Ernestine
Remember, Ernestine? - a character created by Lily Tomlin on Laugh In? No? You must be too young, and you missed it. She was a wise-cracking, snorting when she laughed switchboard operator. “We don’t care, we don’t have to….we’re the phone company.”
Well, sometimes when I call G, I’ll ask, “Is this the party to whom I am speaking?” And I love it, because she almost always laughs.
I recently went to see Lily Tomlin perform in Boston, her humor was just as sharp as it’s always been…and she did do Ernestine AND Edith Anne, it was a great show!
I LOVE Edith Anne. If Lily Tomlin comes to Dallas, I am sooo going to see her.
Lol! Though Laugh In was a bit before my time, because my parents were fans, I’ve watched some re-runs, including a few with her as Ernestine. I’ve been told that my mom had a hilarious short-lived stint as a switchboard operator in the fifties, and so has a special affinity for Ernestine. Myself, I read The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life In the Universe in high school and I still wish I’d just spent the money and gotten on the train from the suburbs to go into the city and see her while she played.
During that same period of time, sometimes when I was at school, I would call my mother from the main door payphone and sing ” I just called to say I love you”. lol. Sometimes you just got to savor the small stuff.