If you clicked the “hang-up buttons” rapidly, an operator would connect with you, and you could tell them the number you wanted to call.
27
My grandparents lived in a very rural area and their operator was the old-timey ladies you knew by name and the exchange was in town. And just about everyone was on a party wire. I thought it was a gip because there were almost never any parties going on at Grandma’s house.
Remember calling 411 all the time to get the time of day?
15
You would also have to explain to them what a “collect” call and “person-to-person” call are. For bonus points, you could elaborate on the surreptitious nature of person-to-person and how much glee one would receive in delivering a clandestine message to another free of charge.
10
…and I love running across old ads with the exchanges on the phone numbers. I still remember a jingle for a home builder here in WA:
“Call Washington Builders, (hammer pounding)
Just a little bit more, (hammer pounding)
Washington Builders will make your old home look like it never did before!
Washington Builders!
Call Sunset 2-34 (hammer pounding) 04!”
It always made me giggle because, even as a kid, I could imagine our house looking like it never did before after Washington Builders destroyed it with their hammers.
I was a cynical child.
12
My parents were nearly deaf and no hearing aids. They had the regular ringer turned all the way up, an auxiliary ringer, and a flashing light.
The phone would ring and scare the ever living shit out of the rest of us.
20
Long distance calls, and the “beep” every 60 seconds as you racked-up the charges from the monopoly AT&T
15
I MISS PHONE BOOTHS
I ALWAYS CARRIED A NAIL IN MY POCKET, AND WOULD INSERT ONE END IN A HOLE IN THE MOUTHPIECE AGAINST THE METAL INSIDE, THE OTHER TO THE COIN BOX, LISTEN FOR THE ELECTRIC SHORT, THEN COULD TAO OUT THE PHONE NUMBER IN THE HANGUP HOOK….FREE PHONE CALLS!!
4
Trust No One. lol
6
I remember those locks. I also remember the day we got a phone extension for the basement. Living large after that.
9
DaveVA — haha! Yeah, the rest of us had to suffer through with a mile and a half of phone cable snaking through the house and when the phone was back in its place, there was a heap of tangled cable. If the phone wasn’t in its usual spot, you could find it by following the cable. Good Times.
Also, arguments and yelling over a sibling hogging the phone, especially when someone was expecting a call.
8
I wonder how Manhattan got 212 area code? The shortest dial. No one liked numbers that had lots of 8,9,0 in them.
You’d bring the rotary to the silver thing and then try and manually speed it up going backward.
5
Starlit Stairway a local talent show on KHQ channel 6 (NBC) every Saturday night in Spokane was sponsored by Boyle Coal and Oil whose phone number was Fairfax (FA) 6-1521 which I heard so many times that it was drilled into my brain permanently. It’s a local joke around here if you still remember that phone number it means that you’re a true Spokanite.
7
Collect Call — “No, Frank isn’t here… He’s at the mall in front of Sam Goody’s in one hour.”
7
refusing collect calls were how we let our family/friends know we got home safely
11
The break up of Ma Bell was such a big deal. Why does Kroger now own every large grocery brand in Seattle? Every one of them except Amazon and Whole Foods.
7
…remember removing the mouthpiece from the handset so that your sibling could hear the caller but the caller couldn’t hear them? Phun with Phones.
4
Boyle Coal and Oil’s jingo was “When you need coal or oil, call Boyle Fairfax 6-1521.”
2
My grandparents had a party line. We kids used to love to listen in on conversations.
I was an impressionable kid when we moved to Los Angeles. We had a Hollywood exchange phone number. I always made sure to spell out the whole word when giving someone the phone number, instead of just using HO. I’m sure no one was impressed.
5
Damned cords. Always tangled.
3
Rich Taylor at 9:36 AM:
It was feared that one of my uncles would be placed under FBI surveillance because of the number of person-to-person calls he got but was never there to answer.
i like to remind the telemarketers how odd it is to call people you dont know. i begin by asking ” do i know you”? finish the call by making sure they are aware it is rude to call people you dont know. some refuse to break form (rarely) i begin to explain why stalking is bad, why i do not accept calls from people i dont know and begin to question their morality. some just hang up, but some have no idea of phone etiquette. crushed many a telemarketers. since i started this, i notice they switched from in person to robo or recorded calls. slowed down a lot. most have no idea how rude they are. im guessing because we have made it normal to prank as children.
