I'm a telephone company rep Param
and one afternoon I was sent out to do a little rescue job
telephone call doesn't make a very good landing field for a model airplane.
I asked the boys their name one was named Pete Marston live nearby
the other boy was Joe White he lived down the block.
But I couldn't get tough with the boys. I knew they hadn't done it on purpose.
I told them they'd have to be more careful next time though telephone lines are
mighty important part of our town's communication system.
I asked the boys if they knew what communication meant.
Joe said he guessed it meant people talking to each other.
That was right in a way
but communication there is much more important than just talking.
When you cook your finger at somebody that means come here. That's the kind of.
Communication too just like talking it transfers an idea that's what communication
means transferring an idea.
Do you know what would happen if all our communications suddenly stopped working.
I asked the boys
that why for one thing I said there wouldn't be any programs on the radio.
No more serials or adventure stories.
No more funnies either.
Radio and newspapers are kinds of communication too
but communication is a lot more important than Siri older than funny papers.
Suppose you became sick all of a sudden
and your mother decided to call the doctor.
If the phone was out of water.
It might be hours before you could be reached and that could be serious.
Without communication and our town wouldn't get along well at all.
But we could still talk to each other. Pete said. Pete was right.
Talking together face to face is a form of communication.
That's the simplest kind we have.
But when we aren't that close together when we're so far apart
that we can't even jump to each other then we need another kind of communication.
I showed Pete and Joe What I meant. Even when you're several blocks apart.
You can still talk together. Over the telephone wire.
We might say the wire ties you together communications die everybody
and our whole community together like that.
The postman carrying the mail also helps connect everybody in our community our
community is tied together. By many different lines of communication.
While I was talking to the boys I had an idea.
We played a game of make believe.
We pretended the role of tape was Pete's house and another role was Joe's house
and insulated was a church it even had a steeple Joe's pocket knife with a butcher
shop. And a notebook was the boys' school.
I put a wire between Joe's house and Pete's there was a telephone connection
that Peters and the connection
that Joe's house the telephone wire tied the boys houses together in the same way
we connected the boys' houses with the butcher shop.
And with the school.
But
that was only one way in which these places are tied together we can send letters
between them too. You know so I borrowed some writing paper from the school.
We pretended the pieces of paper were letters as the boys knew a letter could be
sent from Pete out to Joe's the butcher shop could send a bill to Joe's house mail
could be sent between all these places.
But what about the church Pete wanted to know I said sure we can telephone
or send mail to the church too.
But there's another way a church can communicate with us. Isn't there.
The boys couldn't guess how.
They haven't started out the church bells the bells say come to church come to
church. I explain that you hear certain kinds of communication.
What does the alarm clock say it says get up time to go to work.
But there's a factory worker say everybody quit work trying to go home.
There's a siren on the fire truck. It says Get out of the way there's a fire.
But I explained there are also kinds of communication
that you see in stead of here. When a policeman raises his hand.
What does his signal me. That's right.
It tells the people in the cars to stop or go.
Even flashes of light in code can communicate ideas signs our
own so signals some signs don't even need words like this one other
signs come right out and say it
and they give a warning to keep people from getting hurt people read newspapers
that tell the latest happenings they receive letters
that carry messages from friends people go to the movies to see
and hear a story.
I explain to Pete and Joe
that our town works better because it's tied together by communications
but I said communications also tires to other towns.
We played make believe again pretended Iraq was a big city far away
when I asked the boys what kind of communication tie it is to the city he thought
of one right away. Mayor he said.
Then Joe thought of another kind of communication telephone long distance.
I connected our town and the city with a long distance wire.
After they leave our town I said telephone wires run along the highway
and across the fields and over the rivers.
All the way into the city. And in the city.
There are telephone operators
and switchboards which make it possible for us to talk with people in almost every
country in the world
but there are other long distance communications besides the telephone.
Radio doesn't even need wires in split seconds through the air.
It brings voices from abroad and makes us neighbors of people have a world away.
We have television too so
that we can see as well as hear events happening far away.
You see communication ties us to everyone everywhere.
There are simple kinds like talking together complicated kinds like television
but simple or complicated and on are important.
Well I had to go about them but before I left he told me he had an idea.
He said that he
and Joe were trying to find out just how many different kinds of communication they
could find in their neighborhood they are but they had fun.
How would you like to try that idea.