Posted on 09/03/2023 11:43:00 AM PDT by DallasBiff
Some elementary school kids don’t even know what a landline is. Take a trip down memory lane and remember the type of phone you used to use.
(Excerpt) Read more at rd.com ...
My grandmother lived in a small town where they had a party line. Can remember picking up the line & someone talking.
Me too. I told several of my grands about it.
We had rotary and the number was 2 letters followed by the numbers. Eventually it was transitioned to a slim line, touch tone, wall phone in the kitchen. Pay phones were everywhere.
Two tin cans tied together with string,
“it was always Klondike-5555, to make a phone call.”
My Nashville phone number - AM-95448 (Amherst).
My college was in a small town. Everyone had the same first three numbers. To make a local call one only had to dial the last five digits. Kinda cool. Mid ‘80’s
I had rotary phones into the 80s, grandma had them into the 90s.
Memory aid
763-xxx > PO 3-xxxx > POPULAR 3-xxxx
In 1986 we moved into a rental house while our new home was being built. I was working IT from home and did not know that the rental was on a party line. Every time I got my modem connected someone would pick up the party line and drop my call. Had to set up an office in the in-laws basement.
Rotary desk phones could also be used as bludgeons, as they were heavy and stout. The steel plate on the bottom was probably 1/8” thick.
You would see this on TV occasionally.
“My grandparents had a party line at their farm with their own special ring.”
Grandpa W. Number 903R1. Two longs and a short.
Grandpa B. Number 927J2. Three shorts.
New technology embraced by youth, but not well-received by the older generations.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q
Having been born in late 1970, I remember rotary phones and leaving the phone off the hook to deter unwanted callers.
My mom still has a landline, although I admit that it comes in handy after tornadoes and other severe storms.
I remember the technician from the phone company coming out just to install a new phone, and hardwire it into the wall or the little baseboard box.
Bkmk
I would be angry too if the phone took my only nickle, didn’t complete the call and wouldn’t return my nickle.
Lol...I still remember my kindergarten phone number, too. And address. Our parents drilled it into our heads.
“And there was nothing we could do about it.”
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