A rotary dial phone

[DJFyrewolf36]

We used one that was built in the 80's when we first moved here before we managed to get a touch tone phone. The ringer on that thing makes me jump out of my skin every time it rings lol.

[davidpizzica]

David,

Try the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Alot of people have turned them in.

Talk about antique...ROTARY

At least you can call me this week without the phone cutting out, beautiful! Next stop wal-mart to buy a GOOD phone.

[Karen]

My sister Shirley still has one. She doesn't have long distance calling either and I asked her why not and she said "Who would I call?" I said "Me!" She said "Why? You always call me." Of course, no cell phone or computer either. I told her that when I visit her I jokingly tell my friends that I'm going into the time warp, so if they never hear of me again, they'll know why. I'll bet somewhere in her place there's a wringer washing machine, too. Must be a Pittsburgh thing, David.

Um, careful there. I've never even been to Pittsburgh, and there's a wringer and a washboard in my basement!

[Randi]

I remember the old dial ones too. My aunt had one of those and four families shared the line, I even remeber her no. BE 3647y, you dialed BE (for Bella) then told the operator the number. I attached a picture of the one she had.

The next one is older, and I must admit, I would not know how to use it. However, when I was 17 I worked for a big Taxi company and operated a switchboard looking like the one on the forth picture.

John used to have one like the red - also attached. He sold it to a colletor.

Some of these had a loud ringing tone and almost made you jump!

I still have a little black plastic phone from my childhood.

To call the police or an ambulance for emergency, you dialed 000, which was quite smart, as the cero's was first on the dial, so quick to do.

A few years ago, they changed it to 112, which I find rather irritating. When I called an ambulance for John, I was so upset, confused etc. that I first dialed 000. Of course, they then told you what to dial.

[Medusa]

Um, careful there. I've never even been to Pittsburgh, and there's a wringer and a washboard in my basement!

LOL, that's funny! Probably the difference is that my sister actually uses hers. Plus she still wears her hair in a huge beehive like Marge Simpson.

Randi, I remember the old prefixes, now that you mention it. Ours was OR for Orchard. Goodness, the memories this has brought back!

[Pam]

Yes I remember the old rotary phones too. In fact there is one in our basement right now (hubby never throws anything out without me begging ) I can still remember picking up the phone when I was a child and hearing an operator say...."number please.." and our phone number started with ME for Melrose. Thanks for the little trip down memory lane.

[pitc9]

My dad still uses one in his garage!!
It's the funniest thing!
It's brown too!!

Growning up we had a yellow one in the kitchen with a SUPER long cord so we could reach the bathroom and shut the door for private phone conversations. With 4 girls in the house, that was done all the time! My parent's finally put a phone booth sign on the bathroom door!

[kitten645]

Really funny...at a trade show recently I saw someone who is selling a rotary phone you can plug into your cell phone! LOL! You just plug it in and you can use it like the old rotary phone. I still have fond memories of my light blue princess phone I grew up with.
Claudia

[Ginger's Mom]

Ah yes, Devonshire (DE) was our exchange. I really do miss those old exchanges. They were so nice and homey. It's funny we think of rotary phones as so slow now, and in a few more years we will probably think of dialing at all as being slow. We will all be used to just saying "call (whomever)," and the phone will connect.

[davidpizzica]

My sister Shirley still has one. She doesn't have long distance calling either and I asked her why not and she said "Who would I call?" I said "Me!" She said "Why? You always call me." Of course, no cell phone or computer either. I told her that when I visit her I jokingly tell my friends that I'm going into the time warp, so if they never hear of me again, they'll know why. I'll bet somewhere in her place there's a wringer washing machine, too. Must be a Pittsburgh thing, David. She also has the furniture that she got when she married in 1953 and it looks as new as it did the day she bought it.

It could be a Pittsburgh or a Penn Hills thing, Mary! I have the rotary phone, and I still have an 8-track player and tapes and those big round things called LPs. People here don't throw ANYTHING away. I do have one concession to the 21st century, an MP3 player! BTW, Mary what part of Pittsburgh did you live?

[Randi]

Oh David, do you really have one of the old taperecorders! I need a 4 track one for all my favourite tapes I kept all these years. I also have lots of LP's filling up a whole bookshelf - some were John's though. He made the covers for some of them. I just can't throw them out, but I can still play them! I have a little music system which can play LP's, CD's, tapes - and there's a radio too.

In my opinion, things go just a tad too fast these days. I'll have to get a new TV within a year, or I won't be able to watch anything!

[cassiesmom]

We used one that was built in the 80's when we first moved here before we managed to get a touch tone phone. The ringer on that thing makes me jump out of my skin every time it rings lol.

Fyrewolf36, my mom and dad have a phone with a ringer like that! Every time I'm there, and the phone rings, I jump because it's so incredibly LOUD.

[Catlady711]

I don't remember the days of having letters in the phone numbers but my mom does. I can remember only 5 digit phone numbers though. My grandma used to work at the switchboard for the telephone company many years ago, I mean a real switchboard with the pegs and holes for connecting calls. lol

We used to have an 8-track player, but it died and we could not find anyone around here that could fix it, so we sold it at a garage sale with the tapes we had. I still miss that thing.

I still have a ton of 33 1/3 and 45 records. My cousin keeps calling them black funny looking cd's. ROFL

I have a ton of cassette tapes also. The car dealer thought I was nuts when I bought my last car. It came with a cd player in it. When I asked if they had a cd/tape combo player available he said no it was tape or cd only. I told them to take the cd player out and put a tape player in. He kept arguing with me saying 'you know that's a downgrade don't you?'. Sheesh most of my music was on tapes, why spend more money to buy everything again on cd's, it's easier to just downgrade the car stereo. lol

We do have mp3's and cd's though so we're not toally 'retro' lol.

[jennielynn1970]

I have one from my first apartment in Bethlehem. It is ancient! It weighs a ton too... at least 8lbs. I had replaced it when I moved in, but I still have it with me.

[Twisterdog]

In cleaning out my dad's basement, I found our old tan one that was on the wall when I was growing up.

On the little round plate in the middle of dial, it still had our phone number ... but instead of the first two numbers it had EM. My older sister said this stood for "empire".