Creak. Groan.
Some things make me feel so old:
Please insert more coins: Payphone’s future is on the line
I grew up with an massive old wooden box attached to the wall, with a mouth piece to speak into and an ear piece resting on a cradle on the side. There was a hand operated crank on the side of the box. The phone was on a party-line with four or five households on the line. To dial someone else on the line, one used the crank to ring a code of long and short rings - for example 2 long and 1 short. I don't remember what our code was, but I do remember that you could hear anyone's phone ringing, if they were on the same line, and were only supposed to lift up the receiver if your code was ringing. You could lift up the receiver (ear piece) and listen in on your neighbours' conversations, or, if need be, interrupt them and tell them to hang up because you needed to make some sort of urgent call. I don't remember when that changed, but the next big innovation was a rotary dial and then push-button. Ooooo. Progress!!
I also remember when payphones needed only 10 cents to operate.
But there are some things older than I am:
50 million year old fossils found under Brisbane roadworks
Please insert more coins: Payphone’s future is on the line
"Already a quaint relic in many parts of Canada, the old-fashioned payphone could become even harder to find after the country’s telecommunications regulator rejected Bell Canada’s request to double the cost of a call to $1.
The phone company asked for the price hike because it’s getting harder to make a profit from payphones as more consumers carry cellphones in their pockets and communicate via texts and instant messages. An average payphone took in $1,000 only five years ago; that number is closer to $700 a year now."
I grew up with an massive old wooden box attached to the wall, with a mouth piece to speak into and an ear piece resting on a cradle on the side. There was a hand operated crank on the side of the box. The phone was on a party-line with four or five households on the line. To dial someone else on the line, one used the crank to ring a code of long and short rings - for example 2 long and 1 short. I don't remember what our code was, but I do remember that you could hear anyone's phone ringing, if they were on the same line, and were only supposed to lift up the receiver if your code was ringing. You could lift up the receiver (ear piece) and listen in on your neighbours' conversations, or, if need be, interrupt them and tell them to hang up because you needed to make some sort of urgent call. I don't remember when that changed, but the next big innovation was a rotary dial and then push-button. Ooooo. Progress!!
I also remember when payphones needed only 10 cents to operate.
But there are some things older than I am:
50 million year old fossils found under Brisbane roadworks
Labels: Aussies, evolution, geologic time, Memory Lane, technology
posted by Louise at 10:59 pm
4 Comments:
Dammit! I accidently deleted you comment, Dave, but in answer to your question, I do remember Dick Tracy's wrist phone, but not his cell phone.
(For some reason, blogger is telling me "accidently" is spelled wrong. Must be those damn yanks and their weird spelling again.)
*your* comment. Sheesh!!
Nah, Tracy's wrist radio was his cellphone.
BTW, Dictionary.com gives both "accidently" and "accidentally" as correct spellings. That's another "tom-A-toes", "tom-AH-toes" thing. Professor Higgins and I have amiably agreed to disagree on which is preferable. :-)
I remember one job I had that involved a lot of traveling. We (the folks who also traveled) had an clunker of an old cell phone that we took with us on our road trips. It looked like and was a hefty as a brick. And that doesn't see to be that long ago, either.
Creak. Groan.
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