30 Comments on iOTW PSA- VERY IMPORTANT – Midnight Saturday!!!!!!
I’ve upgraded to keep up with the times. Most of my phones now are push button instead of rotary dial.
Ha! Been there, done that. Now let the arrogant smart-asses tell us how out of touch we are.
Screw those whipper-snappers…………They have no idea where ‘innovation’ began.
They should install those around town in case your away from home or the office and need to make a call.
I had a car phone in the 70’s.
Yes I was important at one time.
LUCKILY – I HAVED SAVED my phones – so
I am ready for living in THE THIRD WORLD!
I saw one of Elvis’ early 60’s Cadillac limos at the Country Music Hall of Fame that had a car phone. It was a black, rotary dial, wall phone mounted on a vertical plate in the back seat area. It connected to a RF transmitter (probably mounted in the trunk with a long antenna) that connected to the phone network (there was still a “legacy” product offering available for the RF “radio phone” service as late as 2004 in the Bell companies).
1936, who in the hell had a teevee to watch that commercial?
Little known fact:
Joe Biden’s family had a TV in 1929.
“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’ ” – Joe Biden
* They didn’t have electricity however, they had to watch TV by kerosene lantern.
When I moved to Arkansas in the 70s we had a party line. You’d pick up the phone to make a call and hear the neighbors talking about the cattle auction or uncle Clem coming down from Eureka Springs for a visit.
It was that way through a good part of the 1980s too.
Now I have a phone that attracts lightning. And no cell service.
One of my favorite quotes from Douglas MacArthur goes something like: “When the world comes to an end, I want to be in Arkansas … Because it won’t happen there for another twenty years.”
The man was right. He was a Little Rock native.
That was shown in movie theaters, young man. 😉
Tell Joe Biden I wasn’t President in 1929…
I was the Governor of New York.
🙄
We had a party line also.
As kid in the 50’s I thought party meant ‘you know PARTY with cake’
They probably showed it in the “Talkies”.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s our family had a party line too. People usually didn’t gab too much, so if you wanted to make a call and someone was on the line, they usually got off pretty quick when they heard the click of someone else picking up the line. When I was in High School I had a part time job at the local hospital. One day I couldn’t make it in so I tried calling to inform them, and two ladies were talking away on the phone. Every five minutes or so I would pick up the line to see if it was available and they were still jabbering away. Finally on, I dunno, maybe the fourth time, one of them said “Do you mind? Were having a conversation here!” Without thinking I said “Well I’m just trying to call the Hospital…” and that’s all the further I got. The one lady screamed “Oh my God, why didn’t you tell us that in the beginning!!” and they both immediately hung up. I just looked at the phone and started laughing. Remember it like it was yesterday!
Anyone remember phone #’s like this: PR5-5415? Our # was SE2-5183 back in the late 50’s, early 60’s
The PR5 represented the phone office that your line originated in. All the offices had a name that was abreviated by two letters and a number. I don’t know what the PR or the SE meant in your neck of the woods, but you might if you heard it.
I forgot to add that later they dropped the letter reference and simply used the number equivilent. So for instance Academy 1 was referred to as AC1 which then became 221.
I remember those phones. I also remember being able to unplug and have a peaceful dinner/evening.
unomac,
I think that was leftover from the days of operators being involved in every call. Our number was DA7 -****. The area was Davis. You could see all of Dallas divvied up into named areas like this in the phone book.
It had no reflection of the actual landscape as far as I could tell. IE there was nothing named Davis in the Davis area.
And NO caller ID.
And very few solicitors ever calling to sell you something.
And if you go back to the 60s – no phone answering machines to leave a message on.
I’d bet the phone was answered more often back then despite it being a crap shoot who’d you be talking to.
You can still get a party line.
It’s just that everyone is spoiled now and has their own in their pocket.
All the way into the late 70s, the numbers in Lake Geneva, Wi area only had 5 numbers. It was around 1980 that the full 7 started being used.
Dad0f4 – absolutely right. Prior to dial service you placed an operator assisted call.
BubbaBrother – mobile telphone service (MTS) was the same way. The operator place the call for you. Not sure what year it happened, but MTS was upgraded to IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service) where the user could dial the number – they go the operator out of the process.
Growing up the only call I made was to my cousin. We had a rotary phone and they had four nines in their phone number. Half the time I got a busy signal and would wait a few minutes and dial again. I wound up with an indention ring around my index finger. Thanks for the memories.
My bookie’s phone number was POplar 5-0303. 🙂
I remember BR-549 like it was yestadee.
I still have a rotary dial phone. It’s a standing Mickey Mouse with a bright yellow handset. Cute little bugger. Works, too, if I can set the right incoming signal.
my youngest child wanted a phone in her room so i had a wall rotary installed. i still laugh about that!
the phone was the gateway to your home. your parents the gatekeepers.
now little susie can text to a 68 year old molester!
progress.
I grew up with a party line. We had to share the phone connection with two other families.
I remember it well Anon!
Ours was a party line too. The # was WH4-9480. It was our first phone and there were 3 other people/families on the line. Huge PIA! But great memories!
1936. And after that essentially no improvement in customer service until the breaking up of AT&Ts monopoly in the 1970s. Now we have all sorts of competition, cell phones, wifi, etc, etc. Crony capitalism, no Bueno.
