How Old Are You

[Beekeeper]

Do you remember when at the range the only telephone was in the office?
What did we do before texting?
How were we able to live without a cell phone?
What would you do if it all stopped?

Yesterday I had an accident because some lady was too busy texting to see the stop light and felt it was my fault for not understanding how important it was for her to send and receive vital info while driving.
She was so busy texting and talking on her phone she didn't even have time for the policeman who gave her a ticket.
Was more worried about being behind on her schedule and how was she going to ketch up without a vehicle.

What do you think would happen if it all went away and we had to do it the old fashoned way?


Jim

[Lead Fred]

Do you remember when at the range the only telephone was in the office?
What did we do before texting?
How were we able to live without a cell phone?
What would you do if it all stopped?


Range? No phone, no range, the Cascade mountains was our range

Dont know never had to text. "Hello" still works if you want to talk to me

If you want to talk to me, you can call me at home.
We do have one of those new fangled answering machines if Im out shooting
Be very happy, people would get to be people again.

Proud Member of the Howdy Doody club

My Fav Mouseketeer

http://www.originalmmc.com/images/Annette/Annette%201968.jpg

We got to say goodbye to REAL AMERICA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNK5KzI48mM&feature=player_embedded#!

[cajun shooter]

It would go back to those sweet days of our youth. In my freshman year of high school I had my first real girlfriend. My family was poor and we never had a home phone the entire time I was growing up. I would walk to the Post Office at night and call her from a pay phone for the charge of one nickel. On the other side of the coin is the fact that many lives has been saved because of our modern inventions. We have to take the bad with the good. How many people have been saved because they had a phone. I am a former cop and remember you had to drive miles in the rual areas to find a phone. I also hate the fact that people are driving and using these phones. I have one but if I need to call I pull over.

[Philngruvy]

I am only 59 YO so I have seen some of the evolution that communication has taken. I truly love the internet with the ability to get information almost instantly, to find and buy articles that I desire so swiftly and easily, but on the other hand, I sometimes wish that things were not so complex. That things were like it was in the good ole days.

[Bad Water Bill]

Just old enough to remember my cousin pulling out a cord at the phone office and plugging it in saying HI Milly who do you want to talk to. Hold on. Pulling out the matching cord plugging it in and the call was completed.

I also remember when Minnesota had some of the tallest mountains around.:)

[Beekeeper]

I am not sure but think I missed dying by a fraction of a second.
I was able to hit the brakes or she would have hit me in the drivers side door.
As it was she took out most of the engine compartment and the entire right hand front of her van Police said from the sideways skid marks of my car she was doing about 60 in a 25 mile per hour school zone.
I'm ok but what if it had been a school kid there instead of my car?

Part I am mad about is she still after all the fuss was over thought it was my fault and didn't understand why she was ticketed!

Oh well I will get a new Mini out of the deal.
Hey mine was an 06 with 4000 miles on it ( completely worn out you know)


Jim

[Hardcast416taylor]

Old enough to remember the oak crank wall phone we finally got on the farm. I still remember the operator`s name was Marge and our number was Ring 213 on our party line. It would really be an endurance to try and stuff that big hunk of oak into your pocket and lug it around just so you could call somebody to ask "What`cha doing"?Robert

[462]

There have always been self-absorbed, irresponsible, disrespectful, and discourteous people who expect others to look out for them, and the cell-phone has made them and their socially irritating and potentially dangerous traits visible for everyone else to see.

In California, it is unlawful to use a cell-phone while driving. Since the law went into effect, I've seen no decrease in the number of people using one while driving. The state could erase its $20 billion deficit if the law were to be vigorisly enforced...along with the anti loud car stereo law.

Beekeeper, glad to hear that you were not injured.

[badgeredd]

One thing that bothers me is there are so many out there that have the same attitude as the gal that hit you. Seems to me Mom and Dad didn't teach their young one what responsible behavior is. Technology is a great slave but a poor master.

Edd

[Guesser]

We got a telephone in 1949, Mountain Bell ran the line in about 3 miles to the ranch house. Utah Power finally ran a power line in to the ranch in 1950. The house was wired for electricity in the 20's and my grandfather installed a Delco Plant in the shed outside so we had some DC electricity before 1950. Mostly we used kerosene lamps and lanterns in the house and both barns. We had indoor plumbing because the house was gravity fed water down off the mountain to the north of the ranch. The house is still in use and the plumbing and electrical has been updated. Eastern Idaho.

