Canadian on the subway
On my ride home today, I ended up sitting next to this older gentleman. As we’re getting pretty close to the last stop (where I get off), he pulls out a scrap of paper with a few phone numbers scribbled on it, and asks me if he needs to dial all 10 digits to make a call. Turns out he had tried to call all 3 numbers earlier at a payphone, but wasn’t able to get any of them to work. Turns out he was visiting from Calgary.. had driving across the border and been travelling for almost 24 hours. So I straightened him out with the whole 1+all 10 number trick we use down here, even when the number is local (why did they make that so complicated anyway? I remember growing up just dialing the 7 digit #..). Anyway, we get off the subway and I go over to the payphone with him to make sure he can get through this time (since I didn’t want him to end up stranded at the end of the subway line). The only number that worked from the payphone had no answer.. so I leant him my cell phone to try calling the cell number he had jotted down, and he was able to get through to whoever he was visiting (I think his son) and all was well. While we were chatting on the subway, he had mentioned how his son was telling him to get with the times and get a cell phone, but he didn’t want to deal with the new technology, which probably wasn’t helping him. Glad I was able to help though.
