Both, Pieter and I had a lot to deal with those old fashioned calling cards for making a phone call...
Do you recall any of those?
This MULTIFON was one that
we used in México for calling and
also for getting on the Internet with our laptop!
A confidential number needed to get 'scratched off', see below on the right of that red arrow.
Any way you used it—phone calls or on the Internet—you had to be FAST as it also did click away FAST... 📞 💻
~
We also have used for years a special AT&T calling card for which you had to use different numbers in different countries—before dialing the number you wanted to reach. That way it got billed to our personal AT&T account here in the USA.
Mom often used to say—our phone bill was not any higher than usual when using their phone...
Of course not—we paid for it!
And then in 2003 came this...
Calling the 1010 987 prior to the number you had to call!
ONLY for 3 US Dollar cents a minute all day, every day!
For the U.S., to Canada and to Western Europe!!!
That was quite a break through.
This was still way before we had our first Blackberry at the time Pieter had his open heart surgery done.
We've also made phone calls using our AmericanExpress card—very expensive rate but in case of an emergency we have done so.
Calling our sweet Sister–In–Love in The Netherlands from Mexico on our American Express card for a rip off of US $ 49.00—while on vacation in Acapulco, México.
We just had to call her—as she was going home from the hospital to be comfortable in her own surroundings during her final weeks with pancreatic cancer...
Over the years we have used our phone a lot and paid our share for communication with Parents and loved ones.
HOW things have changed since!
Now we can do video calls for free from one smart phone to another.
Guess there are at present no hotels that don't offer Free WiFi...
WISH we'd had that when we were first immigrants—for being able to talk with Mom more than our limited calls on Birthdays and special holidays.
It was the weekly letter writing that we kept up.
And oh, how I always saved those Dutch guilders for pushing into the slot for making phone calls at Schiphol airport... calling Mom especially and Pieter his brothers and some more.
On our lay–over on the way to India or Indonesia...
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