# Before Cellular Phones



## fureverywhere (Aug 25, 2015)

Probably one of the biggest changes that dates us is remembering what telephones used to be. I was on another site talking about the movie " Wall Street". That came out in 1987. There's a scene where Gordon Gecko is strolling on the beach with his cordless phone. His character is wealthy, so the phone was probably state of the art for that era. The phone was almost bread loaf sized.

Do you remember Princess Phones? Phone numbers that had letters? Party lines? My grandmother lived in small town Pennsylvania. You would pick up the phone, greet the operator and tell her who you wanted to talk to. If you were expecting an important call you had to stay near the phone, you couldn't pick it up and take it with you. Even into the 70's not many people had answering machines.

We take our cell phones for granted now. They record calls, take pictures, connect to the internet, text, do everything except fly...wait there's an app for that...would you have believed it in 1972?


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## SifuPhil (Aug 25, 2015)

I remember everything you mentioned except party lines - guess I'm too young to remember those.

But yes, the early "bricks" were hilariously huge and heavy - I had one of those.


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## AZ Jim (Aug 25, 2015)

fureverywhere said:


> Probably one of the biggest changes that dates us is remembering what telephones used to be. I was on another site talking about the movie " Wall Street". That came out in 1987. There's a scene where Gordon Gecko is strolling on the beach with his cordless phone. His character is wealthy, so the phone was probably state of the art for that era. The phone was almost bread loaf sized.
> 
> Do you remember Princess Phones? Phone numbers that had letters? Party lines? My grandmother lived in small town Pennsylvania. You would pick up the phone, greet the operator and tell her who you wanted to talk to. If you were expecting an important call you had to stay near the phone, you couldn't pick it up and take it with you. Even into the 70's not many people had answering machines.
> 
> We take our cell phones for granted now. They record calls, take pictures, connect to the internet, text, do everything except fly...wait there's an app for that...would you have believed it in 1972?


 Our home had one phone.  It was centrally located.  This was in Los Angeles just before WW2.  We had a three party line.  It was only used briefly and for important calls. Soon, all phones in Los Angeles were only allowed if you had a medical or wartime need for one.  Things have changed dramatically since those days.


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## Jackie22 (Aug 25, 2015)

I'm old enough to remember party lines, 2 shorts rings for the Jones', 1 short and 1 long for the Smith's....and so on.


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## NancyNGA (Aug 25, 2015)

Oh yeah, party lines.  We had a nosey neighbor who listened into all our conversations.


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## AZ Jim (Aug 25, 2015)

Those were the days. 

When I was a kid we played outside, a new kid in our block meant a new third baseman on our vacant lot ball park team.  A new kid moved in on the other side of our street.  This was when I was about 8.  The first thing we knew about Herbie was he had a horrible stuttering problem.  But he was a good kid and we liked him.  Kids didn't use phones then.  They were for adults but we usually had no need anyhow.  One day Herbie and my brother and I were talking about telephones and herbie asked if we knew our number.  Of course we did and told it to him.
Later, that evening my Dad answered the phone and with a big smile called me and said "It's for you Jimmy".  I picked it up and said hello and this is what I heard "bett, bett, betja, betja don, don't, betja don't know, betja, betja don't know who this, betja don't know who this is..... "    True story.


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## hollydolly (Aug 25, 2015)

Phil we're almost the same age I think and I remember Party lines very well, we had them right up until I was about 14. We shared the same line with the 2  neighbours. Unlike the later models  The  party phone had a button on the top as in the picture, and once you lifted the receiver you had to press the button to get a free line, if someone was using the phone , then you could hear their conversation..







When they phased out the party lines the phones were manufactured without the button...and then following the 746  design came the trimphone in the late 60's       which was similar in style to the American princess phone    ...although lots of people held onto the 746 for a long time, the trimphone became a 60's early 70's icon..


Ooops sorry I'm rambling on....I buy and collect retro phones so I get a bit carried away...  today they are highly collectable..


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 25, 2015)

We didn't have a phone until I was around 15, then it was a rotary dial that my mother said was for important family calls and emergencies only.  I had very limited minutes on it to call a friend.


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## Ken N Tx (Aug 26, 2015)

Wall phone in the kitchen, princess in the bedroom..

Question:
If you had an emergency at 2AM would your children answer their cell?? Would it be in another room or on their charger?? Do you really think that it would wake them??


