SPAM Risk

 

   As each days passes, it becomes a bit of a challenge to remember life as a nine- or ten-year-old. I remember the house I grew up in, some of my friends in the neighbor, and playing football in the middle of a traffic circle on a very busy highway.

   But I know there are many things in my lifetime that I have forgotten or just do not want to remember. But once and a while something triggers a memory, often at the most curious of times. One of those times, for some strange reason happened recently and strangely enough, it has to do with food.        

    It was a nice summer afternoon several weeks ago. I was sitting in the backyard watching the birds attack the bird feeder. If my recollection serves me correctly it was a Sunday afternoon around 2:00 PM. The telephone started ringing. And then I heard it, the warning coming from my phone. Spam risk! Sunday afternoon. Spam risk? Come on. Someone must be working very hard in some foreign country somewhere.

   This ‘spam risk’ warning was something I had programmed into my telephone in an attempt to stop receiving those unwanted, or at least warn me about nuisance telephone calls from telemarketers and other annoying people. Well.. I think they are people, but these days it is difficult to say.

   The ones I really have to laugh at are the car maintenance reminders.” Your contract has expired on your car maintenance and for a mere fee of whatever, you can continue to receive this valuable service.” Here is the kicker. I have not owned that car for nearly ten years now. Someone needs to update their records. No. They need to stop these foolish calls and put me on their “do not call” list.

   On an average, I receive about three to five spam calls per day and now they are occurring almost every day. Remember when Sundays were a day of rest, dinner at grandma’s or maybe a trip to the beach?

    And it is not just my house phone anymore. These ‘skilled artists’ are beginning to call my cell phone. Many, if the call does sneak by the hang-up and get to my voice are now in Spanish.  The nice thing about the cell phone, if there is one, is that I can turn off the ring, so it won’t wake me up during my afternoon nap.

   At this point, if you are continuing to read this, you may be asking what this has to do with a memory when I was a nine- or ten-year-old?

   One of my mother’s favorite meals to prepare for dinner or any time for that matter was to fry up some spam. Spam, which still can be found on the shelves of many stores today, is a processed meat that comes in a can. One simply pops the end, slides the contents into a frying pan, heats and eat. And my memory? I did not like it. But it was pretty regular on our dinner plates at my house.

   Now I find it somewhat interesting that these unwanted calls of today are labeled as spam calls and every once and awhile when I hear the phone announce a potential spam call, it reminds me of those dinners that I would try to miss by going to a friend’s house for dinner. In case you have any doubts, it was not one of my favorite meals, just like these nagging telephone calls today.

   I am sure that I am not the only person who receives these obnoxious calls on a regular basis and if anyone has come up with a better solution to stop this attack than the spam risk warning, please share. Perhaps this is an issue that could be addressed by our leaders at the state or federal level. But then, they may not receive such calls and do not know about them.

   So for now, I will continue to be on guard for the ‘spam risk’ warnings on my phone and remind myself that the memories it triggers about some of those dinners of that past, are just that, memories, and will soon be forgotten. (I just can’t believe that spam in the can is still available in local stores.)