20 Feet of Telephone Cord

There was one phone hanging on the kitchen wall

Right where everybody could hear it all

No password, no screen, no room of your own

Just a curly little cord and a family phone

So I'd drag that chair as far as it'd go

Around the corner where I'd whisper low

Stretch that cord till it couldn't stretch no more

Then somehow I'd always find one extra foot

I'd cover that receiver with the palm of my hand

Talking so low you could barely understand

Every little creak in that old wood floor

Could mean somebody was coming through the door

Twenty feet of telephone cord

Stretched through the kitchen and under the door

I'd hide in a closet, sit under a table

Find me some privacy any way I was able

Whispering "I miss you," barely making a sound

With that curly cord stretched halfway around

We didn't need a screen to disappear from the world

Just twenty feet of telephone cord

Sometimes I'd lean against the hallway wall

Sometimes I'd sit where the shadows would fall

I'd pull up a chair behind the pantry door

Or lay on the carpet flat on the floor

And if the conversation needed something more

I'd sneak in Mom and Dad's room and crack the door

Their bedroom phone was the only other line

So I'd listen for footsteps while you stayed on mine

"Hold on a second, I think someone's there"

Dead quiet, receiver hanging in the air

Then back to a whisper when the hallway was clear

Like teenage secrets were all they could hear

Twenty feet of telephone cord

Stretched through the kitchen and under the door

I'd hide in a closet, sit under a table

Find me some privacy any way I was able

Whispering "I miss you," barely making a sound

With that curly cord stretched halfway around

We didn't need a screen to disappear from the world

Just twenty feet of telephone cord

And Lord help you if somebody picked up the other line

You'd hear that little click and know it every time

"Hang up, Mom!" — then wait for the sound

Of that bedroom receiver finally going down

There were no private messages

No texts we could erase

If you wanted to tell somebody you loved 'em

You had to find a hiding place

Twenty feet of telephone cord

Stretched a little farther than the day before

Around that corner, underneath that table

We made our own little world when we were able

Talking 'bout forever with our voices turned down

While Mom and Dad were somewhere in the house

Funny how a memory can pull you back toward

Twenty feet of telephone cord

Now every phone in the world fits inside your hand

And you can talk to anybody from anywhere you stand

But I'd give almost anything for one night more

Whispering to you

On twenty feet of telephone cord