a telephone company repairman one afternoon i was sent out to do a little rescue jo but i couldn't get tough with the boys i knew they hadn't done it on purpose i told them they'd have to be more careful next time though telephone lines are mighty important part of our town's communication system i asked the boys if they knew what communication meant joe said he guessed it meant people talking to each other that was right in a way but communication did is much more important than just talking when you cook your finger at somebody that means come here that's a kind of communication to just like talking it transfers an idea that what communication means transferring an idea you know what would happen if all our communications suddenly stopped working i asked the boys that why for one thing i said there wouldn't be any programs on the radio no more serials or adventure stories no more funnies either radio and newspapers are kinds of communication too but communication is a lot more important than cereals and funny papers suppose you became sick all of a sudden and your mother decided to if the phone was out of order it might be hours before you could be reached and that could be serious without communication and our town wouldn't get along well at all but we could still talk to each other pete said pete was right talking together face to face is a form of  communication that's the simplest kind we have but when we aren't that close together when we're so far apart that we can't even shout to each other then we need another kind of communication i showed pete and joe what i meant even when you're several blocks apart you can still talk together all over the telephone wire we might say the wire ties you together communications die everybody and our whole community together like the postman carrying the mail also helps connect everybody in our community our community is tied together by many different lines of communication while i was talking to the boys i had an idea we played a game of make believe i put a wire between joe's house and pete's there was a telephone connection that pete's house and the connection that joe's house the telephone wire tied the boys houses together in the same way we connected the boys houses with a butcher shop and with the school but that was only one way in which these places are tied together we can send letters between them too you know so i borrowed some writing paper from the school we pretended the pieces of paper were letters as the boys knew letter could be sent from pete's house to joe's the butcher shop could send a bill to joe's house mail could be sent between all these places but what about the church pete wanted to know i said sure we can telephone or send mail to the church too but there's another way a church can communicate with us isn't there the boys couldn't guess how they haven't gotten out the church bell quit work trying to go home a siren on the fire trucks it says get out of the way there's a fire but i explained there are also kinds of communication that you see instead of here policeman raises his hand what does his signal me that's right it sounds of people in the cars to stop or go even flashes of light in code can communicate ideas own so signals some signs don't even need words like this one other signs come right out and say it and they give a warning to keep people from getting hurt people read newspapers that tell the latest happenings they receive letters that carry messages from friends people go to the movies to see and hear  story i explain to pete and joe that our town works better because it's tied together by communications but i said communications also tires to other towns we played make believe thought of another kind of communication telephone long distance i connected our town and the city with a long distance wire after they leave our town i said telephone wires run along the highway and across the fields and over the river is all the way into the city and in the city there are telephone operators and switchboards which make it possible for us to talk with people in almost every country in the world but i said there are other long distance communications besides the telephone radio doesn't even need wires in split seconds through the air it brings voices from abroad and makes us neighbors of people have a world away we have television too so that we can see as well as hear events happening far away you see communication ties  everyone everywhere there are simple times like talking together on the complicated kind of like television but simple or complicated on our important well i had to go about then but before i left he told me he had an idea he said that he and joe were trying to find out just how many different kinds of communication they could find in their neighborhood they are but they had fun how would you like to try that idea