Whenever I saw faxes, they appeared in the enterprise context; but here, the author used it to communicate long-distance with the father abroad. And such a malleable, versatile medium!

Faxing was cheaper than long-distance calling, and far less pressure. There were no halting, wasteful silences. You simply dialed the recipient and fed a sheet of paper through the machine, and a facsimile printed out on the other side of the world.