In the Spirit of Recent Posts

[digitS']

And, because I'll probably lose track of this after a couple of days when it will be exactly, 100 years .

Transcontinental, Baby!

I used to have one of these on the wall of my home .

digitS'

 

[897tgigvib]

o by goo'ness!

My ole uncle matt even at the end of his life, did not like telephones. he always hollered into them. a few quick sentences later he'd say, "here! talk to your aunt val! i gotta go do chores."

1915 or so was about the time twin bridges got all telephoned up. somewhere around then. one of several vivians in a row were the operators. for some reason all 3 of them had the same first name!

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I'm turning 60 soon, but i remember party lines and when our number in Amarillo began with an OL8-xxxx

 

[Smart Red]

We had a three-way party line for a short time. I wasn't old enough to be making many calls, but I remember Mom complaining about one of the others on the party line. Never had to go through an operator though.

I remember getting into trouble very often for answering the phone at Uncle John's house. They had a line with different rings for each party. I was used to picking up the phone if it rang. There I had the operator tell me to hang up quite a bit, and the family wasn't too happy with me either.

 

[so lucky]

My grandpa used to listen in to a couple of old ladies gossiping on the party line. He even wrote down some recipes that one was giving the other. This was probably back in the mid to late 50s.

 

[digitS']

I was in a doctor's building this morning.

An old couple came in. It's likely that they were well past 80.

The old fella was carrying a tablet. No, I don't mean a pad of writing paper. Wi-Fi hotspot there in the building ...

digitS'

 

[AMKuska]

My son doesn't know how to use a computer that's not touch screen. -.- I didn't think technology had changed that much since I was little!

 

[digitS']

Oh, @AMKuska ...

My father was born in 1918. Imagine.

Television was and partly remains the great step forward.

Steve

 

[Lavender2]

And, because I'll probably lose track of this after a couple of days when it will be exactly, 100 years .

Transcontinental, Baby!

I used to have one of these on the wall of my home .

digitS'

Whoa, you are old!

My son came home from a friends house, he was abt 8 or 9, and was all excited about their phone that had this round thing with holes in it, but it takes forever to dial a number.

I think they should have kept the term 'party line', it sounds a whole lot more fun than 'conference call'.

 

[digitS']

Except when they lived in town, my parents always had a party line while I was at home. As many as 4 parties ... ring once, ring twice - shoot, I don't remember how they sorted it out ...

Mostly, I remember that the Kadlevek family lived down the road from us. They were from Czechoslovakia. Nice old father with a fish pond, 2 grown daughters knew Czech, I didn't ... but I was curious. They also knew English. Eavesdropping one day, boy did I get yelled at!

Another party - I can remember Mom getting up at night and putting pillows under and over the phone so we could sleep! Disconnecting or turning off the ring wasn't easy. Lift the receiver and you disconnected the neighborhood!

Steve