Wrong Numbers

You young folks, in your 50’s and 60’s, 70’s and younger think getting old like me is far far away. Let me tell you something, it will bite you in the butt before you know what happened. One day I was just sitting here minding my own business when I suddenly turned old. I was looking in a mirror when it dawned on me. "How did that old hag get in my mirror?" I asked myself.

Maybe it’s time to invest in some wrinkle cream. Please! All you wrinkle cream sales people just back off. I don’t really mind the wrinkles, thinning hair, tired body, it’s my mind I’m worried about. Today I had a phone call and I saw on the answering machine that it was a local eye Dr. I thought to myself, It must be another appointment that I have forgotten about. She asked for somebody that sounded sort of similar to my name so I said, "Yes, but the name is pronounced "Retha". (Retha is the legal name I use with medical places) After all the chitchat over the spelling of the name, we both finally agreed that she had called a wrong number.

If I were younger my hearing would be sharper and I would have known instantly that she had a wrong number.

Those wrong numbers can get a little confusing. Or maybe it’s just me. One time many years ago I answered the phone and a man asked for Hollis. Hollis is my brother and I thought he was the only person in the world with that name. So I said, "Hollis isn’t here". He asked when he would be home. I said, " He might be home now, did you try calling him"? He said, "I thought he lived there." I said, " Hollis has never lived here, he lives in Snoqualmie". He said, " Snoqualmie? What did he move over there for?" This conversation went on for another 5 minutes or so and we finally realized we were talking about two different people.

I hung up and my husband asked, "Who was that?" I answered, "It was a wrong number". He said, "Wrong number! You talked for half an hour". Then he ended up telling everybody the whole conversation for the next twenty years.