Hark! Back! Is a look back at blogs that appeared in a now defunct blogging site before I started with blogger in September of 2008. They are in no particular order.
December 30 2007
Telephone Communication
The ways that we communicate has changed over the years. When I was growing up in the 1950's we had an old black crank type phone...our number was 12F12O, yes I remember that number but was it two shorts and a long or two longs and a short? I met the telephone operator once, she sat in a little room off the General Store/Post office, she was quite old, looked cranky and wore a dress with huge flowers on it. She sat in a chair in front of a big board with lots of wires coming out of it. It was the days of the Party Line, as I recall five or six phones were connected on a mutual line, you were only supposed to answer if your assigned number of short and long rings came through. If you answered any other time or listened in to anyones conversation it was called rubbernecking.
Later on we got a regular dial phone, but we were still on a party line, we had to be careful and listen before we dialed, or you could interrupt someones conversation. I still have a phone with a dial, the Grand kids are amazed they think it is an antique...but hey if the power goes out as it occasionally does when you live in the boonies I can still use that old phone.
My how times have changed...cordless phones always getting misplaced that never happened when we had phones with cords.
Cell phones...everyone has one except us. Why? We live in part of Minnesota where there must be a lot of Iron Ore in the surrounding hills, we cannot get cell phone reception here. We had one for a short time, but found it inconvenient to walk to the end of the driveway and stand in one particular spot to make a call.
Then came the Trac phone, I purchased one at Walmart in Detroit Lakes, thinking that when we were away from home we could use it. WRONG...you have to be able to get a signal to activate it and so it sits in the glove compartment. Those were perhaps the most expensive calls I never made.
I used to get quite confused with all the people talking on their cell phones in the grocery store...then I joined the group...I just pretend I have a cell phone in my hand, hold it up to my ear and talk to myself, heck I even answer myself sometimes and giggle!
Have you noticed that you hardly ever get to talk to a real person anymore? It is all automated press one or two, listen for options, listen for options again and select, then...your call is important to us...please wait...your call will be answered in the order it was received...your call is being monitored for quality control purposes and then some person says ..."Hi this is Happy, how may I help you?" Well you have to repeat your name, address and phone number again...then Happy says " Please wait while I access your information" THEN the music starts, well you can bet your life's savings that it is not going to be the Oldies. I want options for my music...don't give that classical junk that is supposed to sooth my frazzled nerves...I want to press one for "I don't get no satisfaction" press two for "Eve of Destruction" ...then I start praying that the power won't go out because I am on a cordless phone:)
********************
Update...we did get cell phones and in 2024 we gave up our land line. Far Guy got a Cell Phone first and I succumbed shortly there after. I am not fond of phones and occasionally I forget to turn mine back on after I turn it off! I often lay it down in one room and forget where it is until someone calls me...and not many people have my cell number!
The old switch board that I recalled as a child from the Osage Telephone Company was donated to the Hubbard County Historical Museum.
I am still aggravated by the press one or two and in some cases never talking to a real person.
Far Side
I LOVE this post and have the same (hate) dislike for automated operators. If and when I finally get a person, I mention that I know it is not their fault but please report that if I had talked to a real person at the beginning, I would have been on the phone 3-5 minutes with the answer I need rather than 15 minutes. At our age, those wasted minutes add up - - and cannot be regained here on Earth.
ReplyDeleteI remember the party lines. Grandma had one. Those things had some weight to them. Hers was a desktop model - - sat on a desk at the bottom of the stairs in the "good" (company) living room. They had a big farmhouse. Both grandparents had that nice living room that was not for kids. But it rarely got used. Guess that is why it stayed so pretty.
I am sure you remember some of the seats with an attached flat surface for the phone and a place to store the phone book on a shelf or behind cabinet doors under the shelf. Good memories you have posted!
We had a cell phone much earlier than most because my husband worked in the telecom industry - and because he traveled so much for work. It was a bag phone and stayed in his car. LOL I also remember our phone number from the 1950s in small town Minnesota. It was 495 - a squat black dial phone, and was on a party line with 1 other house on our block. That couple spoke German all the time on the phone so it was no fun at all to listen in. Our ring was 2 longs. We do have the old crank phone my husband remembers from his childhood on the farm here in SD.
