Talking to a friend today. She had friend over who brought her 17 year old son to help move a bookcase.

They decided to introduce him to her black rotary dial telephone. Not only did he have no idea of what a phone dial was, but had to tell him what a dialtone was! As an extra treat they let him dial to his Mother's cell phone (She was standing right there)

They did show him that you stuck your finger in the little hole and move the dial to the little hooky thing...AND TAKE YOUR FINGER OUT AND LET IT GO BACK BY ITSELF.

He's never seen a phone book either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2022 03:58AM by Steve G..

Good for him (assuming he was successful) - when my niece was about that age, she was unable to complete making a phonecall before the alloted time ran out (resulting in the phone off-hook beeping).

In addition to in my car, I've got a few of these plugged in around the house:

for the youngin's

Next you'll have to explain what one of these were, and what you would dial to reach one.

Once he masters a dial phone, move on to manual typewriters, flash bulbs, library card catalogs, encyclopedias, road atlas, etc.

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SDGuy
Good for him (assuming he was successful) - when my niece was about that age, she was unable to complete making a phonecall before the alloted time ran out (resulting in the phone off-hook beeping).

In addition to in my car, I've got a few of these plugged in around the house:

Interesting enough, I was watching 'The Front Page' (1931)

none of the phone had little 'horns' over the microphone


even in the 1940 version, His Girl Friday, they still didn't.

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GGD
Once he masters a dial phone, move on to manual typewriters, flash bulbs, library card catalogs, encyclopedias, road atlas, etc.

If he gets cocky, hand him a sextant.

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********************************************
“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.” Seneca the Younger

The police have no duty to respond. See Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005) or Warren v. District of Columbia[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981)

Judge Lee wrote that “we cannot jettison our constitutional rights, even if the goal behind a law is laudable." 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

[www.youtube.com]

.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2022 07:15PM by lost in space.

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Racer X

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GGD
Once he masters a dial phone, move on to manual typewriters, flash bulbs, library card catalogs, encyclopedias, road atlas, etc.

If he gets cocky, hand him a sextant.

...or an abacus.

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RgrF

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Racer X

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GGD
Once he masters a dial phone, move on to manual typewriters, flash bulbs, library card catalogs, encyclopedias, road atlas, etc.

If he gets cocky, hand him a sextant.

...or an abacus.

Slide rule would probably work just as well.

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GGD

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RgrF

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Racer X

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GGD
Once he masters a dial phone, move on to manual typewriters, flash bulbs, library card catalogs, encyclopedias, road atlas, etc.

If he gets cocky, hand him a sextant.

...or an abacus.

Slide rule would probably work just as well.

God, I HATED a slide rule. Luckily they were just going out of use, as I was in high school, so I didn’t have to deal with them much.
My husband said he had a math teacher that used to say, “Slap it on the stick, son,” when giving them a slide rule problem. Lol

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Had a couple of rotary phones working up until a year ago. 12 YO grandson put his finger in the zero hole and rolled it to the number he was looking for, which I thought was a creative, if very wrong, effort.

I have a shadow box with seven slide rules in it. Mine is the college entry level bamboo one. Three are serious engineer models with names scratched in the metal bracket. My Dad's big one and my wife's Dad's are one model number apart. Then a few pocket models for solving problems on the manufacturing floor. Oh, yeah, have the hard leather cases for those engineering ones and at least one instruction manual.

Of course, back in OUR day, the high school physics and chemistry classrooms had a big one hanging above the blackboard. Teacher told the story of parent's day and a mom came up and asked what that was. Teacher told her and she said, "Well, he has been asking for one, but how would he carry it around?"

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Don C
Had a couple of rotary phones working up until a year ago. 12 YO grandson put his finger in the zero hole and rolled it to the number he was looking for, which I thought was a creative, if very wrong, effort.

I have a shadow box with seven slide rules in it. Mine is the college entry level bamboo one. Three are serious engineer models with names scratched in the metal bracket. My Dad's big one and my wife's Dad's are one model number apart. Then a few pocket models for solving problems on the manufacturing floor. Oh, yeah, have the hard leather cases for those engineering ones and at least one instruction manual.

Of course, back in OUR day, the high school physics and chemistry classrooms had a big one hanging above the blackboard. Teacher told the story of parent's day and a mom came up and asked what that was. Teacher told her and she said, "Well, he has been asking for one, but how would he carry it around?"

