{"id":2058,"date":"2020-11-11T19:29:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T19:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2023-11-12T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:42:54","slug":"my-first-telephone-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2058","title":{"rendered":"My First Telephone Call:  Thames Valley Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/s-l1600.jpg?resize=640%2C853&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2059\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/s-l1600.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/s-l1600.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/s-l1600.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/s-l1600.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The new grey phone in the hall<br>That never rang<br>Until one day nervously<br>I had to answer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was my uncle from Spain<br>His father had died that morning<br>Whilst he was on holiday<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My first conversation was cut short<br>&#8220;Yes dead, your dad is dead&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silence and then a sob<br>Then his wife Sue saying<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re coming home&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could hear him sobbing against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Line dead..no connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new grey phone in the hallThat never rangUntil one day nervouslyI had to answer It was my uncle from SpainHis father had died that morningWhilst he was on holiday My first conversation was cut short&#8220;Yes dead, your dad is dead&#8221;. Silence and then a sobThen his wife Sue saying &#8220;We&#8217;re coming home&#8221;. I could&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[60,33,106,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","category-poetry","category-new-poems","category-working-class-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-xc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}