Do you remember "Number please."??
When I was little, like 3 or 4 years old, I can remember picking up the telephone in my parents living room. This was a couple of years before telephones had dials on them! 
When I picked up the phone the telephone operator located downtown would say "Number please." Than she would stick the wire from our house into the persons plug we were trying to call down at the telephone switch board. But since I was a little kid, instead of telling the operator my grammas number I would say "I want to talk to my gramma." What was truly amazing was that I had two gramma's in town but depending on the time of day I wanted to talk to my gramma the telephone operator always seemed to know which gramma I wanted to talk to, Bessie or Minnie!! I don't remember them ever connecting me with the wrong gramma!!
This is known as the magic of small towns!!
This is also known as "Damn I'm old!!"
When I picked up the phone the telephone operator located downtown would say "Number please." Than she would stick the wire from our house into the persons plug we were trying to call down at the telephone switch board. But since I was a little kid, instead of telling the operator my grammas number I would say "I want to talk to my gramma." What was truly amazing was that I had two gramma's in town but depending on the time of day I wanted to talk to my gramma the telephone operator always seemed to know which gramma I wanted to talk to, Bessie or Minnie!! I don't remember them ever connecting me with the wrong gramma!!This is known as the magic of small towns!!
This is also known as "Damn I'm old!!"
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I remember 2 shorts a long for my ring. My favorite was a radio phone number WE577Grayhound. 0 -
Yes, that is one of the things important to remember when growing up in a small town.
Nobody what you think you might get away with . . . most everybody knew your mom and dad . . . and they would find out eventually - usually before you even got home.0 -
Yup. If you got a spanking from the teacher, you didn't run home to bitch about the teacher, you kept your mouth SHUT!!! If/when your parents found out, the spanking you got at home would be five times worse than what the teacher gave you!!! 0 -
dreher wrote:Yup. If you got a spanking from the teacher, you didn't run home to bitch about the teacher, you kept your mouth SHUT!!! If/when your parents found out, the spanking you got at home would be five times worse than what the teacher gave you!!!
same thing with neighborhood parents, they would smack you butt and send you home, then you would get it again for acting up at the neighbors..... not sure how we all lived through it0 -
I remember party lines. 0 -
hillbille wrote:dreher wrote:Yup. If you got a spanking from the teacher, you didn't run home to bitch about the teacher, you kept your mouth SHUT!!! If/when your parents found out, the spanking you got at home would be five times worse than what the teacher gave you!!!
same thing with neighborhood parents, they would smack you butt and send you home, then you would get it again for acting up at the neighbors..... not sure how we all lived through it
We were toughened up by drinking from the water hose, riding in the back of the pickup, not wearing helmets on bicycles, and no seatbelts in the cars - among other things.0 -
still got the wall crank phone that was in this house when i was a kid....like new and friend found me a phone book from the early 40's ....crank...give me Bob or #42........ 0 -
Younger than that but I do remember learning my grandma's number out in California as "Los Angeles, OL-3xxx". Only thing was I had no idea as to how to dial it, had to call the operator. "This is weird, but this is the only way I know grandma's number. Can you connect me or tell me how to dial it?". 0 -
WAAAAY before my time. I do remember 4 digit phone numbers. Ours was 9923. 0 -
Douglas County CO. The ranchers had their own local phone system- used the top wire of the barbed wire fences to link the ranches in a big circle that linked to a phone in the newspaper office in Castle Rock- who COULD connect you into the Bell System to call someone else. Ultimate party line.
Folks used to joke about the old lady that talked so fast she knocked all the barbs off the wire.0 -
Nope but in 1960 we went from a party line to a semi party line with only 2 others on it. We were in tall cotton then. Sad that today a lot of young people can't figure out a rotary phone, can't read or write cursive and have never turned a wrench. I think the dumbing down of todays youth can be linked to cell (smart?) phones. All the knowledge in the world at your fingertips but they are to busy tweeting about what they had for dinner or the latest made up social outrage. You know - kinda like we do here Bob0 -
Bob, we have been losing some skills and gaining others since the beginning of the renaissance. While my grandfather was a stone carver, who hand cut corner stone engraving and shaped blocks, there is little need for that skill any longer. Tombstones are cut by machines now. I think the current round goes back to parents of my generation, the baby boomers, who wanted their kids to have everything they themselves did not, and wanted their kids to have every entitlement whether earned or not. 0 -
Nope but I remember having a Dime in my wallet to call on a pay phone.
