12 Comments

I love to read things like this - I enjoyed every word! Memoir is my favourite genre of reading material, and of course humour is great across all genres. Thanks, Terry!

When I first worked in an office I hadn't realised that I hadn't had the phones explained to me properly - I would put calls for my boss on 'hold' while I rang him on the phone's intercom function to tell him who was waiting to speak to him, and which line he was on. I'd then put the phone down, and then hear him across in his office say 'Hello Mr xxx' closely followed by 'Oh, for HEAVEN'S sake', as he stabbed the button for whichever phone line that was flashing. A colleague eventually told me that if I wanted to TRANSFER a call I had to press 'Transfer' instead of 'Hold', and that would mean that the call would be put through as soon as I put my receiver down from intercomming...

I didn't last long!

Expand full comment

LOL. Thanks for kind words, Rebecca.

Expand full comment

I could visualize everything. Good job.

Expand full comment

Thanks, Barbara :-)

Expand full comment

Really lovely. There's a magic to the commonplace.

Expand full comment

Thanks, Adam. I agree :-)

Expand full comment

The switchboard part of the tale was the best part. Really made me laugh. It could stand on it's own!

Expand full comment

Thanks, Sharron 😁

Expand full comment

"The problem with being a 16 year-old boy who is reduced to a gibbering wreck when in the presence of an attractive girl is that you’re a 16 year-old boy who is reduced to a gibbering wreck when in the presence of an attractive girl." Best line ever!

Expand full comment

The details make this sing.

Expand full comment

You know this reminiscence reminds me of Oliver Sachs' descriptions of the mistakes he made that helped him learn he was not meant to be a research doctor. It's interesting to have a self-appraising mind that is also lacking enough defensiveness to embrace and acknowledge the areas of imperfect ness and fault.

Expand full comment

This was very interesting Terry! It's cool to see what people have gone through in their lives. It seems like you went through a lot of trials and tribulations along the way. Definitely a good laugh.

Expand full comment
Error