The debate over the location of Claudia's phone

[Kylie90210]

I picture it as the first one pictured.
Agree about the cell phones... but I guess the meetings might still have worked... mobile phone calls can be expensive!

[sotypical42483]

I don't think cell phones would = the end of the BSC. I mean as it is, clients could call any of them at home on their landlines if they wanted, but they don't.

[baseballchica03]

^^ Yeah. The whole point of the BSC is that parents don't have the time to go around calling everyone until they find someone free. The concept would still be the same, whether they were calling a land line or a cell phone.

[aln1982]

^ Agree. I'm glad they didn't have cell phones, though. I think people use them way too much now. It is one of my pet peeves when people are walking through the grocery store loudly carrying on a conversation and are so involved in it that they get in my way. ;D

[macca]

baseballchica03 said:

^^ Yeah. The whole point of the BSC is that parents don't have the time to go around calling everyone until they find someone free. The concept would still be the same, whether they were calling a land line or a cell phone.

Yeah, you're right. I guess for a moment there, I assumed the problem was that no one was home when the parents called and cell phone would be a way of ensuring the potential sitters were always available to be contacted.

[wanderingfrog]

I was just looking at the cover of the 1990 BSC calendar, which has a picture of a BSC meeting on it, to see where the phone was. Claudia's sitting on the floor, talking on the phone, which is pink, and the cord stretches off to... nowhere. It stops when it goes behind one of the legs of the director's chair, which makes sense, but it doesn't continue on the other side.

[anzuhana]

I've pictured to Claudia's phone to be on a nightstand or on a table near Kristy's chair or maybe Claudia's bed.

[sparklymouse]

It has to be able to move around. They always say that the closest person answers the phone at the meetings, and yet multiple people answer it at each meeting. And they have their designated spots to sit in Claudia's room, so if the phone was stuck in one spot wouldn't the same person always be answering the phone? Hey, that should have been another position. Club receptionist.

[zoar3]

^Lol but hey that is a good idea. Surprised Ann didn't stick Mal with that job. Maybe it was a cordless phone? I remember in one later book Claudia calls Mary Anne from the "new cordless phone her Dad (Mr. Kishi) had brought home." I don't think cordless phones were all that big in the 80's were they? Maybe the cord was super long or C's room had multiple jacks?

[booboobrewer]

^The book was Claudia and the Recipe for Danger, which came out in '95. I remember reading it for the first time and being like "awesome!" because my family got our first cordless phone that year.

[zoar3]

Thanks BooBoo. I can envision their convo, MA trying to figure out how to tell Claud her cakes tasted bad even if they looked great and then the two of them talking about the mysterious recipe of Alma's. I just decided not to be so lazy, looked it up, and it starts on Page 62. I would think a cordless would make BSC Meetings much easier unless, they did ask one person to answer all calls.

[zoar3]

Thanks for digging up your thread, Starrynight and knowing it existed. Since my last post was 3 years ago, I don't feel too bad about the double post. This thread was fun to read through. Love the image of Claudia frantically searching for the phone that is hidden under a ton of junk. I never really thought about the location of the phone much either until this recent discussion on it. I would think a trim-line, I have had many of those over the years, would be much easier than the ancient (had those, too) rotary dial phones because those were easy to dial a wrong number on plus took so much more time waiting for each spin of a number to complete. Lol, for those of you too young to know what I mean on the old phones like the yellow one pictures up-thread, you put your finger in the slot marked for each number and like when spinning a board game wheel, had to wait for the rotation to complete before dialing the next number. At a 30 minute BSC meeting that could take a lot of time, plus be a hassle. After typing all that, I do now imagine the girls at least very early on did have such a phone simply because Ann probably did.

[wenonah4th]

I've always pictured it as being kind of wherever the cord would reach, and maybe one of those clear ones that showed the inside works in neon colors.