ReplyDeleteThe switchboard operator in the flowered dress, just as one would picture! I love this post. I still remember my childhood phone number, we had the little black rotary dial phone with a short cord, I remember talking to boys on the phone with that phone cord stretched as far as possible for a little privacy in a house with six siblings. Back then, Ma Bell owned everything, and to get a second line was expensive, but my older brother rigged one in downstairs, so we had a phone to make prank calls on. My husband's great grandfather started a telephone company in a small town near here, and their family owned it until his dad sold it in the early 2000's. As a kid, it would be unbelievable to imagine FaceTime calls, or zoom calls...to see someone as you talk, no way!
ReplyDeleteNow even if it sounds like a real person, it’s not. My phone experiences was similar to yours. Larry got one first with work. We had to go outside and climb up crow mt. to use it. We wanted Laura to have a phone in college. She carried a thing that looked like a suitcase to make it work. It was called a bag phone. After I retired, Larry and I finally got a phone a piece. Before that we shared one. He had a pager with work too. Lots of changes.
ReplyDeleteI remember party lines! Our nosy neighbor was always listening in on everyone else’s conversations. RHill, TX
ReplyDeleteLove this. I interviewed for a telephone operator job when I was graduating from high school. One of the questions on the application was how long your period lasts a month and how many days are you incapacitated. I can remember when my kids got cell phones. They would have to stand on the front porch. We called it the phone booth.
ReplyDeleteWe had a two party line back in the early nineties. I hated it and the other party were not very nice people which made it all the more terrible. We got rid of our landline awhile back and I actually miss it. You made me laugh out loud at the fake talking in the store. Isn't that annoying when people all around you are having conversations with whomever, even in the restroom!
ReplyDeleteI remember our switch board ----she was my best friend's aunt. Many times I could ring the phone and get Ida. Then all I would say: Can I talk to my Daddy at the Sinclair Station. She would connect me right through. What a precious memory.
ReplyDeleteThis brought up so many memories. We also had a party line when I was a really little girl. We had one person on ours that could talk for hours and no one could get access to make a call. When we moved to Spokane in 1993 I started working as an administrative asst. to two financial guys, they had one of the first cell phones in the area. It was the size of a shoe box and sat between the front seat of the car when they visited clients out of town. It was so expensive to make calls that they asked me to never call them on it when they were out of town, they would call ME once a day at the end of the business day and ask if there was anything they absolutely needed to know before they returned. We had to try to keep it less than five minutes. Oh, how times have changed. Ha! Thanks for the memories.
ReplyDeleteBlessings and hugs,
Betsy
We had an old crank phone until I was about 6, and then got the rotary dial. Our phone ring was two long, one short on the party line. I still recall the old phone number mom and dad had - we didn't cancel the land line until dad went to the nursing home. My own phone numbers...not so much. :)
ReplyDeleteNow the cell phone is a mini computer, phone, and camera. I'd be lost without it.
Oh how I enjoyed reminiscing with you today. gosh. the party line was very annoying. I had an aunt that lived next door to us and she was forever picking up the phone to listen in. I will say.. she was of the nosey kind. glad you got that cell phone.. btw: I laughed at you pretending you were on the phone at the grocery store.. lol
ReplyDeletewhat a great summary of the development of phones! It's always supposed to get better. This waiting for a long time for somebody to answer your phone is not progress. The little old lady with the flowery dress got things done right away.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in rural Oregon, my phone history is like yours, and I share your modern phone aggravations. For a long time we had both cell phones and a land line. Finally we had good enough cell connection that just last year we gave up our land line. And we live in a big city suburb - with hills.
ReplyDeleteThe house we lived in for my first 5 years had a big wooden phone on the wall with a
ReplyDeletecrank ( probably much like yours). The next house had a wall phone too but it was black and had a dial. We were on a party line and I must confess to "listening in" on people when I was bored.
What a trip down memory lane! You made me smile more than once :)))
ReplyDelete