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.

 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’.

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.

(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.

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.

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":