Phone Numbers 180121

          My first cell phone I bought at a Dollar General it came with its number already on it. I only had the phone a few hours when I began to get calls for some guy named Ricky. Apparently from the tone of the voices and the slick lead ins I figured out Ricky must owe money to collectors from all over. It took a year of convincing the collectors I was not Ricky and did not know him before the calls stopped.

          Fast forward 7 + years, I had to get a new phone and I needed to keep the same number because I was getting calls from Joyce’s doctors and the hospitals and I did not want to go through changing my phone number with all of my business, hospital and personal contacts.

          I was in Walgreens today and I wanted to get a transport chair so Joyce can go to Walmart and the grocery store with me after her in home nursing and physical therapy is over. The chair happened to be on sale at nearly half price, with a Walgreens Rewards card. I went to the cashier and asked about getting the card and immediately getting half off the chair price. She said I could do that, so I asked what I needed to do to get the card. She told me all I needed to do was put my phone number into the keypad and that would be it. I did so while she watched her cashier’s computer screen. She then asked me if I was, you may guess, Ricky? I said no, my name is William. She said the number was in their system as Ricky and she was not able to change that in the store. I frowned and must have had a forlorn look on my face. She then asked for a landline number, which I do not have. She said to give her any number, because no one ever really calls the number with the card. I had to give her the only number I could remember. All went well and I saved $70 on the chair. I suppose Ricky owes Walgreens some money by the way the cashier looked at me and asked if I was he.

          I just thought it was interesting that Ricky’s name popped up again in a Walgreens database.

          Bill