One More From America

At the Met

We fight the jet lag but, happily, Monday (today) is a Bank Holiday which means a) we can sleep late and b) it is raining. I do the usual tidy-up on the backyard and Sonnet has a to-do list that fills up one page. We are still in August and not much will happen until September 1 when, like a dog kicked hard in the stomach, the UK snaps to and goes to work. 

Me: "When somebody calls your mobile, what do you say ?"

Madeleine: "Huh?"
Me: "When someone calls me, even though I see their picture, I always act like I don't know who it is. "
Madeleine: "Use the phone, like, for talking?"
Me: "So I say, 'Hello?' which gives the caller a chance to start the conversation. It's polite."
Madeleine: "I don't know. We just talk, I guess."
Me: "Does that mean you just launch right into it ? Like, 'did you do your homework?' or 'what time is class tomorrow ?' "
Madeleine:
Me: "When I was your age, and when your grandparents were your age, all every kid did was talk on the phone, every night, for hours. One phone line. It drove our parents crazy."
Madeleine: "What's a phone line?"
Me: "Life was pretty rough back then, I admit."