Sunday, August 14, 2011

Dadgummit, it doesn’t look like a phone!!!

 

It is strange how things change. I remember the phones on the wall in some houses. Where you had to turn the crank to ring up an operator. They had a large ear piece and a speaker horn to speak into.

wallphone

 Then came the desk model, any color you wanted as long as it was black. There was a circle on the base with YOUR number in it; Three or four digits. This one, like the wall phone you picked it up slowly to see if anyone was on the line (known as a party line). If you were real careful and were nosey, you could listen to the other parties. Everyone in awhile someone would say, “IS SOMEONE LISTENING IN”, of course no one admitted it, but would slowly place the receiver back in the ‘cradle’.

bd06102_

But if no one was talking the ‘operator’ would say, “Number Please”. In small towns I hear folks would say , “Rose (or the operators name) get me Bill down at the store.” Of course everyone knew the operator and everyone knew Bill at the only general store in town. I never did know an operator personally, but understand they were all business and did not chat while on duty, we could Ask Paula, she was one of those ‘number please’ girls I hear.

!B7JKVeg!mk~$(KGrHqQOKjIEzKC8V8z2BMzZ9CsHew~~_3

(Actually the one I operated was about half this size.)

Actually I operated one of those ‘number please’ switchboards once while in the USAF on a little Radar site. Sitting in front of a lot of holes in a board with pairs or wires lined up below the holes. Each hole had a light. When A light lit up you plugged in the back wire and said, “Number Please” when they gave the number you took the front wire and plugged it into the requested number and pushed the toggle switch forward to ring the number. You had to listen until you knew someone answered, and then release the switch. You too, could listen in here, and had to sometime to make sure the call was over.

dial phone

Then came the dial phone with numbers like VAlley 7-5776, or TAlmage 5-2366 (Our Families last phone #) The VAlley meant you dialed 82 or VA before the number. It wasn’t long until it was just 827-5776 and 825-2366.

I said all that to say ALL THOSE PHONES LOOKED RELATIVELY THE SAME. My first mobile phone looked basically the same.

blackberry5810_540x721

Now what do you have, a flat rectangular thing, that sometimes works as a phone. The blue tooth things that are stuck in someone’s ear. They ain’t phones. Hahahahaha Technology.

I thought of this for one reason. Then the tree fell next door it took out their phone line. The neighbor came out and said it didn’t make any difference; they no longer used the land line. Many folks do not.

Thanks for reading this junk,

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Medical dictionary:

Artery.......................... The study of paintings
Bacteria..................... Back door to cafeteria
Barium...................... What doctors do when patients die

 

Todays car":

image0044

10 comments:

Lucy said...

I was able to keep up with the phones until the mobile phone. The car is pretty cool. You and your cars. I have to admit I look forward to every one at the end of your blog.

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

I love my mobile phone that travels with me where ever I might be. I like the fact too that it is cheaper than the land line I used to have. Lots of changes over the years and not all bad ones for sure. Cloudy here but not much rain. Hope you all have had a great Sunday

Anonymous said...

How funny, a couple of days ago read a book with my son, showing a phone like those used ten years ago and said, that there's a phone to see, he asked where, as he is used to see mobile ones.
Please have you all a good new week.

Ken Riches said...

We are debating whether to go fully mobile.

Paula said...

I've probably said this before but I liked my job so much I would have paid to work there if I had money which I didn't. Our switchboard was much smaller then the one you show and it had no lights so we had to listen in to see if the conversation had ended. It wasn't very busy in our small town so I had time to chat. lol Like this entry.

Fred Alton said...

Great entry, Jack. I well remember the old phones, party lines, snoops who listened in, and the resulting gossip. In our time there were three ways to communicate - radio, telephone - and tell-a-woman! ☻ (Sorry Ladies. Couldn't help that.) I once operated the switchboard at the COTP in NOLA as a relief op for the regular man. The Captain recognized my accent immediately and was ready to conduct a Captain's Mast to find out where and how I was authorized to answer. Once he realized it was all proper and I was doing the job right he cooled down a little...but for about 5 minutes (while he was chewing me out) I was getting concerned.

Anonymous said...

Jack, I remember the switchboard and the party lines, lol. When we moved over here we were on a party line and when the lady down the street put her baby down for a nap she would take the phone off the hook and we could not make a call. I'm glad that is in the pass there’s more service out there you can use that are cheaper then the land lines, and I'm thinking about using them. Lol. Take care. Jean

shirl72 said...

I remember our 1st cousin did that with Southern Bell and retired with them. I still have my
land line and cell phone. If I changed to
cell only I would forget to keep it charged.
It is good to be able to keep a phone with you
all the time. Good entry and brings back lot
of memories about telephones that we forget.

Shirl

TARYTERRE said...

Boy oh boy... did I enjoy this entry about the telephones. I remember all to well... party-lines, the operator and switchboards. Those were the days. I'm still clinging to my land-line. My hubby wants to go all mobile. Cell phones are great but it's not the same as that phone hanging on the wall in your kitchen.

Dar said...

just totally lost my comment to you~~~
OK then, short version~~
Great entry young man. You cease to amaze me.
We still have the land line and a tracfone (todays generation doesn't even know how to spell it)
I remember the folks first phone was a party line...got me in trouble once.
As for the BBQ, will eat anything loving it all except the super spicy gut-wrenchers.
And Yes, I'm one of those Baby Boomers~~~poor Mama birthing two of us, 6 total during Boomer generation.
Very interesting entries Jack.
Thanks for stopping by the cabin~~~
BlessYourSweetHeartsJackAndSherry
missyoutwo