New phone

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Bought a new desk top dial telephone.  Very nostalgic because we had one like it in the early 1960s.  It was a black Western Electric cradle phone like almost everyone had in those days complete with a hand set with a coil cord.  It was one of the first dial phones in northern Utah when they first transferred over.  Didn't have to wait for the operator to ask for the number and we got rid of he party line at that time, too.  The new phone number was SKyline 2-2175 (later SK2-2075 and then still later 752-2175).  It was Mo's phone number until she died in 1997.

 

Here's the clincher: THIS ONE WORKS just like the old ones did with the same hook up that my modern push button land line used.  You spin the dial with your finger and it "tictictics" back around just like the old ones did.

 

When you use this one you have to be sure your finger hits the little hook shaped finger stop.  If it doesn't move the stop it won'd dial, but if you do move the stop it works just like a modern phone.

 

Doesn't have an answering machine function, nor an auto dial, nor any extension, or cordless features or other modern functions, it just a telephone.  Very expensive, too.  I think it cost me about forty five dollars for a cool looking memory that actually works.

[Rip Snorter]

I read a piece a while back about kids today.  Apparently they can not read cursive or figure out how to dial a phone like yours.  I've occasionally thought of putting up a cottage on the property out of sight of the house and the road that was entirely out of time.  Maybe locked into 1889 or 1920.  Be an interesting place to kick back and get a taste of what life was like in another time.  Days past I spent time in hunting camps that were similar though not planned for the purpose.

[Pat Riot]

The last rotary dial phone I have encountered in someone's home was at a friend of mine's house in 1989. This phone was supplied by the phone company. He requested it.

[DeaconKC]

I had a rotary dial phone at our previous house as long as we had a landline. When we dropped that gave it to my cousin who still has one and uses the phone all the time. Her grandkids love it.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I have to have an answering machine to screen my calls. 

[South-Eye Ned]

What'll they think of next?

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

9 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I have to have an answering machine to screen my calls. 

Life is a lot simpler if you just answer the damn thing and hang up if you don't want to talk to them.

[Rip Snorter]

The answering machine is useful, but the best thing I ever got was Caller ID with Spam filter.  Lights up with Potential Spam.  Don't have to talk to PITA sales people, solicitors, poll takers, etc.  Anyone I need to talk to will leave a message.  Tranquility!

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

5 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

Apparently they can not read cursive or figure out how to dial a phone like yours

 

They don't encounter dial phones, that's why. One of my grandsons years back came upon a dial phone we still had hooked up in the basement. He was poking at the numbers to try to make a call; he had no idea how it worked.

[Trailrider #896]

When one of our grandchildren was three, we took her, our daughter and son-in-law to the Museum of Science and Industry, in Chicago.  There was a dial telephone and my SIL showed the kid how to work it. Hopefully, she will remember how to work it in case of emergency.  That was 13 years ago! 

[Rye Miles #13621]

What happens if you call a company or doctor etc and the greeting says press 1 for yadda yadda press 2 for blah blah etc. You can’t do that with a rotary phone correct??

I still have a rotary phone but it’s on the bar in the basement as a decoration.

[Alpo]

When the automatic machine tells you to press one, and you don't press it, it will repeat its request. But usually after about three times telling you to press one and press two and you don't do anything, it will take you to an operator and you can talk to a real person. If you can understand their accent.