# The Telephone -- Old School **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639 "2011-04-25T12:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/41 "2011-04-25T22:44:30Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Perhaps the worst part. > > You had no idea who was calling… I had totally forgotten about this. I can’t imagine answering a phone without having some clue of who it was ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/42 "2011-04-25T23:06:30Z")
Or the phone book that was kept in the kitchen drawer near the phone hanging on the kitchen wall. On the back page (especially set aside for this purpose) you wrote down the numbers of people that you frequently called. A pre-electronic version of a contacts list. Also, when you were staying at a friend’s house and had to make a long distance call, you could call the operator and have the charges directed to your home phone account so you got billed instead of your friend. When someone was going out of town on vacation, they would tell you that if you need to reach us, we will be staying at The Holiday Inn in Roanoke, Va, (555) 123-4567 and the room will be in Bob’s name. Today you simply call their cell as normal. When you needed to talk to someone on a pay phone (pre calling card days) instead of getting a thousand quarters or dimes, just note the number on the phone, call for one minute telling the person the number of the pay phone, and have them call you back. When talking on a pay phone, some guy impatiently waiting outside, apparently having to return a phone call to the President with the nuclear launch codes, stares bullet holes through you until you get off of the phone. Dad telling you to stay off of the phone for now because he was expecting an important call. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/43 "2011-04-25T23:47:33Z")
When I was a kid in the mid '60s, all our phones were rotary dial. I remember my mother locking the dialer with a device that prevented outgoing calls, and taking the key with her when she went to work. We could receive calls, we just couldn’t make them. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/44 "2011-04-26T00:29:31Z")
Stand-inside-shut-the-door-phone-booths are getting scarce. It used to be fun seeing how many of us could squeeze into one while making a call. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/45 "2011-04-26T00:46:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > My mother worked for the telephone company, so she took advantage of the company discount to get phone jacks installed throughout the house (including the bathrooms) and we had extension phones everywhere before this was common. And these were the old-fashioned line-powered phones. At one point, we had so many phones that the ringtone sounded really weak. At this point, there’s only two of them in the house, but they still have two landline numbers (although one rolls over to the main 45-year-old number), DSL and two cell phones. I started working for Western Electric in 1980 and we got no discount, and didn’t get one until they the first divestiture where they decided it was better to give us long distance (up to $35 a month and half of the next $65) then have us go with MCI. Back when you leased the phones, you could get a phone connected to your line in my MIT dorm. (The only free phone we got was a dormline phone, which was fairly useless.) Between the time when the person ordering the phone ordered it disconnected and the craftsperson came to collect it, the phone usually disappeared. My senior year I, who was the designated official phone person, was in a room across the hall from most of my friends, on the sixth floor. We ran wires across the roof to connect to 5 or 6 rooms, where people shared the bill. Then I moved across the hall to a better room, leaving the connection there with the new occupant, who had no idea there was a phone - until he drove a nail through the wire, which required some repairs. I think they had pretty much given up on us. When five of us moved into a house for the summer, the installer. after putting the phone in, said “you can add all the extensions now.” Which we did. The BSTJ issue which listed the network frequencies was the most checked out journal in the MIT Engineering Library, and my visit before I decided to go there was to a group of kids who used tie lines to hop from their dorm to Lincoln Labs to the Pentagon to Saigon to a bomber over North Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/46 "2011-04-26T00:47:25Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Anybody else use those 10-10 numbers that got cheaper long-distance rates? Yes. Chris Rock advertised one and so did George Carlin. We used those a ton. My mom used one to call England. She’d dial 10 10 321 …and then a ton of other numbers to connect to England. ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/47 "2011-04-26T00:50:11Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > That is so not what I was thinking. But that’s probably what he’s talking about. > > The one I’m thinking of is a more traditional handset/base configuration, but the handset is all sorts of fancy. I remember seeing them in _Hogan’s Heros_ and other period pieces. Is this the [type of phone](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dcwstore.com/telephones/cr93.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dcwstore.com/z-telephones-Crosley-antique-replica-Sultan-phones.htm&usg=__m8Rfmyr6EIU1qQ6eXNVMarg20HA=&h=169&w=200&sz=20&hl=en&start=107&sig2=qV68eMEap9HeV6IJ4ONoag&zoom=1&tbnid=qCyAqaTXPKOx8M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=160&ei=6xW2TYjKFcjo0QH-58DeDw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Deuropean%2Bantique%2Bphone%26hl%3Den%26newwindow%3D1%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D939%26bih%3D508%26tbm%3Disch0%2C4494&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=471&page=13&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:107&tx=48&ty=71&biw=939&bih=508)you are thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/48 "2011-04-26T00:51:17Z")
I can remember the hell to be paid if my father was calling home and we kids were chatting forever on the one phone line. When the neighbors had to come over, ring the doorbell, and say, “Your father is trying to call home…” you knew your ass was grass. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/49 "2011-04-26T00:56:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think **Triskadecamus** is describing a [candlestick phone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Candlestick_phone.JPG). The one in the picture has a dial but it was also available without the dial. That is very close. Hers had a brass hang up lever, and no dial. It was less shiney, and a bit bigger, I think, judging from the dial. The speaker horn was longer, too. It seems likely to me that it was an older model, from the days of “Sarah, get me Mt. Pilot.” It wasn’t like the Hogan’s Hero model. Tris ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/50 "2011-04-26T01:01:47Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I had totally forgotten about this. I can’t imagine answering a phone without having some clue of who it was Yeah, back in the day you learned to answer in some sorta “it sounds a random gal or random guy or maybe a foreigner/distant relative or maybe yourself who happens to be very sick” voice until you figured out who it was and what they wanted 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/51 "2011-04-26T02:16:00Z")