[Randall]

I remember my grandparents getting a phone way out in rural OK. It was a party line and us kids were not allowed to touch it.There were always women talking on it and if you needed to call out you had to ask them to use it politely.Had to been my aunts or cousins and you were never rude because you would be found out and punished accordingly(usually a limber peach switch applied liberally). If you held your ear real close to the phone you could hear them talk,but you made sure you didn't get caught or the peach switch came out.
My kids got me my first cell phone because I had a habit of disappearing for days at a time on my motorcycle after I got divorced.They would come by my house and call and I would not be home.So they got together and bought me phone. I would usually leave it off and call them at night to let them know I was ok.,but the idea was to get away for a while.

[Echo]

Beekeeper, the person who hit you has a bad case of cranial fecalosis (an infestation of fecal matter in the brain) and prognosis is poor - probably can't be cured. Glad you are OK.

[sqlbullet]

I could do with less fast pace and less technology. Except this site and my reloading bookmarks. I have learned more here than I think I ever would have going to the library.

[RobS]

What do you think would happen if it all went away and we had to do it the old fashoned way?


Jim

I would like for people to just function with common sense...................today people just don't click the way they use to (responsible, collected, and respectful). I work with college students and these (many of them) kids just do not get it. It seems like everything is given to them and they haven't had to work for anything. "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going", is where I came from and we just put our head down and worked through everything. Now it's more like this, "When the tough gets going, stop and complain about it and find someone else to figure it out".

I had a kid the other day texting while I was trying to talk with him.............I told him to simply come back when he had time to sit down and talk with me. He looked confused and I told him that I would not compete with his phone as what I had to tell him was information he would need to become something, somebody one day.

[Freightman]

I am a school crossing guard and see the "phone" bit all the time, they can't see and talk at the same time I swear. More than once I have had to pull children back because the driver was on the phone and can't see a red florescent flag or vest. It surely isn't because I am so little I am over 6' and 250# and I am 71.

[excavman]

Lead Fred Said ------

"Range? No phone, no range, the Cascade mountains was our range

Dont know never had to text. "Hello" still works if you want to talk to me

If you want to talk to me, you can call me at home.
We do have one of those new fangled answering machines if Im out shooting
Be very happy, people would get to be people again.

Proud Member of the Howdy Doody club

My Fav Mouseketeer



We got to say goodbye to REAL AMERICA"


I was madly in love with Annette, heart broken when she got too old to be a mousekateer, but I got over it. I remember when Skyking had a Cessna 310 instead of the Twin Beech, My Dad had an old Aeronica Champ, it got smashed by a tornado in '68 when I was in 'Nam.

Larry

[frankenfab]

We had a rotary dial phone and were on a party line when I was a kid.......

[mag44uk]

If its any consolation the mobile "problem" is just as bad here in the UK.
There have been a couple of high profile accidents involving the the death of folk and the subsequent jailing of the "killer". Driving and using one is illegal here.
You see plenty of people using them though.
No phone call is that important,especially when driving.
The woman in the OP`s message is a selfish bi**h.
Glad you werent hurt.
Tony

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

We had a rotary dial phone and were on a party line when I was a kid.......

WOW, I had forgotten, but . . . Me too!

I only have a cell phone because my job (local school) gives me one to carry for their use . . . illegal to use while driving a bus . . . I let it ring, and if it is convenient I stop and answer it, or I let them leave a message, and I get it the next stop . . .

[Blammer]

in the paper today there were two people killed in a head on car wreck.

One was 81 and the other was 18. The 18yr old had to cross a divided median section of concrete in the road to hit the on coming car.

No alcohol or drugs found in the 18yr olds system. I'd bet the young driver was texting and lost control.

tradgic.

I remember before cell phones. I also never remember needing to talk to anyone unless I was at home and a phone was handy.

[GLL]

Lead Fred:

I got to "slow dance" with Annette on the Wink Martindale TV show (many, many years ago) ! My girlfriend at the time was not at all happy ! My chest still has a smile on it ! :) :)

http://www.originalmmc.com/images/Annette/Annette%201968.jpg

Jerry

[Tom W.]

Thanks. You just HAD to tell us that.....


Remember Penny from Sky King?

[old turtle]

462 you are exactly correct.

I was driving down the interstate in town, when I looked in the rear view mirror and the woman behind me was talking on her cell phone and taking other hand off the wheel to provide emphasis. I got off at the next exit.

It's all about me syndrome.

[old turtle]

Tom

How can I forget Penny.

[EOD3]

Once upon a time, long long ago...

