Voicemail will be down July 13

Remember the good old days, when you would dial - and I mean actually dial, not push buttons - the phone to call a friend, and let it ring seven or so times before hanging up? No answering machine, no voicemail, just the steady, indefinite ringing from the other end to let you know that you couldn't reach your friend at that precise instant. Perhaps they weren't home (that's the only place phones were back then), or maybe they just didn't feel like answering the phone at that time. I mean, it could have been anybody calling them (there was no Caller ID). Perhaps they were just relaxing comfortably and said to themselves, "If it's important, they'll call back later."

Well, get ready to relive those placid days of yesteryear while the district's voicemail system is down on July 13.

To get ready, you should check all your voicemail messages late on July 12, in case they get deleted during the transition (which is quite likely).

On July 13, phones will ring, but if nobody is there to pick them up, they will be forwarded to the District Services Office reception desk, where operators will be standing by to take messages. Callers will be given the option to call back the next day, or to leave a message. If the caller chooses to leave a message, the operator will write down the message on vintage message slip (pictured at right) and send it to you via interoffice mail.

If all goes well, July 14 will herald a new era of voicemail, complete with web-based controls and voicemails emailed to you as attachments, so that we can all resume our frenzied, always connected, über-busy lifestyles.

But at least on July 13, we can pause to remember what it was like, not so long ago, when we could actually let the phone ring, knowing that "if it's really important, they'll call back."