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Hall of Famer [22335]
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Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 9:08 AM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlLefVM-Rvw
Bell System by Western Electric, Model 500, Rotary dial phone, manufactured from 1949 through the 1980s. My mom's phone, part of the soundtrack of my life (I was born in 1957). I cannot remember a time when that ring didn't blast through her house... it would wake the dead. When she died at age 86 in 2003, it was still hooked up in the den via the original 4-prong plug. When I decided to see if I could get it working again a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find an adapter that converts from 4-prong to standard phone clip.
And the clarity and volume of the receiver is amazing, you forget just how clear a "real phone" used to sound. And the rotary dial worked perfectly when I still had a LAN line. It's heavy, no wonder it still works after 70 years of abuse. They really made stuff to last back then...
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All-TigerNet [10157]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 9:57 AM
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That brings back memories and many thoughts of my parents.
Thanks for this post.
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Hall of Famer [22335]
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Yes sir, brings back a lot of memories... the only phone I ever
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Jul 23, 2023, 10:18 AM
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used until I started CU in 1975. You only had one phone in the house back then. Waiting until mom left the house to sneak a call to my first "girlfriend" in 7th grade. Staying up late after she fell asleep to make calls as a teen, etc. Notice the sticker in the center of the rotary dial - (803) 269-0513. Greenville was still 803, SC had one area code then.
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CU Medallion [55433]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 1:27 AM
[ in reply to Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts. ] |
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Most people back in that time of the Telly was on what was called a party line, and that meant if your neighbor down the road was using the phone, you had to wait until they hung up before you could use it. That system caused many cat fights between neighbor women/moms scrapping with other moms that was called party line cat wars that broke out daily!!!!
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CU Guru [1150]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 10:03 AM
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Yep. And we were on a party line. Had a lady named Tilly that talked all the time. When we needed to make a call we would pick up phone and say Tilly we need the phone. She would say ok but would always listen in. When we finished we said OK Tilly you can have phone back
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Hall of Famer [22335]
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Yeah, we had a party line initially too, shared the number with Miss Vivian
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Jul 23, 2023, 10:21 AM
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an old widow lady who lived next door. Fortunately she made few calls and was seldom on the phone.
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CU Medallion [55433]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 1:35 AM
[ in reply to Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts. ] |
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That would have had my mom beating on her front door, and if my mom ever caught one of us kids listening in on somebodies call, we got our butt whipped that very instant. My mom and dad was really all in on respect, and I carry that valued lesson with me through my daily life!!!
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Legend [17799]
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I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen
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Jul 23, 2023, 10:48 AM
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We were using this well into the mid 80’s
Parents felt no rush to get a touch tone phone.
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Orange Blooded [4754]
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Re: I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen
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Jul 23, 2023, 3:20 PM
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Had this wall phone in our basement and one like the original post in the living room. At one time we were on a party line but don't recall when that went away.
Everyone in my small hometown had the same 783 exchange followed by 4 numbers. For what ever reason we only had to dial 3 then the four last digits. If you asked me my phone number back in the day I would tell you just the last 4 numbers. for me it was 3446.
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CU Guru [1553]
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Re: I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen
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Jul 24, 2023, 9:20 AM
[ in reply to I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen ] |
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We had one of these on the wall in our "Rec" room until at least 1998. It had a cord long enough that you could walk into at least two rooms and outside to talk.
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Orange Blooded [3223]
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Re: I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen
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Jul 24, 2023, 10:01 AM
[ in reply to I’m partial to the wall phone we had in our kitchen ] |
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We had the wall phone with an aftermarket 50’ cord. I could stretch that sucker across the house. My Landrum area code was 803 long before the change to 864. My parents still have the same lan line number! Certain numbers showed more wear!
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All-TigerNet [11690]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 1:11 PM
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Man, does that bring back memories!!
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All-TigerNet [11690]
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Did you ever call your folks 'collect' ?***
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Jul 23, 2023, 1:14 PM
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Hall of Famer [22335]
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We used collect calls as freebie long distance, just to pass
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Jul 23, 2023, 2:01 PM
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a message. Say, you're heading to the beach for a week and the parents want to know you got there safe. You make a collect call home and ask for a pre-arranged name. The parent would say - Sorry, no one here by that name - as though you got the wrong number. But the message had gotten through, that you were OK. Just a little trick to avoid long distance charges...
