Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

NoFreeLunch — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:02:11 -0000

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

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Gary McGath — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:56:18 -0000

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.

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Richard Bennett — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:59:08 -0000

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"

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Larry Sheldon — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:36:29 -0000

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.

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Tim Lee — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:16:19 -0000

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.

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

Michael Masnick — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:11:25 -0000

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...

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

vanderleun — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:38:24 -0000

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.

Re: Things I Never Knew about Telephones

vanderleun — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:35:59 -0000

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