Telephones, big black things with a dial on the front, party lines, telephone numbers with words in them.

Vehicles without ignition keys with "tromp starters". Gasoline for $.09 a gallon and no such thing as self serve.

And on and on...

[44fanatic]

Without the technology, I think we would plan better and communicate more thoroughly.

[stubshaft]

I am old enough to remember when phone numbers in my neck of the woods were 4 digits long.

[sundog]

Air raid drills in elementary school. "Lassie" in black and white on Sunday evenings. "Sky King" on Saturday mornings. Black phones with no dial and no curly cord that belonged to the telephone company, had to tell the operator the number you wanted. Telephone trucks were OD green. Studebaker family sedan. Dad drove a Model A to work. Hurricanes without names. Milk and bakery goods delivered to the door by very nice delivery MEN. Doctor visits and house calls that were paid for by Mom and Dad at the time of service. Crank gas pumps. Steam locomotives. Diesel equipment with jimmy engines for starting. The first air conditioned grocery store in town. The old Madison Square Gardens. The flying wing and Sputnik. Polio and iron lungs. Pocket transistor radio. Indian head pennies, Mercury dimes and quarters, and half dollars in circular. The large two dollar bills. Silver certificates.

[Harter66]

Clearly I'm a young pup being just 43 . I grew up with party lines and rotary phones too. I remember saying good-bye to the family and counting the disconnects at all the exchancges from Fallon Nv to Ridgecrest Ca . Usually 4-6 but 11 once.

I've seen plenty of phone offenders , I'm so glad I live in the sticks (80 miles to Wal-Mart).

Glad you're not hurt.

[Uncle Grinch]

Air raid drills in elementary school. "Lassie" in black and white on Sunday evenings. "Sky King" on Saturday mornings. Black phones with no dial and no curly cord that belonged to the telephone company, had to tell the operator the number you wanted. Telephone trucks were OD green. Studebaker family sedan. Dad drove a Model A to work. Hurricanes without names. Milk and bakery goods delivered to the door by very nice delivery MEN. Doctor visits and house calls that were paid for by Mom and Dad at the time of service. Crank gas pumps. Steam locomotives. Diesel equipment with jimmy engines for starting. The first air conditioned grocery store in town. The old Madison Square Gardens. The flying wing and Sputnik. Polio and iron lungs. Pocket transistor radio. Indian head pennies, Mercury dimes and quarters, and half dollars in circular. The large two dollar bills. Silver certificates.

Oh man... Sundog, you sure bring back memories. I had forgotten about Sky King, his plane the Songbird and his neice Penny.

Oh... I used to drive an OD green 63 GMC telephone truck when I first hired on with Ma Bell.

[izzyjoe]

in ark. it's unlawful to text and drive, but it's kinda hard to infource that law. ulness your seen dooin' it. i'm 35 and spent alot of time with my grandparents when i was young ,and leard alot from them. they would'nt use the phone unless they had to, like my grandpa said it's a tool like everything else and is to be used when needed. years ago before telemarketers if somebody called, if he did'nt know them they heard click!! so i learned early to use things when you should and should'nt. grandpa had no time foolishness, if you did'nt belive that we'd go behind the shed and i would have a whole new outlook on the matter. spare thy rod spoil thy child. yes sir.

[trk]

I am old enough to remember our first phone # - it was 3550. Then came the exchange a few years later and it was BElmont 6-3550 and then 236-3500. And for the summer in another state our ring (12 party line) was two longs and one short.

I remember my stepdad telling us to ride on the high side of the wagon (when haying) - if it rolled we could jump - and let the horses take care of themselves!

My first job as a kid, when haying, was to stop the square bales as they dropped from the baler. If I didn't stop them, it was so steep that they would roll down the hill rigth through the fence.

good memories.

[Wayne Smith]

I was driving home one evening from work, driving rain so hard people were stopping under the underpass. Person ahead of me was driving very fast, slow, stopping in the road, trying to merge onto another road all the way on the right at maybe 5mph. I passed her - she was dialing her cell phone while trying to drive under those conditions!

I grew up in Central Maine on a farm. Took baths once a week in the kitchen, hot water from the 15gal. tank in the wood burning kitchen range. Did have cold running water. I was 6 when Dad got Mom the gas range - bottled gas. Favorite memory is playing in the snow, coming in cold and wet with my brother, Mom put kitchen chairs in front of the oven and opened the oven door. Wonderful dry heat rolling over us. Wringer washer, Monday was wash day. Canning strawberrys from flats, tomatos from the garden, green beans from the garden, corn from the garden, beets and beet greens from the garden, applesauce by the gallon, one roll of cinnamon per quart. Row upon row of quarts of food in the basement.

