I can remember as a child, there were several times that I had a question about something and for some crazy reason I would call the telephone operator and ask her for the answer to my question. I guess I thought that the telephone operator was the smartest lady in the world! And you know something? The telephone operator always was very pleasant and had the answer I was looking for! Boy, those were the good ol’ days!

Do you remember the old days when a young child wanted to sit at the table to eat, the parents (or grandparents) would put a big, fat, telephone directory on the seat of one of the adult’s dining room chairs so the child could sit there? Growing up in an urban area, I was used to seeing really fat telephone directories. I had a strange kind of fascination with them. I have no idea why, really. I just can remember whenever we would travel to a different city, when we would check into a motel I would go look for the local telephone directory and flip through the yellow pages. I always felt that was the best way to get a really good idea of what the area was like.

Now small business marketing involves much more than a listing in the White Pages and an advertisement in the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory. The Internet has done its part to revolutionize local listings. I still use the telephone directory for a lot of things, but usually it is only when I don’t have access to the Internet. I am always sure to keep a current telephone directory near the hard-wired phone at home, and usually last year’s copy of the telephone directory in my car.

Whenever possible, however, I will generate a local search on my computer. Doing that is often faster than using the paper version of the telephone directory. It is definitely time to stop using the telephone directory as a booster seat – I think it is an endangered species. Besides, the town that I live in, the telephone directory is so small it wouldn’t do a lot of boosting!