I haven't received a new phone book in a long time. Is it possible they aren't printing them anymore? I love phone books. I keep old ones, scour dumpsters for discarded ones, hound librarians to turn over outdated tomes for other cities and counties. I enjoy browsing through them, trying to find names of people I've lost contact with. These are old, stubborn folks who wouldn't have a Facebook account.
I look up odd businesses-aquariums, haberdashers, record stores, sculpture galleries, party outlets, costume stores, pop up businesses that last longer than real pop up businesses, but less than established brands like CVS. I always want to know where every single CVS and Rite-Aid is located in case I get gas.
I found one listing for a store that sells nothing but pipes you smoke. I glance through the white pages, seeing all those names representing individual lives and I feel connected. I can't get enough of plumbing ads.
I, myself, have an unlisted number, but that's beside the point. If phone books disappear, will road maps be next? What about greeting cards if we can make our own on the computer? One tragic conundrum to these events is the plethora of legal briefs that still clog our courts, words without charm, paper wasted, wide margins.
The horror, the sheer horror.
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