We had one of those giant ones in one of my classrooms.
I got my first Bomar Brain calculator a couple of years later. No more need for “the stick,” thank god.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

1979; the first police precinct house I was assigned to had one of those old switchboards. It remained in constant daily use for another two years before the entire department finally upgraded to "modern" equipment.

I've got my dad's slide rules. Infernal devices! One day I'll watch some YouTube videos.

I remember the pain of getting my finger stuck or hit by the dial as it spun. We also had a really old wooden wall phone when I was a kid. Currently, I have a Kermit rotary phone hooked up in my house, so I can still have a phone when the power is out and the portable phones won’t work. I love that thing.

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Steve G.

for the youngin's

That's a new one! We had two of the bakelite models. My aunt still has one-hard wired, too!-and a few years ago I was at a mid-century modern show and the bakelite phones were going for $400!

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A little break from the grief...






Disclaimer: This post is checked for correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Any attempts at humor are solely the responsibility of the author and bear no claim that any and all readers will approve or appreciate said attempt at humor.
My name is DP, and I approve this message.

Surprised they work. They upgraded our POTS about 30 years ago and set them to DMTF only.

As a tangent, I wonder if this teen has ever seen a rotary dial phone used in a movie or tv? I’m guessing g yes. The matrix film(s) had them a fair amount, although casually seeing a device and being able to use a device, are two completely different things. Thinking of seeing a manual shift car, or making a recipe.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2022 08:39AM by pqrst.

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DP

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Steve G.

for the youngin's

That's a new one! We had two of the bakelite models. My aunt still has one-hard wired, too!-and a few years ago I was at a mid-century modern show and the bakelite phones were going for $400!

It looks like it's part way through the modernization, it's plastic and has a clear plastic dial instead of metal, but it's still before they transitioned to the modular plugs for the cords that started around 1973.

I specifically asked what kind of dial it had. She said plastic with numerals on the outside. I wanted to be accurate before posting an image here.

We still have an old Princess phone in the basement, although it’s push-button, not rotary. Works when the power is out.

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Where is there dignity unless there is also honesty? - Cicero

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. —Wendy Mass

Plop one of these bad boys down and have him find an address.

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National Suicide Prevention Hotline tel:1-800-273-8255

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

.....once there was an intern......had to teach him how to use a fax.....

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Could they guess what this is (was)?

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DeusxMac
Could they guess what this is (was)?

Lol, some of us old people were talking the other day about how kids don’t realize there was a time when the TV signal went off, usually around midnight and they played the Star Spangled Banner then put up that test pattern.
We also mentioned how you had to get up and change the channel with a knob.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

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cbelt3
Surprised they work. They upgraded our POTS about 30 years ago and set them to DMTF only.

Local phone company used to charge less for pulse instead of tone dialing...there was a little switch you set on our "Trimline"-style phone to switch between the two.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2022 01:25PM by Bill in NC.

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rgG

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DeusxMac
Could they guess what this is (was)?

Lol, some of us old people were talking the other day about how kids don’t realize there was a time when the TV signal went off, usually around midnight and they played the Star Spangled Banner then put up that test pattern.
We also mentioned how you had to get up and change the channel with a knob.

Yeah, we kids were our parents' remotes "Hey! Put it on channel 4, the game is on, and adjust the rabbit ears!"

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=TC

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cbelt3
Surprised they work. They upgraded our POTS about 30 years ago and set them to DMTF only.

I remember when they charged extra for touch tone dialing. Then at some point locally they dropped that charge, had push button phones I could switch back from pulse dial to touch tone. At one time I recall talk about maybe adding a charge for those phones still using pulse dialing instead of touch tone, but it didn't go through then. Advocates for the elderly pointed out during public discussion of the proposal that it would have a negative impact. They may have revisited the charge since then.

Would love for the to fully update the central office equipment in town. They still had electromechanical switches in the late '90s. One failure I called in was when the switch wouldn't handle dialing a 9, given how important that is for 911 service they fixed it pronto.

Try to explain the common party line to a high schooler - they will not believe you.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

Plop one of these bad boys down and have him find an address.


Spent many years with a Thomas Guide handy, when looking for bad boys.

Cuz when the GPS fails, there's not always a German Shepherd or Ranger to lead the way.

I watch a lot of Brit period TV so there are a fair amount of rotary phones.

I can't remember the last time I saw one in anything somewhat modern.



I remember when they charged extra for touch tone dialing.


Yes. The first phones I bought were all plus dialing, even some cheap push-button phones, to avoid that charge.

I still have a Panasonic Easa-Phone auto-dialer that uses pulses to dial.

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I am that Masked Man.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.