3
Between the headlight dimmers on the car floor and 3 on a tree manual transmissions that would totally confuse kids nowadays. And God forbid they try to figure out manual crank roll up windows and the little wing windows. I miss all those things. And manual pull out choke buttons on the dashboard as well. I think it was better when things were so much simpler than they are now.
5
Person to person call – calling for Oscar Meyer.
Phone booths – there was one at the gas station that lasted much longer than most. Our nut of neighbor was always declaring he saw ‘suspicions’ Arabs and women in head scarves using it obviously plotting something for the corn and hay fields.
3
I still have my grandmother’s little pen with the spinning ball on the end that she used to dial phone due to her severe arthritis that you never heard her complain about.
5
Yep, that’s exactly what the sperm donor installed on the phone. It was a wall phone located in the kitchen. I was in the 7th grade when he dropped down with a heart attack, and the phone had the lock on it. He was lucky we knew how to jive with it.
3
In the old days, each telephone call cost money – every one of them. And it cost based on the time you spent on the phone. No wonder there was a lock.
2
Put dime in pay phone.
Call home.
Hang up after two rings.
Dad knew it was time to pick you up from the bowling alley.
4
Yeah we were Hilcrest
on an old country road that is now taken over by a mega corp sadly.
When I STILL call the number 50 yrs later I get an odd fast beep.
They retired our number 🙂
When I was really small like before 2nd grade when we still used the out house (but always had electricity) and I bathed in a galvanized tub, the adults in a primitive shower in garage (back old addition) BACK THEN our phone was a circa 1900 phone with the wooden box and one ear receiver, the little ‘desk’ for writing which was all I was allowed to do, to write on some paper on that thing.
2
On the farm my best friend one mile away was in the next exchange so I didn’t call her often as it was long distance! we on dividing line but we still “talk”
2
It cost more to call from West Orange to Montclair than vice versa. So, we used the “ring twice and hangup” trick.
If you clicked the “hang-up buttons” rapidly, an operator would connect with you, and you could tell them the number you wanted to call.
My grandparents lived in a very rural area and their operator was the old-timey ladies you knew by name and the exchange was in town. And just about everyone was on a party wire. I thought it was a gip because there were almost never any parties going on at Grandma’s house.
Remember calling 411 all the time to get the time of day?
You would also have to explain to them what a “collect” call and “person-to-person” call are. For bonus points, you could elaborate on the surreptitious nature of person-to-person and how much glee one would receive in delivering a clandestine message to another free of charge.
…and I love running across old ads with the exchanges on the phone numbers. I still remember a jingle for a home builder here in WA:
“Call Washington Builders, (hammer pounding)
Just a little bit more, (hammer pounding)
Washington Builders will make your old home look like it never did before!
Washington Builders!
Call Sunset 2-34 (hammer pounding) 04!”
It always made me giggle because, even as a kid, I could imagine our house looking like it never did before after Washington Builders destroyed it with their hammers.
I was a cynical child.
My parents were nearly deaf and no hearing aids. They had the regular ringer turned all the way up, an auxiliary ringer, and a flashing light.
The phone would ring and scare the ever living shit out of the rest of us.
Long distance calls, and the “beep” every 60 seconds as you racked-up the charges from the monopoly AT&T
I MISS PHONE BOOTHS
I ALWAYS CARRIED A NAIL IN MY POCKET, AND WOULD INSERT ONE END IN A HOLE IN THE MOUTHPIECE AGAINST THE METAL INSIDE, THE OTHER TO THE COIN BOX, LISTEN FOR THE ELECTRIC SHORT, THEN COULD TAO OUT THE PHONE NUMBER IN THE HANGUP HOOK….FREE PHONE CALLS!!
Trust No One. lol
I remember those locks. I also remember the day we got a phone extension for the basement. Living large after that.
DaveVA — haha! Yeah, the rest of us had to suffer through with a mile and a half of phone cable snaking through the house and when the phone was back in its place, there was a heap of tangled cable. If the phone wasn’t in its usual spot, you could find it by following the cable. Good Times.
