Dialing the wrong number is something we’ve probably all done at one time or another, but I’ve received an inordinate amount of wrong number calls since I moved into this place, especially the first two years. There are not as many of these calls now, but they are at times interesting.
Some callers immediately realize they have erred in dialing when they hear my croaking attempts [vocal cord problem] to say hello, apologize and hang up. There is probably a similarity in numbers, when I get calls for the local fire department, demolition bowl, and a few other local businesses. Others have dialed the number correctly; I’m just not the person they expected at the other end of the line.
Yet, why so many people dial correctly and ask for so many and varied persons, I can’t quite figure out. One woman called, asking for a male by name. Caller I.D. showed the call to be from a local labor union office. At first I gave her the standard, “You have the wrong number” line. She related my number and asked if she had that number. I told her that she did, but I had had the number for more than two years at that time, and assured her there was no one living here, but me. She replied, “That’s interesting.” Now why would anyone, hoping for work, give a phone number at which they can’t be reached!
For quite some time I got frequent calls from what seemed like attempts to collect debts. They wouldn’t settle for being told they had the wrong number, but persisted, giving the impression they thought I was deliberately misleading them in their attempts to reap financial justice. More recently someone called and asked for “Mr. Someone.” When I did the wrong number spiel, he came back with “It is Mr. Specific Someone I want to talk to.” Again with the implied tone and attitude that they knew the person was here, if they could just get me to admit it.
This number belonged to a mobile home sales office before I got it. I believe that it is possible there are people who think it is a mobile home park where people live, but how it will help anyone to give a phone number for which they have no access, frankly baffles me!
On the lighter side of wrong numbers there was the woman who, when I said, “Hello,” immediately demanded “ Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for an hour and I’ve been trying to call you! {I’ll bet she had} In this case, she believed my wrong number speech, sputtered a bit, instantly apologetic and promptly hung up the phone. I would be willing to bet, that whether spouse or child, someone was in a bunch of trouble, when they finally showed up!
Then there was this morning, which is responsible for this blog. A woman called and asked, “Is this the Adrenaline Zone?” Hey, I couldn’t help it, it was as automatic as jerking back your finger when you unexpectedly touch something that is too hot. I burst into laughter. I think she had a sense of humor because she didn’t sound annoyed as she said, “No, I guess it isn’t. I have the wrong number,” and then hung up the phone.
The situation with this so very senior citizen is about as much of a no-adrenaline-zone as you could find. My sojourn in a going on two years after-shingles-pain episode is beginning to wear me down, so the words truck me as funny. At this point I’ll take any laugh I can get, so thank God for this morning’s wrong number. That’s something I never thought I’d say!
