[dfwgator]

Operator - Jim Croce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RA4MykPm4s

Telephone Line - ELO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77R1Wp6Y_5Y

[Red Badger]

[Larry Lucido]

[PAR35]

Dials? I remember phones without dials where you picked them up and gave the two or three digit extension that you wanted. Presumably newcomers had four digit numbers. Of course, urban areas at the time did have dials with five digit numbers and a named exchange. HEmlock, and LIberty are two that I remember.

[Pez149]

I remember them well.
I also remember when the number was also the area you were calling.
For example;
Murray Hill 9-3179

[NellieMae]

I love this so much, it made me tear up.

[FreedomPoster]

Kids react to rotary phone

https://youtu.be/XkuirEweZvM

[lee martell]

That is one sweet story. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[PGalt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RA4MykPm4s

: )

[lee martell]

You wanna talk about Operators?
I’m thinking of that song
“Sylvia’s Mother”
by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. 1972

“..And the Operator says “Forty Cents more, for the next three minutes!”

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I still have an old rotary. Also remember the old “party lines”.

[SuperLuminal]

Can remember having party lines before that confusing rotary dial thingee...

Neighborhood gossip was at its zenith in those days...

[mass55th]

I was born in 1947, and raised in Rochester, New York. I remember party lines, and having to give the operator the number so she could dial it. Our exchange in Rochester was Genesee 8 back then.

[Fiddlstix]

My family lived waayyy out in the country...our first phone was a 'magneto telephone' and we were on an eight party line...
The 'good old days'....

[ml/nj]

No dial on our phone in Roslyn Heights (LI, NY) until July 1, 1957.

ML/NJ

[CodeJockey]

BR549

[1_Rain_Drop]

I was at my mom's this week and while cleaning out the basement came accross two old rotary phones. One was bakelite plastic. I didn't have the heart to throw them out since they brought back a lot of memories.

My grandma would yell at us kids if we'd pick up the receiver. "It costs money!" she'd yell.

I do recall calling the operator when I was about 8 and asking for help with homework. Miss those days with a real live person on the other end.

Slaming down the receiver is such a lost art right now.

[ronniesgal]

i worked as a answering service operator a year after high school.
and anyone remember Dr Hook- Sylvia’s Mother??

[\/\/ayne]

My Mother-in-law at the time in the ‘90s had an old rotary phone and lived in a tiny town. She didn’t really understand caller ID. When she called I would say in a deep, scary voice “Hell, Fran.” She would always get a little scared and say “Don’t do that!”

[jy8z]

I bought my daughter a Crosley candlestick phone from an antique store many years ago. She keeps it on her roll top desk. Looks spiffy! One just like this.