Rotary Phone Challenge

[JLives]

My Mom was a fan of novelty phones. For several years my only phone looked like a king can beer sitting on an end table. When it rang my high school friends were very confused.

[normaM]

some people collect them
I still know the phone number when I was a kid
I like rotary phones.. hmm, maybe I should start collecting them
I'd like a vintage Lobster one, pls and TY
How much is Dali's lobster phone worth?
The National Galleries of Scotland announced Monday that it raised £853,000 ($1.1 million) to buy a white Salvador Dalí “Lobster Telephone” so the iconic sculpture, commissioned by British poet and leading patron of the Surrealist art movement Edward James, could stay in the United Kingdom.

[Fancy]

Are there any phones still hung on walls? I used to hide in the closet and yap as the cord was so long it hung to the floor. Yes it was a rotary phone.

[ferri]

Hanging up on someone when on a rotary phone was such a beautiful thing. *SLAM*

[Catsumi]

Order 10 pizzas for the neighbours.

No caller ID back then either. (Lucky me)

[Fancy]

Hanging up on someone when on a rotary phone was such a beautiful thing. *SLAM*

Oh that brings back memories lol.

[BC Landlord]

And that coiled handset cord, it drove me nuts when entangled. My father bought a phone with an extra long one. It took me longer to untangle it than a call itself.

[Fancy]

Us kids would get handed the cord to untangle.

[BC Landlord]

Us kids would get handed the cord to untangle.

Yes, and the longer the cord it had, the shorter the distance from the phone you could lift the handle.

[Catsumi]

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[BC Landlord]

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How true!

Line ups at phone booths. Knocking on the glass by those in hurry ..

[Catsumi]

Ha! Today telephone booths would be housing the homeless, but



Remember when the alphabet letters were almost as important as the numbers? Plenty of ads on radio yelped or sing-songy jingled “just dial 423-soap for all your cleaning needs”?

[my5cents]

Ha! Today telephone booths would be housing the homeless, but



Remember when the alphabet letters were almost as important as the numbers? Plenty of ads on radio yelped or sing-songy jingled “just dial 423-soap for all your cleaning needs”?

I actually pre-date the rotary phone. Our phone, attached to the kitchen wall, had a flat plate where the dial went. (City of Vancouver). To make a call you picked up the receiver and waited until the operator said "Number Please".

Letters were important,,,, all the exchanges were letters "Dexter" DE, "Hastings" HA, "Tatlow" TA, "Hemlock" HE,,,etc. Ours was DE0301R. We said it "Dexter oh, three, oh, one, R". Then things changed when BC Tel came and installed a rotary dial in the early 50's and our number changed to "Hemlock 3-6942" (HE3-6942). On the dial, the "HE" was obviously the numbers "43", slowly just number were used 433-6942. In some small towns when calling from inside the small town to someone else in the town the first three digits could be left out.

When they brought in the emergency number, they decided on "911" in Canada, unlike the UK where they choses "999". It was decided that "911" was better because on a rotary dial, "9's" took longer to dial. So "911" only had one "9" to dial.

My mom was a telephone operator in the early 50's. Lot's of funny things were played. Some sort of alarm when someone put too much money in the phone. She'd listen in to hear a husband phoning his wife on a pay phone from a "distant city". Actually he was in Vancouver. A female would continually interrupt the call between the husband and wife telling him to put more money in the phone, it was obviously the girlfriend, playing operator standing beside him.

[Catsumi]

Delightful story!

Rural Sk had something similar but plagued with party lines.

[my5cents]

Yes, we had a party line (just one). I remember having a "private line" was a status symbol. Eventually they did away with them.

Even had a neighbor who refused to have a phone. He was a lineman for BC Electric, had a wood stove and furnace, burned old hydro poles he chopped up.

He slowly bought homes in the neighborhood as they became available, I think he was really quite wealthy from all his savings and buying of property.

I remember playing on the phone (ya I know, a delinquent). We'd phone someone a half a dozen times for a couple of hours asking for the same named person each time, lets say "Bob". Then the last call was "Hi this is Bob, any messages ?"