Well, It Wasn't "Howdy-Doody!"

In my last post on this blog, I wrote about some of the crazy messages left on answering machines when callers were asked to leave a shoe size.

Well, there’s more, but not about shoes, although still about answering machines.

There was a time, quite a few years ago, when I asked callers who wanted a return call to leave name, phone number and the name of a favorite TV show.

This was before there were oodles of channels and all kinds of offerings.

A friend from church called and left his name, phone number and said his favorite show was “Baywatch.” Yep, that’s the one that featured shapely females who were somewhat scantily clad. Then there was a second call from the same man; this time he said, “Sherry, don’t tell my wife what I said about my favorite show. P-l-e-a-s-e.”

I think about those two calls every time I see him.

One lady caller took forever deciding on the name of a show to designate as her favorite. She literally had a long discussion with herself about whether to leave one program or another or another. Obviously this woman took the instruction quite seriously and wanted to be sure she had her absolute favorite recorded. Maybe she thought there was a prize or something.

The first President Bush – George H. W. Bush – called while he was still vice president but running for president. Along with a message, he left the name of his favorite show. No, I’m not revealing what it was.

After that call, I changed the message for a while to the following: “Hi. I know you don’t like answering machines, but if the vice president of the United States can leave a message, you can, too, so please leave your name and number.”

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