DISQUS

vanderleun · 1 year ago

That's what ya get for being younger than springtime, kid.

vanderleun · 1 year ago

You might be interested to know that they also had round things that you spun and went click, click, click.

Plus when you dialed out 411 a person answered. Amazing. And the average monthly bills were less than $20.

Michael Masnick · 1 year ago

Tim, you just made me feel really old for knowing all of those things... I still remember, as a kid, my dad still referring to our home phone number starting as AR1 rather than 271...

Tim Lee · 1 year ago

Mike, if it makes you feel better, my fiance is even younger than me and she knew those things as well, so maybe I was just oblivious when I was a kid.

Larry Sheldon · 1 year ago

Cheap phone bills? It depends.

When my parents has saved up enough money to afford Dad calling his parents in Madera, from Glendale he dialed 110 and tole the operator he was calling "Madera 417J". The "J" told the Madera operator how to do the ring thing (one long two short? I don't remember) because there were *four* parties on the line. Out of town in the rural areas there might be a lot more than 4.

Even after dialing came in there were lots of places that had way more than two parties on the line.

And yes, the letters were put on the dial for the Prefix or Exchange code.

And some dials had a "Z" on the zero hole because the precursor of "800" service was ZEnith service which you had to dial the operator for. I wonder if ZEnith 9000 will still get you the nearest California Highway Patrol office.

Richard Bennett · 1 year ago

That round thing is one of them modern conveniences. When I made my first phone call, we didn't have 'em. You picked up the phone and a lady said "number ple-yuzz" and you articulated.

Calling the Washington prefix was challenging for those of us with Yankee and British accents in the South, because she interpreted "double you eh" as "UU yee haa" instead of "WA". The phrase she was looking for was "dubya eh"

Gary McGath · 1 year ago

When AT&T; went to direct dialing with area codes, many people complained. They WANTED the human contact with an operator, even if it was less convenient.

NoFreeLunch · 1 year ago

They didn't have email back then either, Tim LOL