(Family) Whistle Blower

The family whistle is a pretty universal thing that most people have and use but rarely pay any conscious attention to. I hadn’t really thought about it much myself until I went to pick my mom up from LAX last month. She was walking about fifteen feet ahead of me and instead of calling her name, I opted for the family whistle.

Appropriately enough, about five Israeli people all turned their heads to face me, my mom included. (The Israeli family whistle is more of a universal country whistle than anything else. Its sound is reminiscent of a high pitched/extended version of a cuckoo clock.).

I realize now that the family whistle was a forerunner to the cell phone, especially in store settings. Seriously, no trip to the supermarket or department store in the eighties through the late nineties was complete without the beautiful calls of the family whistle.

It really is genius if you think about it. Back in the days before you were able to speed dial your fellow shopper to pinpoint their location, using nothing more than the family whistle, you were able to communicate an entire conversation without saying anything from opposite ends of any given store.

Whistle: “Where are you?”
Whistle: “I’m here”
Whistle: “Okay, keep whistling because I’m trying to find you.”
Whistle: “I’m over here!”
Whistle: “Yeah, I see you.”
Whistle: “I see you too.”

Every once in a while there would be another shopper at the store with the same whistle as you. And you’d go towards the sound thinking you’d find your mom or your sister, and it ended up being some fat guy or something. But I guess that’s the modern day equivalent of someone having the same cell phone ring as you. At least with the whistle you can never go over your minutes.