I haven't seen a pay phone in years outside of a Airport or Rest area.0 -
"Soura, this is Andy at the courthouse, get me Barney in Mt. Pilot, he drove Aunt Bee to her sister's place."
https://mayberry.fandom.com/wiki/Sarah0 -
I remember four digit phone numbers, replaced in a year or two by five digit phone numbers. I found some old business cards back when my grandfather had a garage/gas station. He had a two digit phone number.
Now my wife will talk to her friends in Russia while they are looking at each other (face time??)! In the early spring she will walk around our yard showing these friends our early spring flowers while they will walk outside in Russia and show her a foot of snow!
We have been married 21 years. Hot Momma is totally Americanized. She is a sad excuse for a Russian after 21 years living in S.C. She can't take cold weather anymore and she can't hold her vodka!0 -
I remember the party lines at my Grandmothers house in the country and all the old hens would be listening in so my brother would call me from the farm and ask I could bring some corn when My folks and myself came out to the farm
I would ask why and he would say to feed all the Hens on the line. :shock: :P0 -
I remember two shorts and a long for our 'ring' on a party line with 3-4 neighbors.
When you heard someone elses 'ring' on the phone, you could listen in ... aka 'rubberneck' if you were nosey.
Of course, they could also listen in on your phone calls.
For an emergency, you could 'cut in' and ask them to hang up so you could make a call. 8-)
Number please .. before my time and I thought I was old!
That was when the phone calls had some privacy. Today the government an listen and tape every phone conversation you have on a land line or cell phone. :twisted:0 -
I worked In a small town for 6 months once. I remember the first day I drove into town a guy had a big bull saddled and was riding it down the main street.
Everyone waved at each other, it got to the point I wanted to get one of those big foam hands they use at football and other games and just attach it to my steering wheel and give the wheel a little twist each time someone drove by. I hired a guy from town and he told me no one uses their turn signals because everyone knew where you were going0 -
Quick&Dead wrote:I remember two shorts and a long for our 'ring' on a party line with 3-4 neighbors.
When you heard someone elses 'ring' on the phone, you could listen in ... aka 'rubberneck' if you were nosey.
Of course, they could also listen in on your phone calls.
For an emergency, you could 'cut in' and ask them to hang up so you could make a call. 8-)
Number please .. before my time and I thought I was old!
That was when the phone calls had some privacy. Today the government an listen and tape every phone conversation you have on a land line or cell phone. :twisted:
You mean the govt heard what I called the last robocall medicare supplement sales person? Bob0 -
spasmcreek wrote:still got the wall crank phone that was in this house when i was a kid....like new and friend found me a phone book from the early 40's ....crank...give me Bob or #42........
I have my grandparents crank phone in my entryway. They had it in their general store & their customers would answer it if their ring came in. There were a lot of people on that line & you said what you had to say & got off. You didn't tie it up for hours gabbing.0 -
We didn't have a phone until we moved to town in '63.
Our number was 8061 -- and the area code was 806. Every now and then our phone would ring several short rings when someone tried to direct dial a long distance call.
When I went to college and needed to call home (collect from my college dorm) the operator asked me for my town's prefix and I'd never heard of that so she had to look it up for me.
Now we have to use area code even for local calls :roll:0 -
BobJudy wrote:Quick&Dead wrote:I remember two shorts and a long for our 'ring' on a party line with 3-4 neighbors.
When you heard someone elses 'ring' on the phone, you could listen in ... aka 'rubberneck' if you were nosey.
Of course, they could also listen in on your phone calls.
For an emergency, you could 'cut in' and ask them to hang up so you could make a call. 8-)
Number please .. before my time and I thought I was old!
That was when the phone calls had some privacy. Today the government an listen and tape every phone conversation you have on a land line or cell phone. :twisted:
You mean the govt heard what I called the last robocall medicare supplement sales person? Bob
Do you really care?0 -
I remember waiting hours for the party line to clear so you could make a call, then wondering who else was listening in. 0 -
Not for domestic calls. Grew up with a party line as did many others in rural America in the 60s.
Definitely remember when international calls had to go through an operator. May still be the case is some remote parts of the world, but I haven't run into it for over 20 years.0 -
Yep, would call my grandfather's business. Pickup phone, Operator would answer saying Number Please and I'd say 689. Yes, 689 was the actual number back then.
No area or other codes, phone was in rural Oklahoma. My grandparents had a party line at their rural small farm and I'd call from "town".0 -
In 1967-69 we still had a crank phone. The line was stretched on tall hedge posts. Any call you made had to be through the old operator "Fanny." You would crank the phone and maybe she would answer, ALLO! , wait a minute. Once my folks called and the 90 year old lady across the road answered our ring and told them "They're not home, I can see the garage door is open and the car is gone." 0
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