From our weekly issue dated May 14, 2008

I was trying to find a telephone number the other day; one that’s in my Private File. Actually, I have three such archives, and they’re all within easy reach. Unfortunately, two of them are … um … well, perhaps not the best organized. So they’re easily reached, but difficult to deal with.

That reminds me of my late Dad, who kept a tattered personal directory at the phone desk next to the dining room table. The directory contained names, addresses, telephone numbers, birthdates and a bunch of private data such as bank account numbers. It was a fine collection. But he had given up on alphabetizing, so you generally were faced with looking through the entire register to locate whatever you were looking for. Quite a pastime.

As for my data banks: I have a Rolodex, the kind with a moving indicator, which you place on the appropriate first or last letter of the person or business for which you want a number; then you push on a lever-like device at the bottom, and the thing flips open. The problem: The thing was made in China, and it’s a piece of #!%. I remember when Rolodex put out a fine product, but no longer.

I use the contraption, but it doesn’t work well. So I also have an amazing stack of odd-shaped hunks of paper on which are jotted various eddresses, addresses and telephone numbers. OK, so they’re kind of jumbled there on my desk, but I can (usually) find what I’m looking for. -- in about a minute or three by searching through the mess … er … I mean, the collection.

My third method of saving telephone numbers is to pencil them on a sheet of paper pinned to my bulletin board. Only thing, I’ve jotted so many numbers at so many angles that it’s like trying to read the “ads” that people place on bulletin boards around town. It’s a mess.

I’ve memorized a lot of telephone numbers, but there are times when I need to look up some digits. And I’ve got three sources, all within easy reach. But not within easy finding. Hey, it’s my own pastime. Like father/like son?