"Hooked on phonics ruined my life!!!!"

When my niece, Becca, was around 12 years old, everywhere I would take her she would bug me for quarters for the payphone(remember those days). It was so bad that she was driving me crazy with it but being the indulgent aunt that I was I was handing her quarters right and left.

One day when I took her home her mom asked me if Becca had been using the payphone when she was with me. I, of course told her yes and that she was driving me crazy begging for quarters.

LISA ROLLED HER EYES.

I knew then that we(meaning Becca and me) were in big trouble. Lisa told me that the people from HOOKED ON PHONICS had called. Apparently Becca had been calling them incessantly, screaming " hooked on phonics ruined my life" and then hanging up the phone. She had done it so much that when she had finally done it on a phone that could be traced they called Lisa and threatened to prosecute Becca if there wasn't an immediate stop to the phone calls.

I apologized explaining that I had thought that Becca had just discovered what a wonderful tool a phone was like all 12 year old girls did. I thought that she had been calling her little friends all this time. It had NEVER occurred to me that I should listen in on the calls to see whom she was actually calling.

Personally I thought the whole thing was hilarious. Becca did stop calling so there was not a problem anymore. I am sure that when she reads this she will chime in with the exact quote that she used to these people. Anyway that is just a typical story of the kind of precocious child that my niece was.