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Post by Easton on Feb 13, 2020 15:47:39 GMT -5
I was just thinking about John-Boy using Ike's telephone for the first time and didn't know what to do. When I was a kid back in the 50s, we had a crank telephone as well as well as a phone exchange with a bunch of Fanny Tatums saying "Number, please" and using the cord to plug us in to make the connection.
I still remember our phone number (445) as well as the number of our neighbour (416).
Did you ever use a crank phone or were you lucky enough to grow up in the rotary age? I've seen videos on YouTube of kids reacting to 'old technology' and trying to tackle rotary phones. I wonder what they would think of a cranker?
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Post by patriciaanne on Feb 13, 2020 16:19:44 GMT -5
Only ever had a rotary or the more modern version. Now I don't even have a house phone. I just have my cell.
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Post by Brenda on Feb 13, 2020 16:38:03 GMT -5
I’ve never used a crank telephone, but we always had a rotary phone when I was growing up. I can remember when we had a 5-digit phone number and we were on a party line. Our ring was 4 shorts. There were no area codes. If you wanted to make a long distance call, you had to dial “0” for Operator.
I only have my cell phone now too.
Here is a picture from the 1958 telephone directory in Huntington, WV (where I live). It was posted in a Facebook group where people post old photos from our town. Click the photo to enlarge it.
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Post by Johnny on Feb 13, 2020 16:47:32 GMT -5
I never experienced a crank telephone, though were aware of them from film and television. Rotary phones were common in my youth and have audible recollection of Mom making a call to someone and hearing the winding sound of the rotary mechanism as each number was dialed and the recoil of the mechanism as the dial returned to its starting position. I don't recall any Fannie Tatums on our residential lines. However at primary school there were switchboards for an operator to connect you with a phone in a classroom. So I suppose those were a holdover from the technology you experienced. There was a comical TV skit featuring Ernestine (performed by Lily Tomlin) who used a plug-in switching board. She had her hair made up in bun style and she would scrunch her face like a prune to portray a stereotypical phone operator. In classrooms, we also had blackboards on which the teacher or students could write using white chalk. Sometimes we would help bang the erasers together at the end of the day to clean the chalk dust from them and also use a pail of water & big sponge to wash the blackboards, as they accumulated chalk residue when erased multiple times during the day. When we had music class, there was a special holder with a wooden handle that held 5 pieces of chalk. With that, the instructor could draw a five line equally spaced musical staff on the blackboard and be able to draw the notes. On occasions where I have observed modern classrooms, I no longer see blackboards. Instead there are whiteboards and I can only guess they must use erasable colored marking pens to write on them. music staff chalk drawing tool
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Post by JessicaGirlSpy on Feb 13, 2020 17:03:08 GMT -5
I have never used a rotary dial phone.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2020 17:42:31 GMT -5
I never used a crank telephone, but I remember those blackboard rubbers very well. One teacher used to hurl them across the room at us if being naughty
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Post by carol on Feb 13, 2020 17:54:02 GMT -5
Never used a crank phone. My grandparents who lived on a farm out in the country had a party line. I remember when their phone would ring you had to listen for a certain ring pattern to know if the call was for you or for another household.I can't remember what their particular ring pattern was. Dad told me that one time grandmom was talking to someone on the phone and both she and the woman she was talking to heard a click which told her someone was on the line listening in and she had a good idea who it was. She and her friend talked a little longer then grandmom, who wasn't one to mince words, said. I hate nasty "b***hes who listen in on other people's calls. Well, there was a loud gasp and another click and that person never listened in again.
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Post by Johnny on Feb 13, 2020 18:38:09 GMT -5
I have never used a rotary dial phone. i wonder what was the earliest type of telephone you had first hand experience in your life?
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Post by JessicaGirlSpy on Feb 13, 2020 19:36:58 GMT -5
I have never used a rotary dial phone. i wonder what was the earliest type of telephone you had first hand experience in your life? I've used landline phones. We have few in the house (my parents are somewhat old-fashioned and traditional. We even have a landline phone with a cord in the barn! (Just in case the cows want to make a call. They can be a gossip lot!) Same with our church. But no rotary dial phone. In fact I've never actually seen one in person.
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Post by Easton on Feb 13, 2020 20:13:02 GMT -5
Kids learning how to use a rotary phone:
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Post by Sussie of Teckelhut Acres on Feb 13, 2020 22:26:35 GMT -5
When I worked for the forest service back in the early 80's I lived at a ranger station compound. There were 10 families lived there, 10 different homes. They were all linked together by crank telephones. Each home had a special ring. In my house it was one long, one short and one long. By each phone in each house was a directory of the rings for each home. It was pretty cool.
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Post by alanankrett1 on Feb 14, 2020 6:38:36 GMT -5
I remember the rotary phones which were replaced by push button phones. Not really old enough to remember the other predecessors other than what I have seen on tv
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Post by Johnny on Feb 14, 2020 14:37:19 GMT -5
I've used landline phones. We have few in the house (my parents are somewhat old-fashioned and traditional. We even have a landline phone with a cord in the barn! (Just in case the cows want to make a call. They can be a gossip lot!) Same with our church. But no rotary dial phone. In fact I've never actually seen one in person. That's great you have experience using landline phones too. You make me laugh about your cows being a gossip lot. My chickens were chatterboxes too. Whenever I entered their coop, they would come running over to tell me their news So I wonder, do your home phones look like this?
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Post by Easton on Feb 14, 2020 14:43:05 GMT -5
I remember the rotary phones which were replaced by push button phones. Not really old enough to remember the other predecessors other than what I have seen on tv Do kids these days know the excitement of tin cans and string?
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Post by JessicaGirlSpy on Feb 14, 2020 16:57:05 GMT -5
I remember the rotary phones which were replaced by push button phones. Not really old enough to remember the other predecessors other than what I have seen on tv Do kids these days know the excitement of tin cans and string? [br My siblings and I do!]
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