With the Jerry Lewis telethon thing on this weekend, I was reminded of our own local telethon in Roseburg. (Do they still do that?) I don't remember the exact year ... I imagine I was in junior high school - so early 90s. We didn't have an endless supply of television channels back then like we do now. I was home alone and channel surfing. I paused to laugh at how cool lame our telethon was. Never a fan of local TV and radio, I knew I could find some temporary amusement!
The short, chubby man hosting this big shindig was urging viewers to call in. The dozen or so volunteers were perched behind gigantic phones. I wouldn't be shocked if they were still rotary phones, actually. There wasn't that much action going on. Nobody was on the phone. What kind of telethon was this that nobody was calling in??
Ignoring my phone phobia, I reached for our totally rad cordless phone. I pulled out the huge antenna and started dialing. With the phone half way to my ear I heard its first ring. Almost simultaneously I heard a ring on the TV. The camera zoomed in on the woman in the back row, far left seat. It rang again - both in my ear and on the TV. I was sure this was MY call! I saw her reach for the phone with a gleeful look on her face. She knew she was about to get THE big donation of the event. Once she lifted the phone, I hung up and smiled. And then I laughed my ass off as the camera was focused on her answering a call ... with nobody on the other line!
Oh it was a fabulous good time - and free!
I still laugh about it to this day whenever I see a telethon in action!
Oh my - laughing out loud. Growing up all we had was KPIC so I know this feeling. Only - we didn't do Christmas because of my family's religion...and all KPIC played that whole day was the dumb nature show "Hasn't God Been Good To Oregon." !!!!! Talk about scarred for life. if they'd had a phone I would so have done this...repeatedly.
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