Working Daze by John Zakour and Scott Roberts for September 01, 2021

um … where’s the dial??? and you take pictures with a box that you focus by looking through the top … anyone remember the old browning camera?

Can you please stop with the Boomer humor already?

And we thought we’d reached the ultimate in technology with our push-button phones.

I remember when that was the height of modernity. My siblings and I dreamed of the day my folks would get one (which ended up being long after we left home).

Waaaaay, waaaaay back, Scott? C’mon. That’s a modern Touch-Tone phone that can dial it’s own long distance calls!

My parents wouldn’t get a push-button phone because AT&T charged extra for touch-tone service. Which was odd, because it was to their advantage to have touch-tone, but the opportunity to gouge the public was too good to pass by.

Back in the ‘90s, I worked for British Telecom. We had a brainstorming meeting to discuss how we saw the future of the desktop phone. I had several ideas, like having a way to delete a digit if you noticed you misdialed but that (and others) were rejected because "it would require a display [or some other hardware] and that’s too expensive."

And it has one of those new coiled stretchable cords.

As I remember it (I was pre-teen), the phone itself came from the telephone company, and you either bought it in your set-up fees, or it was rented, I don’t really remember which, but I do remember being told the rotary phone belonged to the phone company.

Wow! Collect calls. I remember going to college 3 hours away (I had my own car) and calling my mom collect by asking for myself. Mom would answer “he’s not here” and hang up. It was a FREE way of telling her that I had arrived safely.

Our house was built by a guy in an (unsuccessful) attempt to save his marriage. The “main” land line phone was in the kitchen. We’ve managed to have that removed; and had the area dry-walled and painted over. But there were (and are still) phone outlets in many other rooms—don’t obscure anything. Someday, when we’re dead and gone, somebody will look at those and wonder what they are.

Other than me…does anyone actually use a smart phone to make real phone calls? I doubt if I have ever texted, browsed the net, taken a photo, or played a game on mine. It may be a waste, but my phone does NOT control my life as it does for this current generation.

You really haven’t enjoyed an old time phone unless you were on a party line. Anything secret had to said in code.

Now, show her a picture of a book.

A step in progress…push button dialing!

Price Stern Sloan, the people who publish Mad Libs and Wee Sing, did this back in 1971. I later found out you could get a clearer tone by pressing two buttons at once. (I didn’t use the Amazon link because that’s to a collectible >$600.)

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-pushbutton-telephone-songbook_mary-anne-kasica_michael-scheff/9061445/#isbn=0843102586

My folks had a dial phone that was almost older than I was…one of those solid black ones.

He should have showed her a rotary phone. I still remember the one my grandparents have. Imagine teaching her to use that.

Press the P button and the star key simultaneously.

…um, I think you put your finger on one of the buttons and moved your hand in a clockwise circle. :)

You don’t need a dial. Just pick up the earpiece and turn the crank to get the operator, who connects you to another party.

when I lived in Turkey, I actually had one that looked like that, but with no dial. It had a crank in its side to ring the switchboard.

Touch Tone? That’s practically modern!