As I recall: In all probability, 'There is an app for that!'

It seems that for almost any need or want, a frequent answer is that "there is an app for that!" A search in the App Store today is probably now much more common than the advertising slogan popular when I was growing up: "Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages." Some younger readers may not realize that the reference is to an old-fashioned telephone directory, for which the Yellow Pages were designed to aid users in the search for businesses, professionals and various organizations. When I was younger, we deemed progress in the telecommunication industry in terms of no longer having to contend with party lines. I suspect that if it were not for the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie "Pillow Talk," there would be even fewer people who have a concept about what party lines were. For those who are not familiar with the movie nor the term, think of it as something akin to say 24 people having one bathroom to serve them. Party lines were very much a "wait your turn" type arrangement; in a perfect situation, no one had a need to make a call at the same time that any other person sharing the line did. However, as is often the case in life, perfect situations were not always the case. Even in what would be considered to be an emergency situation, users who shared the same line were literally at the mercy of whoever might be using the line at the moment to relinquish it for an emergency call. While by and large, appropriate consideration was afforded in such instances, nevertheless, I can recall reading that there could be criminal implications for failure to relinquish a line in an actual emergency. As an aside, I must make a confession about my reading material in my youth. While I was blessed with having access to a school and public library, and also owning several books, such as Whitman Classics like "Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe" and Scholastic Readers paperback books such as "Encyclopedia Brown," there were other times that I sought other sources. Keep in mind that this was long before there was an internet to surf. In addition to reading the back of cereal boxes at the breakfast table, I could also be found reading our telephone directory, which perhaps was indicative of, among other things, that I had a very low threshold for being entertained. I was told that rather than a fancy mobile like some other infants had over their crib, my father tied an empty coffee bag across the crib bars... perhaps one might surmise, accordingly, that for me that was the best part of waking up? In any event, returning briefly to the cereal boxes for a moment, it was common for the cereal makers, among which were Kellogg's, Post and General Mills, to have some type of promotion in which, for a specified number of cereal box tops and/or cash, one could receive some type of prize which typically appeared to be much more exciting as presented on the box than when received in the mail after weeks of anticipation. I was always curious about one disclaimer typically attached to these offers, and that is usually it was stated "Void in Wisconsin." I never knew why; but I felt sorry for all of the children in Wisconsin who were being denied access to the opportunity, however disappointing the actual receipt of the item might be. Back to perception of measurement of progress in telecommunication, the other major stride back in the day was the switch from rotary dial to push button dial. Of course, likely it was considered progress to transition from picking up a receiver and asking for the operator [most of whom, at least in television land, seemed to be named Sarah] to being able to have and use a rotary dial to place a call. Eventually the transition was made by which most users were converted from rotary or pulse dialing to tone dialing, via the push buttons. While now the most common method of placing a call may be use of the keypad on our mobile devices. In one sense, we have come full circle, as some users, for various reasons, do not even elect to use the keypad, but instead instruct Siri to make the call. The name Siri sounds so close to Sarah that I think that whoever came up with the name Siri should change it to Sarah, in honor of the operators of that name on "The Andy Griffith Show," and "Petticoat Junction," among others. If anyone is bored and seeking a cause for which to be proactive, then I might suggest creating a position for that name change... there must be an app for that! ••• Mike Baker is a local author.