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Survey Takers

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Mountain Cowgirl

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9 PM - I had been asleep since 6:30 PM. The phone rings and then the message-taking chip records the message as I lay irritated and groggy. A young man's happy-go-lucky sing-songy voice brings visions of a ballerina prancing tiptoed across the floor in pink slippers.

"Hello, this is Neilsons. We are not selling anything, we take surveys concerning radio, TV, and the internet. We have been taking these surveys for 90 years."

Ok, that last line woke me up wide-eyed but not bushy-tailed. 90 years? We all know that the internet was invented in 1965, but was nothing but a primitive way of a few select computers sharing messages. It wasn't until 1993 that Al Gore reinvented it into the amazing thing it is today.
o_O


Now while TV was invented around 1927 it wasn't in commercial use until the late 30s and then only on a very limited basis.

Now the radio was invented in 1896, but let's discuss the radios in use in 1932 which is 90 years from today, and my last evening landline intrusion by Mr. Happy. I can't imagine Neilson calling on the old rotary phone to thousands of households inquiring about how many and what stations the interrogated were receiving on their homemade crystal set or what radio programs gathered the family around the tube set and gave their children bad dreams. How long did it take their set to warm up and what was their set, cathedral, tombstone, or console? The first bakelite radio was made in 1932 in Australia so any table model would have been wood or metal cabinet or case and probably not a hot survey topic.

Chances are the family was gathered around the console, with big William dad wanting to hear "Just Plain Bill," mama Jane wanting to catch the latest broadcast of "Tarzan," young Andrew trying to change the dial to "Amos and Andy" while big sister Ann shoved him aside to tweak the dial and get the premiere of "Little Orphan Annie."

So was Neilsen really taking surveys in 1932 about radio broadcast? How did they get through all the party lines? I doubt it and certainly no reason to rudely awake an old lady from her slumber. Was it the legitimate Neilson or a scammer posing as the real original historical nuisance?
 
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If I dont recognized the number. I won't answer it. At night I put my phone in a different room so I dont hear it. I block all unknown or numbers I dont recognize.
They have technology now that sometimes a number will come up on my phone as a local business like a trucking company or a purebred bull outfit but then I will answer and its actually some offshore scam outfit.
So now if I answer my phone and then there is a delay after I say hello. I just hang up because the delay has something to do with there automated calling.
 
Asleep at 6:30? Were you still catching up from a wild weekend? Or are you really that old? I have been known to be asleep at that hour but I am kicked back in my recliner for a short nap.
 
I always ask telemarketing folks what time they plan to eat supper and for their home number so I can call them back at that time
I use to do that with a live person, but with all the recordings these days, I find myself letting most calls go on the message machine. It is impossible to guilt, reason, or insult a machine.
 
Asleep at 6:30? Were you still catching up from a wild weekend? Or are you really that old? I have been known to be asleep at that hour but I am kicked back in my recliner for a short nap.
I go to bed at 6 PM most nights and asleep by 7. I get up early as I have for most of my life. It is based on my ranching days where I had to get up as early as 3 AM to get goats milked, baby goats, orphan lambs, and calves bottle fed, eggs collected, cleaned up, breakfast cooked, and then off to work some times starting at 6 AM for 6 to 10 hours depending on the job. Different seasons presented different jobs so maybe I could sleep in as late as 4 AM. I went to bed by 10 PM during those days. I have never taken naps except when sick and all that lack of sleep took its toll on me and almost killed me. I am lucky to be alive with just the numerous disorders I have.

I am asked frequently now that I am retired with no ranching or work responsibilities why I don't change my schedule to a more socially acceptable one. I have tried and failed. I love my early mornings and nothing happening in the evenings that I care about. I prefer sunrise coffee to sundown beer.

No wild weekends here ever unless you count helping out a vet friend at 5 AM on Sunday morning during calving season or this coming Saturday when I volunteered to help with an annual meat cutting.
 
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When my daughter was little she really liked to talk and talk forever. Anyway she happened to answer the house phone and it was a telemarketing salesman. After about 10 minutes he hung up on her and she was pretty annoyed. I'm trying to remember how old she was. I'm guessing 9 or 10.
 

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