You Don’t Always Have to Answer the Telephone

When I was growing up we had one telephone in our home. My brother and I were instructed always to answer it after the second ring. One afternoon the telephone rang at an inconvenient time. My mother said, “You don’t have to answer it.”

“But Mom . . . “

Maybe she was tired. Maybe she knew who was calling and didn’t want to talk to them. For whatever reason, Mom said, “Alan, you don’t always have to answer the telephone.”

I thought about this for years, and I now realize that my Mom’s permission...