Growing up, I always looked forward to the new phonebooks. Visiting my grandparents, I spent hours exploring the big city via their encyclopedic yellow pages. Steve Martin’s classic Jerk only amplified my enthusiasm and provided a chorus.
“The new phonebooks are here! The new phonebooks are here!”
Today, unexpected as always, a new phone book lay on my front step. As I look to Google and a company’s own website for phone numbers the massive yellow tome wasn’t welcome. It went straight from the front steps to the recycling bin at the back of the house.
There was a time when I used to keep a separate copy of the yellow pages in my car trunk. In case of an emergency, I could call someone even if I wasn’t in my usual parts of the city.
No, I take it straight to the recyclables in the basement. I don’t even look up my own name in the white pages anymore before tossing it.