I was antiquing yesterday and saw a rotary dial phone for 45 bucks. It’s bad enough seeing the TOYS of my childhood declared antiques, but classifying the very phones I was using less than 20 years ago as outdated as butter churns is a bit much, dagnabbit!
I miss the days when phone numbers were 5 digits, party lines? Not so much. Your party line was only as good as your neighbors were polite. Our neighbor used to nap during the day, her 5 yr old discovered a new toy, the phone. He’d keep the phone off the hook for hours, yelling into it when anyone wanted to make a call. If we needed to make a call we’d have to walk all the way down to their house, pound on the door til she woke up then tell her to put the phone back on the hook. Half the time she’d go back to bed and he’d have the phone off the hook again before we could walk back home.
Until very recently, we had a mongrel phone system at home -copper in the ground with both digital touch tone phones and rotary dial phones on the same lines..Occasionally, one of the lines would go dead – usually not at our house, but from mice chewing on the wires where they went into the ground..Local phone techs would always come to the house first, and leave baffled. Some had never seen a rotary phone much less a combined system..We finally replaced the system with a walk-around set, but we kept one ground line and still have a box full of old phones – the kind you could throw across the room and they would still work.
Melki Premium Member about 10 years ago
I was antiquing yesterday and saw a rotary dial phone for 45 bucks. It’s bad enough seeing the TOYS of my childhood declared antiques, but classifying the very phones I was using less than 20 years ago as outdated as butter churns is a bit much, dagnabbit!
thetraveller4 about 10 years ago
That Wheeler is one strong bird…those phones are heavy!
cdward about 10 years ago
I certainly remember the dial phone. Have no sentimentality toward it.
ladykat about 10 years ago
I remember dial phones AND party lines.
Observer fo Irony about 10 years ago
If that phone was from Will’s ‘day’ then it is no wonder he is still in the pound; no one will want to adopt a dog that old.
Bob. about 10 years ago
How many remember telling the operator the number you want?
Rista about 10 years ago
I miss the days when phone numbers were 5 digits, party lines? Not so much. Your party line was only as good as your neighbors were polite. Our neighbor used to nap during the day, her 5 yr old discovered a new toy, the phone. He’d keep the phone off the hook for hours, yelling into it when anyone wanted to make a call. If we needed to make a call we’d have to walk all the way down to their house, pound on the door til she woke up then tell her to put the phone back on the hook. Half the time she’d go back to bed and he’d have the phone off the hook again before we could walk back home.
libbydog about 10 years ago
We still have a couple of those in our hose, plus some cordless. We love our cordless, but can never find them when the phone rings.
ellisaana Premium Member about 10 years ago
Until very recently, we had a mongrel phone system at home -copper in the ground with both digital touch tone phones and rotary dial phones on the same lines..Occasionally, one of the lines would go dead – usually not at our house, but from mice chewing on the wires where they went into the ground..Local phone techs would always come to the house first, and leave baffled. Some had never seen a rotary phone much less a combined system..We finally replaced the system with a walk-around set, but we kept one ground line and still have a box full of old phones – the kind you could throw across the room and they would still work.
1148559 about 10 years ago
I still have my land line with push button phones. I don’t need to be reached when I am out and about, so no cell phone for me.
Starman1948 about 10 years ago
Good day fans. Yes, I remember dial phones and party lines. Good comments all. Y’all have a blessed Sunday.
1MadHat Premium Member about 10 years ago
The phone Wheeler brought is a TouchTone™ desk set.