Also, arguments and yelling over a sibling hogging the phone, especially when someone was expecting a call.
I wonder how Manhattan got 212 area code? The shortest dial. No one liked numbers that had lots of 8,9,0 in them.
You’d bring the rotary to the silver thing and then try and manually speed it up going backward.
Starlit Stairway a local talent show on KHQ channel 6 (NBC) every Saturday night in Spokane was sponsored by Boyle Coal and Oil whose phone number was Fairfax (FA) 6-1521 which I heard so many times that it was drilled into my brain permanently. It’s a local joke around here if you still remember that phone number it means that you’re a true Spokanite.
Collect Call — “No, Frank isn’t here… He’s at the mall in front of Sam Goody’s in one hour.”
refusing collect calls were how we let our family/friends know we got home safely
The break up of Ma Bell was such a big deal. Why does Kroger now own every large grocery brand in Seattle? Every one of them except Amazon and Whole Foods.
…remember removing the mouthpiece from the handset so that your sibling could hear the caller but the caller couldn’t hear them? Phun with Phones.
Boyle Coal and Oil’s jingo was “When you need coal or oil, call Boyle Fairfax 6-1521.”
My grandparents had a party line. We kids used to love to listen in on conversations.
I was an impressionable kid when we moved to Los Angeles. We had a Hollywood exchange phone number. I always made sure to spell out the whole word when giving someone the phone number, instead of just using HO. I’m sure no one was impressed.
Damned cords. Always tangled.
Rich Taylor at 9:36 AM:
It was feared that one of my uncles would be placed under FBI surveillance because of the number of person-to-person calls he got but was never there to answer.
Headlight dimmers
https://youtube.com/shorts/5vJZNY2M-lM?si=-_QBQ5nxE0sYiBoj
i like to remind the telemarketers how odd it is to call people you dont know. i begin by asking ” do i know you”? finish the call by making sure they are aware it is rude to call people you dont know. some refuse to break form (rarely) i begin to explain why stalking is bad, why i do not accept calls from people i dont know and begin to question their morality. some just hang up, but some have no idea of phone etiquette. crushed many a telemarketers. since i started this, i notice they switched from in person to robo or recorded calls. slowed down a lot. most have no idea how rude they are. im guessing because we have made it normal to prank as children.
Between the headlight dimmers on the car floor and 3 on a tree manual transmissions that would totally confuse kids nowadays. And God forbid they try to figure out manual crank roll up windows and the little wing windows. I miss all those things. And manual pull out choke buttons on the dashboard as well. I think it was better when things were so much simpler than they are now.
Person to person call – calling for Oscar Meyer.
Phone booths – there was one at the gas station that lasted much longer than most. Our nut of neighbor was always declaring he saw ‘suspicions’ Arabs and women in head scarves using it obviously plotting something for the corn and hay fields.
I still have my grandmother’s little pen with the spinning ball on the end that she used to dial phone due to her severe arthritis that you never heard her complain about.
Yep, that’s exactly what the sperm donor installed on the phone. It was a wall phone located in the kitchen. I was in the 7th grade when he dropped down with a heart attack, and the phone had the lock on it. He was lucky we knew how to jive with it.
In the old days, each telephone call cost money – every one of them. And it cost based on the time you spent on the phone. No wonder there was a lock.
Put dime in pay phone.
Call home.
Hang up after two rings.
Dad knew it was time to pick you up from the bowling alley.
Yeah we were Hilcrest
on an old country road that is now taken over by a mega corp sadly.
When I STILL call the number 50 yrs later I get an odd fast beep.
They retired our number 🙂
When I was really small like before 2nd grade when we still used the out house (but always had electricity) and I bathed in a galvanized tub, the adults in a primitive shower in garage (back old addition) BACK THEN our phone was a circa 1900 phone with the wooden box and one ear receiver, the little ‘desk’ for writing which was all I was allowed to do, to write on some paper on that thing.
On the farm my best friend one mile away was in the next exchange so I didn’t call her often as it was long distance! we on dividing line but we still “talk”
It cost more to call from West Orange to Montclair than vice versa. So, we used the “ring twice and hangup” trick.
Beechwood4-5789
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us18AUBM2RI