Dial a Joke

It was at the end of a long, difficult week at the old barn. We sat around the coffee pot, me, me Pops, and me brother Phil as the clock hit 3:30, debating whether to wish the week sayonara and close early. We compromised. We'd stay at the Shop until 5 but would not answer the phone.

Those were the days before cell phones. We did not have an answering machine at work because we always, and I mean always before that point, answered the phone. That was to be the first time we would consciously ignore it. Honest.

Somewhere around 4 the phone began to ring. True to our vow the three of us sat in our chairs, sipping coffee and engaging in small talk. We let it ring.

And boy did it ring. If I had to guess I would say a couple of hundred times. Indeed, maybe several hundred. It went on for a good 15 minutes. Likely more. Eventually we were alternately laughing and then shaking heads at the caller's persistence. He was as determined to get an answer as we were not to provide one. "Can you imagine what the guy must be thinking? Man, Cosgriff gotta be busy not to answer their phone!" 

The thing is, no one ever owned up to the call. But it finally gave up the ghost and we finished our Friday in by then glorious quiet.