I really shouldn’t try dialing telephone numbers by memory. At least once a week, I do just that and I end up dialing a wrong number. Now that nearly everyone has caller ID on his or her telephone, you can’t get away with simply hanging up when you realize you’ve made an error. I’ve tried it and had the wrong person return my call, asking, “Did you try to call me?”
Now if I reach an answering machine with an unexpected voice, I still leave a message. “Hi, it’s Rhonda. Please don’t call me back, I dialed your number by accident!”
The time I thought I could save by not thumbing through the telephone book is spent apologizing—or sometimes in conversation with the person contacted accidentally.
Odds are pretty good that if you dial a wrong number with a Cook County prefix, you will know the person you reach. You might end up with an invitation to lunch or find out that a friend isn’t feeling well and needs some cheering up.
I frequently call the North Shore Federal Credit Union when I mean to call Gene’s Foods or vice versa. I end up chatting with Daniel at the grocery store when I wanted to check on my checking account balance.
My mother came home from Arizona this spring with an interesting wrong number tale. Her cell phone number is one digit different than that of Walter “Butch” Schulte of Wally’s Towing in Grand Marais. She was surprised to receive a call while wintering in sunny Apache Junction from someone on Highway 61 looking for help getting out of the ditch. She was unable to help them, but ever since she has carried the Wally’s Towing number with her in case she receives another wrong number emergency call.
The reason I am thinking about phones and wrong numbers is because of a delightful wrong number incident last week. I was listening to local community radio, WTIP, during the Pop Quiz. As most readers probably know, WTIP asks a question “of a trivial nature” each weekday around 9:30 a.m. The first caller with the correct answer wins a “fabulous prize.” I’ve won a few nice prizes—gift certificates for Buck’s Hardware, Great Gifts in Lutsen, and a cup of coffee at Java Moose. However, I don’t win very often. I occasionally know the correct answer, but I’m not fast enough with my dialing. Frequently when I get through to Roger at WTIP, I’m told that someone has already provided the correct answer.
Last week I knew the answer to a trivia question immediately. I hurriedly dialed, trying to beat the rest of Cook County. And I inadvertently replaced the 387-prefix of the WTIP phone number with that of local cell phones.
Of course I reached someone I know. Answering my incorrect phone number was none other than Lyle Saethre, of Grand Marais, mural painter extraordinaire. Anyone who knows Lyle is familiar with his voice—and his wry sense of humor.
I realized my mistake and began to apologize and Lyle assured me I wasn’t disturbing him. He explained that he was used to wrong numbers—he gets a few a week always around the same time—at 9:30 in the morning. He laughed and asked, “So, what’s the right answer?”
I didn’t win Pop Quiz that day, but I certainly had a good laugh. Happy dialing!
Misery, misery,
mumble and moan!
Someone invented
the telephone,
And interrupted
a nation’s slumbers,
Ringing wrong
but similar numbers.
Ogden Nash
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