way to the metal stop and then releasing but she had fun with it nonetheless.
This week, while on business in Texas I was talking with my fellow training class attendees about various topics. In talking about technology we somehow got on the subject of when only one parent had to work and our change in values. You would think a group of IT professionals would balk at such a primitive era but we found ourselves wanting those days to return.
Now, for the ladies in our reading audience I’m not suggesting you belong in the kitchen while we men go off to work. However, wouldn’t it be nice if mom staying home with the kids was a viable option and not a financial death sentence. When I asked my colleagues, “What occurred that made it a requirement that both parents work?”
The answer was, “Our quest for stuff.” The home in the burbs; the big SUV; the 50-inch plasma TV and on and on. As somehow overnight we were no longer satisfied with our simple 4-door sedan, 1500 square foot home, and our 13-channel 19-inch TV (well, the TV was pretty bad). There’s nothing wrong with the new stuff, but the price we pay goes deeper than our finances.
Shortly after my daughter’s 1-year birthday, and at the pleas of my wife, we became a single income family. My wife left her full-time position, which contributed to 40% of our household income and we managed on my salary for the next 2 years. I’m not making 6 figures and I didn’t get a big raise when I announced my wife’s semi-retirement. We had no emergency fund other than God’s storehouse, which has more than we’ll ever need. What I had thought was going to become an exercise in disaster turned out to be the most stress-free and happy years that I can remember.
Like a scene out of Leave it to Beaver, I came home to a great smelling dinner cooking in the kitchen, a happy child running into my arms to welcome me home and a smile and a kiss from my wife. Despite the drop in income, the bills still got paid and we didn’t have to look for loose change in the sofa to eat out once or twice a week in a casual dining restaurant. At 3 years of age, my daughter asked to go to school like her playmates in the neighborhood, so we placed her in child care at our church and my wife returned to work. God was faithful and His timing is always perfect.
I’m afraid that the rotary phone is gone forever, but we can bring back the American family of that era if we truly want to; minus the bermuda shorts with calf-high dress socks.
on December 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Forget letting my wife stay home. I’d love to stay and let her go to work full time. Unfortunately, like nearly everyone else I know, dual incomes are required these days. Now, however, it’s not our quest for stuff that requires two incomes but just paying for the every increasing cost of essentials — gas, heat, food, clothing. The cost of everything has gotten out of control and if you’re part of the middle class, you’re feeling it the most. Poverty has programs, and wealth doesn’t have these problems, but if you’re in the middle, you’re screwed.
on December 13th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I would love to see someone do a cost of living and income comparison between say the 1950’s and present day. For instance, what was the percentage of income to the average mortgage payment, monthly grocery bill, or health care costs. We keep saying that it’s more expensive now, which it is, but has the income to expense ratio changed. We certainly are making more money than before.
As for your comment about letting your wife work full-time, I’m all for supporting my wife in her career endeavors. It just so happens that my wife would rather pursue a career managing our home, which I believe to be one of the most important jobs one can hold.