Posted by Robert Dilley on September 21, 2002 at -1:36:01 from 206.186.168.80 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: Calling Long Distance posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on September 20, 2002 at 08:34:24:
When I left the UK for the US in the mid-60s rare phone calls to my parents had to be made through the international operator, who would call back when a line was free -- at Christmas this might take hours.
To me the thing that most struck about telephoning in North America vs the UK was the length of time people would stay on the phone. I grew up being strictly exhorted to keep calls short, as even local calls were charged by time (and still are, or were on my last visit in 96). I had one girlfriend in particular who was happy to spend three hours at a time on the phone, as one flat rate covered unlimited local time.
From my observation, North Americans are still more at home with the telephone than the British -- at least, among the older generation. Whenever we travel, we automatically phone home or the people we were last with to let them know we arrived safely. My brother (even older than me) and his wife were with us last week, and the first we heard that they had successfully navigated Toronto traffic was a card in the mail!
Incidentally, I can remember as a student being on my way to stay with said brother and sending a telegram because he had no telephone. I can also remember that I had added "DV" after my proposed time of arrival, and the bureaucrat behing the counter wanted to charge two extra words for it -- so I removed it.