I remember arguing with a friend over how to dial the rotary phone. She said you were supposed to leave your finger inside the hole as the dial spun back to its “home” position. I said, no, you’re supposed to remove your finger and let it spin freely. (I was right.) I remember calling time and temperature over and over when I was bored as a kid. I remember it being a Big Deal when somebody was calling LONG DISTANCE. “You can talk to Grandma for only a few minutes; it’s LONG DISTANCE!!” I barely remember my aunt having a party line. This would have been early 1970s. Around the same time, the phone book was still listing numbers as REgent 9-1234. My father died in November 2008. The next spring we were cleaning out his ham radio shack in the basement, which was a mess to behold. Under the dreck was a black rotary desk phone covered in gunk. It still worked! And my mom said he had still been using it. Must have weighed ten pounds. I used to use 10-10-987 about 10 years ago when I had to send the occasional fax to Italy. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/52 "2011-04-26T02:18:00Z")
Did any of you, as kids, answer the phone like this? “Mahaloth residence” Instead of Mahaloth, you said your last name. I saw Theo do this on the Cosby show("Huxtable residence.). My Dad had me and my brother do it as kids(the 1980’s). ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/53 "2011-04-26T02:22:34Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Remember when you had to have the emergency number for the police, fire and ambulance posted near the phone as they were all different numbers, and seven digits yet. 0 for operator handled all of them. they were trained to get all the needed info and call all the right places. good if you were in a hurry. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/54 "2011-04-26T02:26:43Z")
Has anyone seen this? [http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/8928/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/8928/) It’s an old style handset with Bluetooth to connect to your cell phone. I want one. Anyone feel flush enough to buy one for me? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/55 "2011-04-26T02:31:45Z")
Ah, yes, busy signals. Don’t we all miss bus… _stop throwing those heavy phones at me!!!_ I miss having ONE yellow pages to rely on. Now for my tiny outside-New York City-village we have four competing ones that cover slightly different areas. The Internet has a ton of similar sites, but they are not the same–neither as complete or as helpful. Why would anyone want another Yellow Pages? (Anyone remember that ad?) ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/56 "2011-04-26T02:37:15Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > I remember calling time and temperature over and over when I was bored as a kid. Yep, we used to call W-E-A-T-H-E-R to get the weather _whenever you want it!_ mmm ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/57 "2011-04-26T02:49:00Z")
> [@Rico](#): > > Has anyone seen this? > > [http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/8928/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/8928/) > > It’s an old style handset with Bluetooth to connect to your cell phone. > > I want one. Anyone feel flush enough to buy one for me? I have one of those. If I’m in the mood, I use it with the rotary-dialling app on my iPhone. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/58 "2011-04-26T03:05:24Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > When we finally got a second line, it was listed in the phone book under my parents entry as “Teenager’s line” ( or something like that ). Here it was “Children’s Telephone”. I remember seeing that in the phone booth and couldn’t believe that anyone would pay to have two phone lines and what spoiled brats those kids must’ve been. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/59 "2011-04-26T03:19:42Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > When we finally got a second line, it was listed in the phone book under my parents entry as “Teenager’s line” ( or something like that ). > [@jasonh300](#): > > Here it was “Children’s Telephone”. I remember seeing that in the phone booth and couldn’t believe that anyone would pay to have two phone lines and what spoiled brats those kids must’ve been. in the days before call waiting a children’s line might benefit the parents more than the kids. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/60 "2011-04-26T03:45:40Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Did you really think that you could just throw something like that out there with no further information and we’d just accept it? > > I assume that your mother felt that it would be improper for her to show a gentleman into the pornographic bedroom while she was essentially alone, or maybe she was afraid the wallpaper would drive him mad with lust, endangering her. > > I understand why she’d want to avoid that situation. What I don’t understand is why there was PORNOGRAPHIC WALLPAPER IN THE BEDROOM? It doesn’t sound like your mother was some sort of libertine, so why would they have something like that, especially with young children in the house? Where would they even buy something like that? > > Was it really truly pornographic or was it something like cherubs frolicking naked, which perhaps was considered pornographic in those times? Sorry, didn’t mean to forget this thread. My parents bought a house in this small town Northern Ontario in 1977. My dad had just started working for the provincial government and was in Toronto for about 2 months, while mom was left in this small, mostly french speaking town, with an 8 year old daughter and a not quite 3 year old son. This house … was something to behold. It had 3 different patterns of geometric design wallpaper in the kitchen, all in red, orange and gold. My bedroom had yellow and silver wallpaper in some kind of Op-art garish radiating circles. The living room was popcorn ceilings, popcorn walls with glitter embedded in it, and white shag carpetting. The bathroom had some kind of blue fun-fur rug, (I told my brother they had skinned Cookie Monster) It was all quite garish. But my parents bedroom had… (and this wallpaper went down within the first month, but not before the telephone guy came) some kind of dot-matrix type grayscale shades of women with bare breasts doing…things… I really can’t remember much but I think there were three images, one of a woman on top, one being done doggy style, and one where she was possibly performing oral sex on a man? I really am not sure, but I know my mother was HORRIBLY embarrassed by it and did not want to be seen as a “lonely newcomer leading phone guy into her bedroom with the porno wallpaper”. So I got to stay home from school that day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639.md?page=4)