telephones

9 years ago

I REMEMBER PHONES BEFORE THE DIAL UP ONES, WHEN THE RECEIVER WAS PICKED UP THE OPERATOR WOULD SAY " NUMBER PLEASE "
WE ONLY HAD 3 NUMBERS TO REMEMBER FOR CALLING OUT.
DO ANY OF YOU REMEMBER THIS?

Comments (8)

socks
9 years ago
No, I don't remember that, but I remember party lines.
angelaid
9 years ago
Remember party lines, not old enough to remember the operator. Why are you screaming?
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wanda_va
9 years ago
When I was little, we had a party line. But my mother (a stay-at-home mom) lived to talk on the phone, so we got a private line as soon as it was available. Our phone number was LOckwood5-8677.
breenthumb
9 years ago
I remember the operators. When we wanted to call friends across the street we would tell her "R calling J".
jewels_ks
9 years ago
I remember the party lines at my friend's house in the country. We lived in a small town and the numbers began PR25-###. For the longest time all of the numbers were 7725-### and now some are 7720-###. My grandparents lived in a small town and probably within the last 20 years did they stop only using 4 numbers to call people in the town. For the longest time here you could tell what part of the city a person lived by the first three numbers, but not so true anymore.
jemdandy
9 years ago
I remember the old party line phones that used long and short rings to ring up someone. The problem was that everyone connected to the line heard the rings.

The 'ringer' was a hand cranked dynamo. You had to crank it fast enough to make enough power to ring the bells of other phones. The phone was housed in a big box that hang on the wall. A battery inside the box powered the voice transmission.

My house did not have a phone partly because it was too far off the main line, and its subscription was more than our budget could allow. The problem was not enough subscribers per mile.

The system was limited mostly to short distances. It was problematic to call town that was 10 miles away.
oldfixer
9 years ago
Hello. Hello.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
Sunshine, there were no switchboards when I grew up. May we ask your age? It's very interesting to hear of a different time in our history. I hope that you post more of your memories.

Angelaid, it is quite common for seniors to prefer the caps for easier reading. I'm impressed that sunshines has fun with her computer at all!

Some of us just aren't saavy enough to change font size on the screen.

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telephones

Comments (8)

socks

angelaid

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wanda_va

breenthumb

jewels_ks

jemdandy

oldfixer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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