"Go quick, come back quicker"

[conuly]

My mother used to say that to me when I left the house. I guess it comes from French, or maybe even Walloon originally - I've never heard anybody say that but Mommy and Bonne-Maman, and I think Bonne-Maman told me once that her mother used to say it to her, so there you go.

And now I don't know anybody who says it anymore.

I took my mother's actual number off my phone, but I left the entry for "Mommy" there. I know that if *I* find a phone that's unlocked the first thing I do is call "Mom" or "Dad" to let them know where whoever-it-is left their phone, but obviously that's not going to work now. Be a bit weird if it did! Still, I couldn't stand to actually remove the entry, so now it's just a name that leads nowhere.

Comments

[calimac]

When somebody found my lost phone, they called the first number in alphabetical order on my number list, and not the second number which was "Home". After that I rejiggered the list so that "Home" came first, which is actually more convenient for me too since that's a number I call a lot.

[thewayne]

A decade ago, my aunt found a lost phone at a casino. Why she kept it instead of giving it to security, I do not know. When she told me about it - she never owned or used a cell phone - it had enough juice to power up and I found an entry for mom & dad. Called them from my phone, confirmed their daughter had lost her phone, she called me - she was a FedEx manager. I dropped it off at the local office, they sent it back to El Paso, and they were reunited.

I still have my parent's number in my phone, that's a good idea to reroute it to someone else who can get it back to you.

[foms]

That << figure de style >> rings a vague bell, with me (from Montreal, living in Ottawa).

I just counted and found that over three percent of my 'phone contacts are dead people. It seems that either I'm a ghoul or I have trouble letting go.

[foms]

I know that *I* don't tend to turn in found objects to sites or 'phone companies because I don't trust them to make any real effort. I missed a calling as a skip-tracer.

[dark_phoenix54]

{{{{{hugs}}}}}

I'm so sorry you are in this pain. It *does* get better, but it takes a long time.

[conuly]

Well, it currently seems to be going better than when my father died. So there's that.

[conuly]

Now, I've always heard that sugar tarts are one of the things that French-Canadians have in common with Belgians, so maybe this is another one.

[readerjane]

Shortly after my dad died, my son lost his cell phone. Mom hadn't got rid of Dad's phone yet, so she offered to loan it to my son until he either found his phone, or we replaced it. I told him, "Don't call your sister until I let her know you have your Grandpa's phone!" Figured that would have been a pretty freaky moment for her.

[kareina]

Is marking some of your contacts with the tag "in case of emergency" (ICE) not done there? It is normal here in Sweden (yes, it is the English abbreviation that is used), so if someone finds you injured, or just your phone, they call one of the ICE numbers to let them know.

[conuly]

Well, yeah, but I'm still going to pick their Mom number that's marked thusly over their non-Mom number.

[adafrog]

Haven't heard of that saying. Very sweet.

[ethelmay]

My daughter once found a phone with contacts including "Mom," and that was indeed how she got the phone back to its owner. The contacts also included "My bitch" and "My bitch's work," which would probably also have worked, but it seemed a lot less fraught to say "...and your number was under 'Mom'..." than - well, you see the problem.

I always wondered if he did it that way because he put each girlfriend in turn under those headings, like having an entry for MECHANIC - [actual name] under M instead of alphabetically under "Pat's Auto Repair" or something, and then it moves when you start going to "Chris's Automotive."