Giving my mother the pips

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When my husband and I first had a telephone, calls were quite expensive. At the time, local calls were limited to 3 minutes or you paid extra. You always thought twice before making unnecessary calls. I’ve been going through my mother’s old diaries. She has documented much of her daily life including any visitors she might have had. Vince and I would visit regularly and these trips are listed in the diaries. On the days we went home there is always an entry ‘got the pips at x o’clock’. What are the pips you might ask? My mother always liked to know we’d got home safely and would want us to ring when we arrived. However, we’d only left her an hour or two earlier so there was really little to talk about for our three minutes. So we devised the pips system. I would dial Mum’s number, let it ring a couple of times then hang up. That was the signal that we were home safely. And it cost us nothing. It worked very well for a number of years. The photo shows Mum and me at a horse event. It was very cold. Mum has Vince’s parka around her shoulders and her crocheted knee rug. She would have been 94 or 95 when this was taken.