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## Pappy (Aug 26, 2015)

In the forties, we had a six party line. If you wanted to know what was going on, just ask Mrs. Crumb. She listened in on all the calls. I think our ring was one long, three short.


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## Pappy (Aug 26, 2015)

Here's what it looked like. It was on the wall, in the kitchen. No selfies with this thing.


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## oldman (Aug 26, 2015)

Went to London last week. I never seen so many phone booths (boxes).


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## 911 (Aug 26, 2015)

When I first became a State Trooper, we had no cell phones and therefore we had to use pay phones to call ahead to arrange a visit with any witnesses that we were assigned to visit, interview and take a statement from. Normally, we would do this before leaving the barracks, but occasionally I would get a call from a detective asking me to visit a witness and take their statement while I was out on patrol. 

One day while making my appointed rounds, I received a call from one of the detectives asking me to visit a gentleman to take his statement of a fatal crash that he had witnessed. I tried and tried to get his phone number, but to no avail. Finally, I decided to just make the 30 mile drive to his home and hope that he would be home and willing to speak with me. After a 55 minute drive, I arrived at his home and immediately discovered why I could not find his phone number. He was Amish. 

I was very young then, but got an education that day.


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## applecruncher (Aug 26, 2015)

Interesting story, 911 (as all your stories are) 

I definitely remember party lines, and phones prefaced by 2-letter prefix. (DU2-3456).  All phones were black rotary dial in 1950s and 60s.  There was a long period of time when we had no phone and went to neighbors to use theirs.  I used to listen in on the party lines sometimes.  Usually just gossip.  My aunt and dad caught me doing it and made me hang up.  When I was 16 I got my own phone in my bedroom (birthday gift from mom).


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## hollydolly (Aug 26, 2015)

oldman said:


> Went to London last week. I never seen so many phone booths (boxes).
> 
> View attachment 20782



Compared to how many red phone boxes we had a few years ago there's relatively few now in the capital. Most have been replaced with Glass booths. Our here in the villages the Red boxes still reign supreme, although some of them have had the workings removed and are being used for other things...one village close by has turned one into a mini lending library like this one,   another a floral display.. many hundreds of people bought them and converted them into something useful in their homes or gardens...like this one..LOL... 

Still more had them shipped over to other countries and use them in their gardens or homes.....

This is one of  our village phone boxes...thank the lord not as dirty as the  inner City ones..


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## hollydolly (Aug 26, 2015)

Pappy said:


> Here's what it looked like. It was on the wall, in the kitchen. No selfies with this thing.



Ha!! Now Pappy that really IS old...LOL.... I've only ever seen those in museums, antique shops ... or on old feature films


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## Linda (Aug 26, 2015)

Jim and 911, I love both your stories.  Hollydolly, I want that red phone booth library!  It would go with the reddish/orange desk I'm sitting at right now.


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## hollydolly (Aug 26, 2015)

Linda you could have the whole matching set...the sofa and the cocktail bar.. :fun:


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## applecruncher (Aug 26, 2015)

NancyNGA said:


> Oh yeah, party lines. *We had a nosey neighbor who listened into all our conversations*.



That was ME! When I was about 10 - 11 yrs old.   But I got caught.


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## NancyNGA (Aug 26, 2015)

applecruncher said:


> That was ME! When I was about 10 - 11 yrs old.   But I got caught.



Glad you're back AC.


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## hollydolly (Aug 27, 2015)

applecruncher said:


> That was ME! When I was about 10 - 11 yrs old.   But I got caught.



:laugh:


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## Shalimar (Aug 27, 2015)

I have a beautiful red replica which holds my landline. So cool.


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## applecruncher (Aug 27, 2015)

Holly, this trimline phone became popular in the 60s/70s and beyond:





I hate this type of prissy phone: layful:


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## hollydolly (Aug 27, 2015)

AC the ''trimphone''  as in my picture was a particular angular design popular  during the 60's and 70's and a little into the 80's  here...but after that came all sorts of other designs.. cordless mainly..and the 'trimphone'' which was corded and had to be plugged into the wall  is now a sought after retro item ...and lately this design has been copied by the designer market although now updated into  digital form and in pastel colours to use mainly ornamentally in the home


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## Manatee (Sep 3, 2015)

In the 30s and 40s we had a phone (one) in the dining room.  It did not have a dial, you told the operator what number you wanted and she connected you.  A few years later they gave us a phone with a dial.  You didn't own the phone, they remained phone company property.  Area codes came after that.  I tried dialing someone in a different code and it didn't work.  Some time later they got our area working.


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