Two tin cans, a piece of string and a heck of a lot to say...

Did you ever have a tin can telephone when you were young? I did. My Dad helped me make one once.

You know what I am talking about right? A tin can telephone is a device made up of two similarly shaped cans that are attached to each other by a string.

The little contraption is a simple voice-transmitting device. When the string is pulled taut and someone speaks into one of the cans sound waves are supposed to travel to the other can.

I am not sure what prompted us to make a tin can phone. Nor can I remember if it worked. What I do remember is that I was delighted by the home-made gadget.

 I am sure part of the joy I felt had to do with the fact that I made the phone with my Dad. You see my Dad was a draftsman. For years, he spent his days creating technical drawings for a telecommunication company. 

Let me tell you, this was no slap-it-together tin can phone. This phone started with a sketch. On perfectly lined graph-paper, we designed a dashing tin can phone. Next, we collected two cans for the project. I think they may have been cans of peas or some other cupboard vegetable. The cabs were scrubbed and polished. Then we measured the perfect bit of string. From there, we assembled all the parts and produced a tin can phone. 

I know it sounds tedious. Perhaps, it even sounds like too much work for a silly toy. But I was six years old and I idolized my Dad. We could have spent weeks making the phone and I wouldn’t have cared one bit.

So that’s one reason why I loved my tin can phone. You want to know the other reason? I am a chatterbox. I like to talk. I can just see my elementary school report cards now. One teacher wrote: “Melanie is a good student who gets along well with other pupils. However, she has a tendency to talk quite a bit. Sometimes she talks while lessons are in progress. It can be disruptive to the class.” 

So you see, this tin can phone was all mine. I could use it to talk and talk and talk as much as I wanted. Sure, it was more effective when you had someone at the other end of the string. But at that age, I could make it work without boring someone with my endless chatter. All I needed was a teddy bear and my imagination. I would simply rest the can by the poor bear’s head and then proceed to talk his ear off. It made me happy, what more can I say.

So that’s where the name of this blog comes from. This is my modern take on that old-school contraption. So feel free to pick-up the other can attached to the string and let’s have a conversation!