VALDOSTA —
He was elbow-deep in the guts of a copying machine. No one else stood with him. And he was just talking away.
Not under his breath either. He talked like nobody’s business.
I had just turned the corner, several yards away, but even my approaching presence didn’t stop, slow or soften his talking.
He seemed to be talking the machine through some difficult birth.
Instead, he was speaking to someone on a handless phone attached to his ear.
Sometimes, my mind moves about as quickly as jelly oozing down stairs on a cold day.
Most people nowadays see someone talking to himself, they assume he is speaking on a phone. I still remember the days when most folks questioned the sanity of someone apparently talking to himself.
For a moment, I wondered about the sanity of the man at the machine.
Though I shouldn’t. I’ve been guilty of talking to myself for years.
A preacher’s comment from my youth didn’t help this affliction. He said he enjoyed talking to himself because it assured he would have an intelligent conversation. It also assured no one would disagree with him.
There is also the old adage that it’s all right to talk to yourself as long as you don’t answer yourself.
I may be guilty of that, too.
Upon finishing one task, I often ask of an empty room, or no one in particular: What’s next? Usually, I respond with whatever’s next on the list.
When writing, it is not unusual that I read my stories aloud before filing them. It generally helps catch mistakes, typos, etc. So, several times a day, I sit at my desk apparently having a discussion with my computer.
Probably, the worst bouts of talking to myself occur during yard work. The lawn mower and weed-eater drown out whatever it is your saying. So, no one should be able to hear you talk to yourself, which seems like a good time to cuss.
You can just cuss away or say anything you want to yourself under the roar of a mower motor and the whir of a weed-eater engine, and no one should be able to hear a thing.
Of course, the neighbors can see your lips moving, but you can always say you were chewing gum if anyone ever asks.
But how often does anyone ask if you’re talking to yourself? Not too often, because people think if someone is talking to themselves then that someone may be crazy. Better to just leave him alone.
Phone technology has changed all of that. A person who appears to be talking to himself as he walks through the grocery aisles may really be talking to someone else. Or maybe not.
You can use a phone to actually talk to yourself, or pretend to talk to someone else. If you see someone you want to avoid while you’re out and about, all you have to do is pretend your phone vibrated and start a one-sided conversation on the phone. Just make sure your phone doesn’t actually ring while you’re having this fake call.
Phones have changed the whole perception of talking in public.
I briefly thought the man at the machine was talking to himself, but the majority of the world would now assume a man talking to himself is just talking on the phone.
Hopefully, my neighbors will think I’m only talking on the phone when I’m cussing my weed-eater.
Dean Poling is The Valdosta Daily Times assistant managing editor.
Dean Poling
Talking to yourself on the phone
- Dean Poling
-
-
Roosevelt Marshall
Roosevelt Marshall of Valdosta passed this life Dec. 14, 2010. Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. at Union Cathedral with Bishop Wade S. McCrae, Pastor officiating. Burial will follow in Sunset Hill Cemetery. Final rites are entrusted to Harrington Funeral Home.
-
Alice W. Johnson
Alice W. Johnson, 55, of Valdosta died on Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 at the Langdale Hospice House following a lengthy illness. Services for Alice W. Johnson will be held at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010 in the chapel of the Carson McLane Funeral Home with the Rev. Jay Watkins officiating. The burial will follow in the Riverview Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Langdale Hospice 2263 Pineview Drive, Valdosta Ga. 31602 or to the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, 2121 SW 16th Street Gainesville, Florida 32608. Condolences to the family may be conveyed online at www.mclanefuneralservices.com. — Carson McLane Funeral Home
-
Independent radio station changes man’s life
After years in construction, Cody Fender left building structures from the ground up to building the kingdom of God out of thin air.
-
Crofts launched Labor Day Gospel Sing
Given his involvement with the Labor Day Gospel Sing, many Valdostans probably think Brother Benny Daniels started the event which is now in its 22nd year.
-
America’s Last Freak!
And so it came to pass that a traveling carnival re-instituted a long-lost American tradition: The freak show.
-
A city of trees
Much will be written and said about the architecture of the new Lowndes County Judicial Complex.
-
Talking to yourself on the phone
He was elbow-deep in the guts of a copying machine. No one else stood with him. And he was just talking away.
Not under his breath either. He talked like nobody’s business. -
Forget an overpass, 84 needs a leapover
A recent event could well hold the answers to resolving a long-term problem and teaching a new generation that just because something looks easy doesn’t mean it is.
-
Sign of the voting times
Maybe we need a new way to elect our leaders.
Less than 18 percent of Lowndes County’s registered voters participated in Tuesday’s primary election. That sounds like a mandate of an apathetic populace that wants to do things differently. -
Wiregrass, um, Technical something or other
There’s nothing really wrong with the new technical school name of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College. But that’s quite a mouthful for folks used to calling its tech school the two-syllable Val-Tech.
- More Dean Poling Headlines
-
Roosevelt Marshall
