Monday, March 3, 2014

Telephones

Growing up, we had a touch tone phone in the house.  I had friends who had the rotary phone, and I always wished we had one.  How funny that kids barely know what a cordless phone is let alone a rotary phone.  Cute video.

I loved the kid who thought the busy signal was a button you pushed if you were too busy to take a phone call.  Also, one of my Grandmothers was the quickest phone caller in the world due to those long distance charges.  She always got to the point and almost before we answered her she was saying her goodbyes and hanging up the phone. 

The payphone is kind of a dinosaur anymore too.  Back in the day, there was a payphone at the barn where I rode.  Before I was old enough to drive myself, my parents would pick me up when I was finished.  Since that time varied on a day-to-day basis they wanted me to call them when I was ready.  I never had the change so would call them collect.  They’d deny the charges, but know to come and get me. 

These kids were shocked about the “old” phones and how we managed to get by without carrying one around with us 24-7.  I often think about that when I hear some story about the immediacy of a cell phone and how it has changed our lives (some for the better, some for the worse) in many ways.  A high school teacher was telling me how over the last couple of years parents have become brazen enough to start calling their kids WHILE THEY’RE IN CLASS.  I’ve even been questioned about “Where were you?  Why didn’t you answer the phone?” on more than one occasion.  The girl in the middle of the video had point – we did survive without being able to get a hold of someone who was on the phone or not home at that time.  I don’t know if our kids will ever know what that’s like.

12 comments:

  1. The little ones hardly remember Bush. They only know a black POTUS, nevermind a dog&bone phone. I was a bit shocked with the teen girl though. But then she wasn't around before 2000.
    I have a house phone only because it's cheaper than paying mobile fees but in truth I'm not a phone person.
    Very sharp kids, very sharp indeed. But then when I was using that style of payphone I'd forget where I was in the number and so have to begin again. And remember they were very money hungry 'if' you could find one that worked. Plus they were the 'fav' place for women on a night out to void their bladders.

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    1. Ewwww, in the pay phone booth?!?!?
      They were money hungry and still are today. 50cents the guy said, and I'm sure that's a local call only. I remember frantically digging through my change if the call lasted more than a minute or two before it disconnected.
      I wonder if the kids are actors. Some are quite precocious and their reactions seemed a bit canned. The boy who talked of Alexander Graham Bell and the "classics" made me laug though. Too cute.

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    2. Yep, in the kiosk. You've seen the red phonebox, the Gilbert-Scott one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_telephone_box . They would go in, turn, hoist skirts, pants down, squat and fire with one hand on the door and the other keeping the pants out of the way. Men rarely went in these things because of the glass. They could be see through the glass you see. So men went down some dark alley. There they couldn't be arrested for public urination. OTOH, women were largely hidden and the box had the legal plus of being private property. So they had a weird logic.

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    3. That is nuts! I would never even thought of doing such things. Nor would I have wanted to use one after hearing that. :)
      Ours are a bit different
      http://webnerhouse.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/dsc02177.jpg
      Maybe a bit more glass?
      However, I mostly remember them like this...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:At%26tPhone.JPG

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    4. Oh, and where does "dog&bone" phone come from? The shape of the receiver?

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    5. Cockney rhyming slang. But also in the 50s and 60s the ubiquitous black was replaced with ivory and white for the home phone.

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    6. Ha ha! Oh, that slang cracks me up. I had looked it up on its own and came up empty. After adding rhyming slang to the search, I got it. :)

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  2. I don't answer my phone while I am driving I just let it ring and check it when I arrive at my destination. In CA I was heading to my brother's house and was about half way there. My SIL called me at least 6 times in a row, I finally pulled over and called her back.....and she was all"where are you? Why aren't you answering your phone?" I never had that problem when we just had a land line.

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    1. Yes! There's is something to be said for being unreachable, for a littl bit of time at least. I dislike talking on the phone soooo much. Most have resigned to texting me, but even then if the response isn't immediate we don't know what to do with ourselves. :)

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  3. Wow? Part of that video was on the Today show.

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  4. As convenient as phones are, I wish we didn't have them. People expect you to be glued to them!

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    1. Yes they do. And I'm sure I'm guilty of that expectation at times too. But the inability to ignore it and/or not look at it CONSTANTLY irritates me. This weekend I went to the grocery store and was almost crashed into by a woman who was trying to steer her cart with one hand, carry her umbrella (as it was also pouring down rain) with the the other and hold a conversation on her cellphone. "I'll call you back," doesn't seem to be used much anymore.

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