My dear husband has an unusually high pitched voice for a
man. I, of course, noticed this when I
first met him, but after a few minutes of conversation, I forgot all about
it. It has actually been an advantage in
singing together over the years, since I am a soprano, and he is basically an
alto. So, I never think about the pitch
of his voice anymore unless something happens that causes someone else to
notice or comment.
He has always hated phone calls. I attribute a small part of
this to his voice and the vast majority of it to being male. But, it is true that he is often mistaken for
a woman on the phone. I sometimes overhear
him trying to convince a caller that he really is the man of the house.
A few years ago when he was still working full time, it was
not unusual for him to receive calls at the office from someone trying to sell
him something. His secretary was very
good at screening his calls and preventing unwanted interruptions. However, one day his secretary was off, and
there was a substitute taking his calls.
The poor woman became quite distressed over a particularly aggressive salesman
who kept calling back over and over. She
could not get rid of him. Finally,
realizing that the situation was upsetting her, my husband told her that the
next time the man called, she could connect him.
So when the salesman called again, the secretary connected
him. My husband answered and identified
himself by name. The salesman retorted, “Listen,
lady, I don’t care how you try to disguise your voice. I know it’s still you.”
My husband calmly replied, “Well, I guess you don’t want to
talk to me very badly,” and hung up.
The salesman never called back.
My husband enjoyed telling me the story. I enjoyed picturing the look on the salesman’s
face and the confusion in his brain as he sorted out what had just happened.
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