I’ve upgraded to keep up with the times. Most of my phones now are push button instead of rotary dial.
Ha! Been there, done that. Now let the arrogant smart-asses tell us how out of touch we are.
Screw those whipper-snappers…………They have no idea where ‘innovation’ began.
They should install those around town in case your away from home or the office and need to make a call.
I had a car phone in the 70’s.
Yes I was important at one time.
LUCKILY – I HAVED SAVED my phones – so
I am ready for living in THE THIRD WORLD!
I saw one of Elvis’ early 60’s Cadillac limos at the Country Music Hall of Fame that had a car phone. It was a black, rotary dial, wall phone mounted on a vertical plate in the back seat area. It connected to a RF transmitter (probably mounted in the trunk with a long antenna) that connected to the phone network (there was still a “legacy” product offering available for the RF “radio phone” service as late as 2004 in the Bell companies).
1936, who in the hell had a teevee to watch that commercial?
Little known fact:
Joe Biden’s family had a TV in 1929.
“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’ ” – Joe Biden
* They didn’t have electricity however, they had to watch TV by kerosene lantern.
When I moved to Arkansas in the 70s we had a party line. You’d pick up the phone to make a call and hear the neighbors talking about the cattle auction or uncle Clem coming down from Eureka Springs for a visit.
It was that way through a good part of the 1980s too.
Now I have a phone that attracts lightning. And no cell service.
One of my favorite quotes from Douglas MacArthur goes something like: “When the world comes to an end, I want to be in Arkansas … Because it won’t happen there for another twenty years.”
The man was right. He was a Little Rock native.
That was shown in movie theaters, young man. 😉
Tell Joe Biden I wasn’t President in 1929…
I was the Governor of New York.
🙄
We had a party line also.
As kid in the 50’s I thought party meant ‘you know PARTY with cake’
They probably showed it in the “Talkies”.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s our family had a party line too. People usually didn’t gab too much, so if you wanted to make a call and someone was on the line, they usually got off pretty quick when they heard the click of someone else picking up the line. When I was in High School I had a part time job at the local hospital. One day I couldn’t make it in so I tried calling to inform them, and two ladies were talking away on the phone. Every five minutes or so I would pick up the line to see if it was available and they were still jabbering away. Finally on, I dunno, maybe the fourth time, one of them said “Do you mind? Were having a conversation here!” Without thinking I said “Well I’m just trying to call the Hospital…” and that’s all the further I got. The one lady screamed “Oh my God, why didn’t you tell us that in the beginning!!” and they both immediately hung up. I just looked at the phone and started laughing. Remember it like it was yesterday!
Anyone remember phone #’s like this: PR5-5415? Our # was SE2-5183 back in the late 50’s, early 60’s
The PR5 represented the phone office that your line originated in. All the offices had a name that was abreviated by two letters and a number. I don’t know what the PR or the SE meant in your neck of the woods, but you might if you heard it.
I forgot to add that later they dropped the letter reference and simply used the number equivilent. So for instance Academy 1 was referred to as AC1 which then became 221.
I remember those phones. I also remember being able to unplug and have a peaceful dinner/evening.
unomac,
I think that was leftover from the days of operators being involved in every call. Our number was DA7 -****. The area was Davis. You could see all of Dallas divvied up into named areas like this in the phone book.
It had no reflection of the actual landscape as far as I could tell. IE there was nothing named Davis in the Davis area.
And NO caller ID.
And very few solicitors ever calling to sell you something.
And if you go back to the 60s – no phone answering machines to leave a message on.
I’d bet the phone was answered more often back then despite it being a crap shoot who’d you be talking to.
You can still get a party line.
It’s just that everyone is spoiled now and has their own in their pocket.
All the way into the late 70s, the numbers in Lake Geneva, Wi area only had 5 numbers. It was around 1980 that the full 7 started being used.
Dad0f4 – absolutely right. Prior to dial service you placed an operator assisted call.
BubbaBrother – mobile telphone service (MTS) was the same way. The operator place the call for you. Not sure what year it happened, but MTS was upgraded to IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service) where the user could dial the number – they go the operator out of the process.
Growing up the only call I made was to my cousin. We had a rotary phone and they had four nines in their phone number. Half the time I got a busy signal and would wait a few minutes and dial again. I wound up with an indention ring around my index finger. Thanks for the memories.
My bookie’s phone number was POplar 5-0303. 🙂
I remember BR-549 like it was yestadee.
I still have a rotary dial phone. It’s a standing Mickey Mouse with a bright yellow handset. Cute little bugger. Works, too, if I can set the right incoming signal.
my youngest child wanted a phone in her room so i had a wall rotary installed. i still laugh about that!
the phone was the gateway to your home. your parents the gatekeepers.
now little susie can text to a 68 year old molester!
progress.
I grew up with a party line. We had to share the phone connection with two other families.
I remember it well Anon!
Ours was a party line too. The # was WH4-9480. It was our first phone and there were 3 other people/families on the line. Huge PIA! But great memories!
1936. And after that essentially no improvement in customer service until the breaking up of AT&Ts monopoly in the 1970s. Now we have all sorts of competition, cell phones, wifi, etc, etc. Crony capitalism, no Bueno.