# Telephone memories **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 27, 2003, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848 "2003-02-27T09:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/21 "2003-02-27T21:43:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stellar7 \* > \*\*I can remember, as a child, talking between the “beeps”. Unfortunately, I can’t remember WHY the beeps were there, or what significance they played! > > Anyone else remember that? \*\* You mean the busy signal? We used to call our own number, and then talk and listen in between the beeps. There’d usually be 5 or so other people doing it as well, so it was sorta like a primitive chat room. ---
**Author:** ![Mooney252](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@Mooney252](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooney252)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/22 "2003-02-27T22:45:29Z")
Here’s a recent thread on [party lines.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=149943&highlight=party+lines) ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/23 "2003-02-28T00:42:23Z")
Growing up in the 1970s, my parents had a typical Western Electric battleship of a phone … black, with a steel dial. Weighed a ton. Hard-wired into the wall. The best part of all was the New York Bell-printed number insert in the middle of the dial. AREA CODE 716 TF-9796 Buffalo apparently got seven digit dialing in the early 1960s, a while after area codes were established in North America. ---
**Author:** ![stellar7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@stellar7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stellar7)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/24 "2003-02-28T00:42:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Elret \* > \*\*You mean the busy signal? We used to call our own number, and then talk and listen in between the beeps. There’d usually be 5 or so other people doing it as well, so it was sorta like a primitive chat room. \*\* THANK YOU! Yes, that’s it. The beeps were the busy signal! I couldn’t remember that. All the other kids who were on the same party line would be on, too. I remember now. You’re right, it was like a very early chat room. Except, I think we were all about 6. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/25 "2003-02-28T01:32:02Z")
For Easter, the kids in the Olsen clan would search for jellybeans instead of eggs. There was always a licorice bean on the black wall phone in the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![TVGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@TVGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/26 "2003-02-28T02:54:27Z")
Cool thread! Here’s some folks trying to get you to start using the named exchanges again in daily use - [The Telephone EXchange Name Project](http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html) My house here in Portland is still connected to the original exchange at the BElmont CO, so I could give out my number as BElmont 5-xxxx. The Belmont Street Central Office houses 8 or ten exchanges now, I think. I remember when placing long distance calls, you used to listen to several seconds of tones, clicks, noise suppression tests and so forth as the call was routed through a wide variety of mechanical relays and switches from coast to coast. I also remember a friend trying, in the late seventies, to get me to invest $5000 in a new company called “Cellular One” - I was the idiot that said “Phones in people’s cars? Yeah, great for 27 rich doctors, otherwise, who’d buy one?” :smack: :smack: :smack: **!!!** ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/27 "2003-02-28T03:26:53Z")
Yeah, I remember when those futuristic button phones came out. beep-beep-beep-beep. I know who ever had the number of 321-2333 got called alot (think about that one for a second 😉 ) Funny, I had forgotten about long distance calls. I remember talking to people on the phone long distance and the static and volume made it hard to hear what they were saying. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/28 "2003-02-28T03:32:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Audrey Levins \* > \*\*People still say “from a touch-tone phone” and it makes me wonder who still uses a rotary these days. \*\* There are a few places in Warrenton Oregon (top NW tip of Oregon) were the telephone lines are so old they can’t support touch tone service. I used to own an ISP in that area and was shocked to learn this. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/29 "2003-02-28T05:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TVGuy \* > \*\* > Here’s some folks trying to get you to start using the named exchanges again in daily use - [The Telephone EXchange Name Project](http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html) > > My house here in Portland is still connected to the original exchange at the BElmont CO, so I could give out my number as BElmont 5-xxxx. The Belmont Street Central Office houses 8 or ten exchanges now, I think.\*\* Hey cool! I’m in Tigard so mine is **NEptune 3 - XXXX** I think I’ll start using that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dbcrny1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@dbcrny1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbcrny1)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/30 "2011-07-30T17:59:18Z")
Yes, I discovered by accident that if I phoned someone and got a busy signal, I could hear faint voices in the background (this was around 1969). The people would be talking between the busy signal. It was incredible, people from all over the city were on it (maybe a hundred). I met my 1st girlfriend that way. Im tempted to try it now and see if it still works. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/31 "2011-07-30T18:02:05Z")
That only works if you dial ZOmbie-5 1212 first. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/32 "2011-07-30T18:25:46Z")
zombie crosstalk ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848/33 "2011-07-30T20:15:16Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > …There was one cool trick I learned. If you dialed your own number and hung up quick enough, the phone would ring… That still works (you get an automated message telling you to hang up your phone so it can ring). > [@Zebra](#): > > I remember in the '70s, probably around the bicentenial, when candle stick phones made a brief comeback. That is untill people realized what a pain it was to have to use two hands all the time. > > I also remember those god awful fancy French style phones. Really really tacky in pink. I got a touch-town retro black candlestick style phone in HS. Which I took to college with be (along with my cell phone) to use on the landline in my dorm. People were _completely_ baffeled by it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-memories/157848.md?page=1)