WHO CALLED ME? Being away from the phone for most of the day could put a kink in your social life unless you have an answering machine. Sharon Bowles, junior, checked her messages from her office nightly to see who called. - Photo by Kyla Martin. "BEEP ... " Brian Lovegrove, r. freshman, returns a call to a friend that left a message on his answering machine. More and more students were using these machines in their dorms. -Photo by Jeff Montgomery. Answering machine blues begin at the sound of the tone Click. "Heeey Pancho. Heeey Carlos. Whatcha dooing man? Nothing dude. Wanna go pick up some hot babes, man? Yeah man, les do it . . . Hey! We're not really Mexican. This is Jimmy. And this is ... " They were as useful as a maid in a men's dorm and as popular as the buy-one-getone-free deal at Burger King. No longer was merely having a telephone sufficient. The college student was on the move and considered the answering machine essential. "My schedule is so hectic that I need my answering machine so I can get to everyone," Donna Hall, a senior from West Memphis, Arkansas, said. As students returned each fall, more machines returned with them. The machines ranged from in inexpensive microcassette for $35 to a super deluxe remote edition costing around $150. As the 268 People for keeps size of the student body grew and the lifestyle of the average student contained more appointments and dates than Sam Walton had stores, an answering machine played a vital role. "Most people need them so they won't miss their important phone calls. Some people use them to avoid certain calls too," John Bossong, a junior from Atlanta, GA said. With movies to go see, club meetings to attend, and occasionally studying to be done, the answering machine gave a student the freedom to disappear until curfew and not miss a single call. Students did not have loads of extra time to spend waiting on a call from Dad to send more money, or a message from the club treasurer to remind them that their dues were two months overdue. With a machine, the college student could spend all of his Saturday night happily studying in the library and know they will not miss a single call. On the other hand, some might call to see if one would like to discuss a future family over a bowl of green beans in the cafeteria, and the ever ready device once again saved the day. The owner listens as the machine clicks on and the nasal voice leaves a message pretending the entire time that she is out of the country ... permanently. With this tiny voice box, the caller may chat with Robin Leach, Cheech and Chong, or three obnoxious, screaming freshman women in an attempt to draw laughter. The owner of a machine may be sipping iced tea in Bermuda, locked in a Latin American jail, or unavailable at that time due to a serious library involvement. While most callers went along for the ride and even made a futile attempt to return the humor, a few serious minded academicians who had nothing better to do but analyze the lighting scheme of Harding's Christmas lights gave a disgruntled huff and hang up. But who cared about that person's new theoretical concepts anyway? But no matter what the reason for having a machine was, the convenient, timesaving devise was here to stay and was growing like the bill on the freshman's American Express. " . . . if you'll leave your name and number we'll get in touch with you when we get back ... and please don't hang up that really CHAPS OUR HIDE!" -Kara Dunaway Laura Ruggles
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