HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson.
On our show this week, we rememberRay Charles and his music.
And we answer a question about Father’s Day.
But first, we connect you with something called the PayphoneProject.
Payphone Project
HOST:
The use of wireless telephones has reduced the demand for publicpay phones. Yet these coin-operated phones have helped one man finda calling to serve other people. Faith Lapidus has more.
ANNCR:
Mark Thomas has been interested in pay phones since he was achild. Now, he has created a site on the Internet that lists thetelephone number and location of pay phones around the world. Hecalls it the Payphone Project.
Mister Thomas says he is far from having a list of all the publicpay phones in the world. But he does have more thanfive-hundred-thousand numbers already. These include a pay phone atthe Vatican and another in Vietnam, at Tan Son Nhat InternationalAirport. There is even a number listed for a pay phone in Ugandapowered by the sun.
Mark Thomas started his Web site in nineteen-ninety-five. Hewanted to give strangers a way to talk to each other just by callingpay phones across the United States. But now most pay phones blockincoming calls. In time, he recognized another purpose for his site.
Some people know the number of a pay phone, through calleridentification devices, but they need to know the location. ThePayphone Project once helped the parents of a teen-age girl who ranaway from home. It has also helped people find where threateningcalls came from.
Mark Thomas is an artist who lives in New York City. He playspiano in concerts. He does not have time anymore to call numberafter number, in the hope to connect with someone somewhere.
But he wants his pay phone list to continue to grow as a publicservice. Telephone companies are not required to provide this kindof information. But many other pay phone number collectors have sentin listings. Some people include pictures and comments about thephone.
So the next time you see a public pay phone, you might want towrite down the number and location. Then, visit the Web site to seeif the phone is listed. You might be able to add another number tothe list.
The site is payphone-dash-project-dot-com. Again, that address ispayphone-hyphen-project-dot-com (payphone-project.com)
Father’s Day
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Baltchik,Bulgaria. Boyan Mitev asks about Father’s Day in the United States.
In nineteen-oh-nine, a woman named Sonora Dodd was listening to aspeech in church. The speech was about Mother’s Day. Missus Doddthought about her father, William Smart. He had fought in theAmerican Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to theirsixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his five otherchildren. They lived on a farm in Washington state, in the PacificNorthwest.
Sonora Dodd wanted a special day to honor men like her father. Hewas born in June. So she decided to hold the first Father’s Daycelebration in Spokane, Washington, in June of nineteen-ten.
Fourteen years later, in nineteen-twenty-four, President CalvinCoolidge gave his support to the idea of a national observance. Innineteen-seventy-two, finally, President Richard Nixon signed a lawto establish Father’s Day.
An old tradition on Father’s Day was for people to wear a flower.Red roses honored fathers who were living. White flowers honoredthose who were dead.
Father’s Day is observed on the third Sunday in June. ThisSunday, some families will go out for a special meal or prepare oneat home. Many dads will get clothes or maybe some electronic gift.Or they might simply get a card with a message of thanks.
Ray Charles
HOST:
Ray Charles was one of America’s most influential musicians. Hedied last week at the age of seventy-three. Jim Tedder looks at thelife of this showman who crossed the lines of jazz, blues, countryand rock.
ANNCR:
Ray Charles Robinson was working as a musician by the age offifteen. This was after he studied music at a school for the blind.Ray Charles developed glaucoma as a young child. The eye diseaseblinded him at age seven.
His first hit record was a song he wrote with a mix of blackchurch music, blues and rock and roll. He sang it and played it onthe electric piano. The song is called “What’d I Say.”
(MUSIC)
Ray Charles became one of the top singers of rhythm and blues.Then he decided to record an album of country songs. Record companyofficials did not think it would be very successful. They werewrong. This song earned a Grammy Award.
(MUSIC)
Over the years, Ray Charles won thirteen Grammy awards. He wasone of the first artists honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.He made more than sixty albums.
Ray Charles was preparing to begin a new series of concerts thismonth. But he had health problems recently. We leave you withanother of his best known recordings, “America the Beautiful.”
(MUSIC)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson.
This program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. PaulThompson was the producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. Ihope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.