Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Dave Seitz · Mega Poster

I don't think so

Lost in the 60s · President

It's a "collectable" now...

Actually they do still work on the system. I have one in the basement as a backup to the portables when the power goes out and to test the lines when they have a bad connection. The old phone will buzz where the digitals don't.

Back in Black · Active Member

We had a green one when I was growing up. LOL Remember party lines?

John D · 2K+ Club

My butt-set still has a selector switch for "pulse/tone" dialing...

If memory serves the rotary/pulse phones will still work on the network, but finding a CO that still has "POTS" (plain old telephone service) is getting rare!

We has a party line AND a rotary phone in the house when I was a kid/teenager, and our number was TA5-5809 (or if you want to get really old-school - Talcott5-5809 - Talcott was our areas CO)... I remember "power-dialing" radio stations to try and win stuff. No matter how hard you'd back-drag the dial it would only go so fast!!

Lost in the 60s · President

John D wrote:
My butt-set still has a selector switch for "pulse/tone" dialing...

If memory serves the rotary/pulse phones will still work on the network, but finding a CO that still has "POTS" (plain old telephone service) is getting rare!

We has a party line AND a rotary phone in the house when I was a kid/teenager, and our number was TA5-5809 (or if you want to get really old-school - Talcott5-5809 - Talcott was our areas CO)... I remember "power-dialing" radio stations to try and win stuff. No matter how hard you'd back-drag the dial it would only go so fast!!

We had the same thing....wall mount rotary and a party line. IV4-XXXX, can't remember the rest.

As for dialing the radio stations, we would dial the whole number and then hold the rotor down on the last number until they said to call. That way the dial only had to return one and the call went thru. My sister did get a few prizes that way.

Dashboard probably remembers the ones they had to crank the magneto to work...

Dan Williams · Active Member

When we first moved to Forest City, you only had to dial the last four digits and it would go through. I was about 10 years old (about 50 years ago) and still have the same # now. Keep thinking about dropping the land line but how would all the telemarketers find me? About the only calls I get anymore on that line are from them.

Also remember haveing a party line with 4-5 neighbors. It was deemed extremely rude to use the phone on Sunday afternoons because that was the day the old maid lady across the street talked to her sister all afternoon.

-- Edited by Dan Williams on Sunday 2nd of March 2014 03:29:18 PM

Derek69SS · Founding Member

I think you can still answer on a phone like that, but cannot dial out???

66 RAT · Vice President

Since we're going down memory lane here, when I was a kid and would want to call home from a friend's house, I would pick up the phone and wait for the operator to say "number please?" I would respond with "4 3 8 please." The operator would say "thank you" and then put the call through. (The switchboard was probably much like the one Lily Tomlin's character -- Ernestine -- used on "Laugh In." Check this out if you might get a chuckle out of one of her sketches -- Lily Tomlin as Ernestine.)

My uncle and aunt lived on a farm -- to call them we would ask for "2 7 F 3 1" -- the "F" was because it was a farm number. The people in town who had party lines had an "R" or a "J" somewhere in their phone number. I don't think those letters stood for anything in particular.

The farm phones were on party lines also. When my uncle or aunt wanted to call one of their neighbors, they had to do so with a series of long and short turns of the crank on the side of the wall-mounted phone. Each neighbor had a unique sequence of longs and shorts. Everyone would hear the sequence and would pick up the phone if it was their "number." Of course, everyone knew all of their neighbors' numbers and could "rubber neck" if they wanted to listen in on the call.