Telephones

Jan 15, 2019

Well of course, at my age I have seen many phones. Our first phone was a black, dial phone, weighed a ton and sat on a desk. It was a “party line” where you shared the line with another person. When you needed to make a call, you slowly raised the receiver and listened. If there was a dial tone, the line was free. If you heard voices, you were supposed to politely and quietly hang up the phone till the line was clear.
Once we got a private line, things were better. UPtown 37865 was our number. My aunt was EVergreen 35602. Dial the letters. UPtown is 87...EVergreen is 38... and there was HIlltop, 44... HOpkins, 46...and it went on. We started telling people the words, then advanced to all numbers.
Now phones changed too. They became lighter and a princess phone was designed and was available in colors. Then we went to push button phones, wall phones, novelty phones and cordless.
Suddenly homes had multiple phones, in different rooms.
Imagine life where you had to find a phone to use that was not in your purse or pocket.
Imagine a world where you could put a dime, then quarter, then whatever, in a coin slot and dial the phone. If you didn’t have a coin, you would dial zero and get an actual person to place your call and collect the fee from the recipient.
Phones...operators...caller assistance/information; walls, desktop, cordless and finally mobile.
Phones and communications have changed often in my life. But we still need to touch base with each other. That has not changed and never will.