Also, do any of you Greenville natives remember calling the Coca-Cola Time & Temp number in the 60s and 70s? It was 233-3000. It was about the only way to get the accurate time. You got a recorded message something like this: "Hello, now would be a great time to enjoy a refreshing Coca-Cola! The time is 7:33 and the current temperature is 81 degrees."
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CU Medallion [55433]
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Re: We used collect calls as freebie long distance, just to pass
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Jul 24, 2023, 1:39 AM
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Did it all the time!!!
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All-TigerNet [10492]
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Legend [16378]
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I don’t want to hear the sound of old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 2:39 PM
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Wait, lemme read that again real quick.
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Hall of Famer [21267]
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It is funny how many memories are actually
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Jul 23, 2023, 2:41 PM
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Associated with that. Seriously, as simple as that was... thank you!
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110%er [9903]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 3:12 PM
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Miss those phones. My grandmother still used hers until she passed in 14.
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Hall of Famer [22880]
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Recruit [99]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 23, 2023, 5:13 PM
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Some people are telling their age, but I remember those as well…
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CU Medallion [55433]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 1:18 AM
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I was born 11-27-1952!!!
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Orange Blooded [3290]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 6:52 AM
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Each LAND line required a pair of wires from the Central Office where the switching system was located. Eventually they developed multiplexing systems that combined 24 channels on 1 pair of wires that then split to 24 pairs to the individual houses. Now a single fiber optic strand carries thousands of channels and a fiber cable has multiple fiber strands. The cost of copper wire was a major investment and up keep to the phone companies and has limited capacity even with the multiplexing, whereas fiber provides much more band width for calls, internet data and video. Land lines still require a pair of wires to each house along with a fiber connection(or cable TV coaxial cable connection, eventually will be al fiber) for internet data and video. The Voice over IP (Internet Protocol) is carried on the fiber connection.
Originally there was 3 digit dialing. I remember 4 digit dialing and then 5 digit local dialing in my small SC town. Also the exchanges were named by the first two digits. Our town had HUnter 4 (484) and the county area HAzel 8 (428) plus the 4 digits, we had 5 digit dialing until the late 60s.
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Orange Blooded [3290]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 6:54 AM
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You can get adaptors for touchstone dialing and connect to your VOIP phone connection and still use these phones.
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Athletic Dir [851]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 7:26 AM
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The long handset cord was a mud
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Orange Blooded [2454]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 9:15 AM
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Thought this would be a video of an old fart
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Walk-On [135]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 11:32 AM
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I have a somewhat funny story about these old phones. My parents continued to use a wall mounted rotary phone in the kitchen well into the late 80's. Sometime in the early 80's my younger brother who was around 10 at the time had a friend over to play. The friend was suppose to call his mother at a certain time to have her come pick him up. The mother never received his call and even when she arrived to pick him up she was somewhat upset with him and ask why he did not call. He explained that he did not know how to work the phone since it did not have push buttons. He had never seen a rotary phone before.
I have another example of changing technology. Sometime in the mid 80's I came home from college and was curious as to what this new box was that my parents had attached to their TV. My dad explained what it was and I told him that was the craziest waste of money I had ever heard of. It was a VCR player/recorder.
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CU Medallion [61847]
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One thing that was never said on those phones ...
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Jul 24, 2023, 11:38 AM
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"I must've hit a dead spot. Can you repeat that?".
And, "I am calling about your car warranty that is about to expire," in an non-US accent.
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Legend [17626]
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I'm from farther back.
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Jul 24, 2023, 12:38 PM
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No dial on the phone. You picked up the receiver and the operator said, "Number please." Local phone #'s were 3 digits long.
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Freshman [9]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 10:35 PM
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This brings back great memories, reading through all of these comments. Thanks for a post for us old farts. I still have an old rotary phone in my shop that works perfectly, even on todays more modern digital system.
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Freshman [9]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
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Jul 24, 2023, 10:35 PM
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This brings back great memories, reading through all of these comments. Thanks for a post for us old farts. I still have an old rotary phone in my shop that works perfectly, even on todays more modern digital system.
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Freshman [9]
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Re: Wanna hear a sweet sound? ... especially for us old farts.
Jul 24, 2023, 10:35 PM
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This brings back great memories, reading through all of these comments. Thanks for a post for us old farts. I still have an old rotary phone in my shop that works perfectly, even on todays more modern digital system.
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Replies: 31
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