The following is a true story. Yes, I do know how to tell a true story even if most of the one's I normally tell are not.
About three weeks ago I needed to replace one of my cell phones and switch it to a different carrier. My wife and I went to the nearest U.S. Cellular office. The very nice, very helpful 30-something fellow was quite helpful and things moved along quickly. As he was finishing up the paperwork, I told him that the telephone we had in our house, and there was only one, until I was about seven years old hung on the wall, was made out of wood, had two big batteries inside of it and had a crank on the side of it. He immediately knew he was dealing with a refugee from a mental institution. I went on to explain how the cranking method determined the Longs and Shorts that indicated someone else's specific ring and that everyone else on the party line could here the ring and pick up their own receivers to listen in if they so chose. By that time I think his eyes had rolled back into his head somewhere in utter disbelief. That encouraged me to describe what happened when you wanted to make a truly long distance telephone to someone on a similar telephone line in another State. My example was calling my aunt and uncle near Pueblo, Colorado. The process involved calling "Central" who then made a connection to Ma Bell somehow in an office about 25 miles away, then they passed it on to somewhere like Kansas City, who then passed it on to somewhere like Denver, who then passed it on to Pueblo, who then contacted the "Central" office near my relatives home, who then rang them up to see if anyone was home. I thought we were going to have to give the poor salesman CPR as I had passed his ability to accept any more crazy talk long before that point.
...where am I?
...who am I?
...what just happened?
It's funny to tell young kids stories like that. I'm only in my 30s now, but I remember about 10 years ago I explained to my nephew, who was about 10 at the time, that my first TV in my bedroom was black and white, got five channels (on a good day), and had two knobs on it, and you had to get up and turn the knobs to change the channels. The look on his face was priceless ...
Yes, the young folk can't imagine the stuff us mature folk can talk about.
I'll probably offend some here, but I thing all this social media crap has NO REDEEMING VALUE. Just a distraction for people who have too much time on their hands.
Yea, its a rant and there is more where that came from.
I was in college about 1969/70 when some of the guys wanted to call another friend who had gone home for the weekend. By this time, most of Iowa was on the Bell system or smaller companies with compatible equipment, and most people had 3 plus 4 digit phone numbers, even if it was still a 2- or 4-party line. His small town was one of the last ones still on the hand-crank system.
They just about couldn't convince the long-distance operator they wanted to make a person-to-person call to Donald XXXXXX (a very uncommon name) in Templeton, Iowa and the number was 12F.
> I'll probably offend some here, but I thing all this social media crap has NO REDEEMING VALUE.
I'm pretty sure this site counts as social media... 🙂
My father had his business across the driveway from the house. We had a private line, Nazareth 604, with phones in the house, in the shop and an outside bell ringer as big as a bank alarm. If we wanted to call from the house to the shop we would pick up the phone and ask the operator to "ring this number please" without any mention of what number, sort of a party line.
Then many years later on a nice day I had the Scout meeting in our yard. At the end of the meeting several Scouts wanted to call parents for rides. I showed them the rotary wall phone on the kitchen wall and they just stared. They needed dialing instructions and a demonstration. I have no clue what they may have told their parents on the way home.
Paul in PA
What it really funny is watching a kid trying to call out on a rotary phone for the first time and they put their finger in each hole, pushing the number, all in the correct order but never realize they have to rotate the dial.
James
I just remembered, when I was a teenager we used to get a kick out of making free calls from payphones (remember those?).
If you got good enough at it, you could make a call by clicking the receiver lever. Zeros are actually tens. Works just like a rotary dial. This didn't work for all service providers as some had their payphones set to not give a dial tone until you paid.
I remember reading something on the internet, way back in the day, where you could make a device with a 9 volt battery that would allow free long distance. Phone phreaking...
Clicking The Receiver Was Good For Phones With A Lock
Bars would put a lock in the dial of the bar phone so you could not do a full rotation or use all the holes. Fast clicking and counting was a skill that some just did not possess.
Also came in useful for dialing? in the dark.
Paul in PA
Clicking The Receiver Was Good For Phones With A Lock
The motel room phone didn't have a dial, had to call the front desk to dial out.
Now we only use them for getting more towels and room service.
Nine Clicks Might Have Gotten You An Outside Line
Nine was the standard to get an outside connection even if you had a dial.
Paul in PA
