What Phones Looked Like the Decade You Were Born

Reader's Digest ^ | 11/14/22 | Morgan Cutalo

[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.

[DallasBiff]

Yes the 70's, where if they did want not to talk on the phone, one just left the phone off the hook, and got a busy signal. Today we have the same thing today, with a touch of a button.

[Fester Chugabrew]

What did the blue penguin say to the red penguin?

[Psalm 73]

Born in the rotary phone era - we had a four-household party line, and the phone numbers all had two letter prefixes (had to memorize my phone number for kindergarten - OX4-6168, it’s the only one I’ve ever memorized).

[Disambiguator]

We had a rotary phone until the mid-70s.

[Deaf Smith]

Is your RD link the large print version?

[DallasBiff]

Born in the rotary phone era - we had a four-household party line, and the phone numbers all had two letter prefixes (had to memorize my phone number for kindergarten - OX4-6168, it’s the only one I’ve ever memorized).

I never got the letter prefixes, but if you see old movies, it was always Klondike-5555, to make a phone call.

[Jim W N]

My phone that I lived on when I was a teenager

[C210N]

Had one of these babies in one of my dorms. We would wire it up so that after a long distance call, ALL the change put into the slots would come out the return slot. This wiring was referred to as a "red box". There was also a "blue box", that that's a lesson for another day, kids.

[butlerweave]

I still have a black rotary phone , I don’t use it much ,LOL

[Disambiguator]

Rotary phones - inaccessible technology!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZSZB0z-Nt0&pp=ygUMUm90YXJ5IHBob25l

[Sacajaweau]

a phone booth on every corner...and come evening....men showed up in droves...made a quick phone call and on their way to see ....

[ealgeone]

Nothing like slamming the receiver down after a bad call. Wouldn’t do that today with your stupid phone...and I call them stupid because that’s what they’re making us.

[null and void]

Western Electric model 500 Rotary. That's a 500-D

"If you look closely, you’ll notice that the numbers and letters are placed around the rotary so that people could view them more easily when dialing"

If you look even more closely you'll notice a dot in the center of each dial hole. By providing an aim point for a finger it greatly reduced misdials.

[Disambiguator]

I have one hanging in the kitchen of my 70s house. It seemed like the best way to cover up the wall plate that was there.

We don’t have service, but the phone is fully functional. It was NOS I found online.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

Six years ago, I tried to dial a rotary phone at my late parent’s house, just for fun. I couldn’t do it! It was so weird! I completely lost the muscle memory! Couldn’t get past five numbers without messing up!

[OttawaFreeper]

Back in the mid 1980s, my Dad bought a clock radio touch tone phone while on on a business trip to Boston for the master bedroom. As a kid in the 1970s, it was a rotary wall phone in the kitchen area and a rotary in the master bedroom. My grandparents had a party line at their farm with their own special ring.

[Jim W N]

My phone that I lived on when I was a teenager.

Back in the day when your phone number was Davenport 3-2667, later
DA3-2667, later
323-2667, and now
650-323-2667.

[cgbg]

We have one of these still hanging in the garage.

It worked when the power was out during several hurricanes and tropical storms over the years.

The trees would fall on electric lines which actually protected the phone land line.

[Jim W N]

That’s funny. Yeah, you could really slam that phone down when needed...

[exnavy]

Party line? 1950’s