Darrell Davis: An old rolodex

The radio station’s newsroom reporters were chuckling when Andrew Shepherd found an old, forgotten rolodex, which included an updated 1996 phone number for NASA. Shepherd mused about calling the number for an update.

Nobody uses a rolodex anymore. Every pertinent phone number is stored online, or on a cell phone. Those rolodex cards were never in danger of being deleted by a power surge, a dead battery or getting dropped into a toilet. Every newsroom had a rolodex full of commonly called numbers. And every reporter had a personalized rolodex, with the phone numbers for regular and special sources. It seemed like you could add thousands of numbers on those cards and keep sticking them alphabetically onto the wheel.

I took my rolodex when I retired as a newspaper reporter. It’s on my office desk at home. For a few years afterwards those phone numbers were still useful, but many people have since disconnected their land lines, changed phone numbers, moved on from their former jobs, or died. But two days ago I looked up an old phone number and called a guy. He answered. And today I was asked to look up an old number for somebody. The number was there. We’re just about to call . . .