Moved to Nothern Virginia at age 12 and we got a TV when I was 13. Had telephones and our own line in Maine. Dad was progressive as he could afford - a professional farmer.

[AZ-Stew]

My favorite Mousketeer, Cheryl Holdridge.

She was also Wally Cleaver's girlfriend, Julie Foster, on Leave It To Beaver.

Unfortunately, she died of lung cancer a year ago.

Regards,

Stew

[Rex]

I'm not old but do remember that there were 8 people on our party line. The phone was battery operated as REA didn't run power lines out our way until about '54. Our ring was a long and 3 shorts if I recall right. We used coal oil lamps, cook and heat stoves. I milked a lot by a coal oil lantern.
They refer to that as "the good old days", I have no idea why.
Rex

[AZ-Stew]

I remember a lot of the stuff posted by Sundog. I'll add that when my parents wanted to call relatives "back home" in Pennsylvania, they had to call an operator, give them the number and tell whether it was station-to-station, person-to-person or collect. They would then hang up the phone and wait 20-30 minutes for the operator to call them back. At that point, the call was completed to the desired party and the conversation was completed. I think it was the early 60s before we had "direct dial" long distance. It was the late 60s before we had a private line. The number was NOrth 2-88xx. I also remember watching the Echo 1 satellite pass overhead in the back yard. Duck-and-cover drills for nuke attack and tornadoes. I remember my mom's relief when the Salk polio vaccine came out, and I remember her and my grandmother complaining about the price of stamps going from 3 to 4 cents. We had Sky Bar (and other) candy bars available for purchase after lunch in my first grade school. But you couldn't buy them unless you cleaned your plate. Some days they served canned peas or creamed corn. I didn't get to buy the fabulous Sky Bar on those days.

The other side of that coin was that since my dad worked for RCA, we were one of the first families in town to have color TV. Families from all over the neighborhood came to see it. The programs I remember first being in color were the Walt Disney show on Sunday evening and Bonanza, also on Sunday. I'm sure there were others, but those are the two that are most prominent in my memory. Saturday had a plethora of cowboys and other heroes on the tube. Roy Rogers, Paladin, Johnny Yuma, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Sky King, Captain Midnight and a bunch of others that slip my mind right now.

Regards,

Stew

[kodiak1]

First phone number was 6 ring 3.
Operators name was Amy she was the nosiest snottiest old hag the god lord ever strung a gut throught.
No wonder she was widowed.
The phone had no dial just a crank and two bells on it at the top.

The TV was as big as a Toyota Tundra and Black and White it came standard equipped up here with one channel unless you lived in a city.
Remember when it was turned on how it took about 5 minutes to get the tubes warmed up enough that it would work!!!!
I always liked that pwoop when you first turned it on noise that the TV made.
It took 5 minutes after you shut it off before it went totally dead.

Well pump and basin in the kitchen, Wood stove mom still could cook a gourmet meal though.

Coal furnace to heat the house and you were in the upper part of town.

Go back to that are you insane? Well yes I am I would do that in a heart beat.
Laptop, cell phone, pager all that stuff I could use for targets.

Thanks for the tri[p down memory lane boys lets keep it going!!

Yes that is a tear in my eye.

Ken.

[blackthorn]

Last christmas my grandaughter (now 26 Y.O.) asked me to write down some of the things I remember from my life time. I think i'm up to about 70 pages and a lot of it sounds like what is being written here. We too had a crank phone (installed 1954) 13 party line and the longest number of rings (in everyone's house) belonged to the family with 10 kids who called home at all hours. We had no elecric power until 1948. We never did have indoor plumbing and the folks moved to town in 1968 after dad went blind. My mother learned to drive the car at age 68 out of necessity! This is a great thread!

[Beekeeper]

My favorite was most of the people on our street were on the same party line.
We kids rigged a signal system with the window shades so everyone picked up at the same time and talked. no charge as the operator wasn't involved so no one could be charged.
Rode a bike to school rain or shine as would rather die than let someone know I couldn't handle the weather.
When older drove a model "A" ford to school and during the winter would hook a rope on the rear bumper and on the way to school pick up other kids by them holding on the rope and using skis or on a sled.
Warm cab was reserved for favorite girl.
There was always a gun of some kind in the cab! A couple of times even the Principle came out to talk guns and hunting/trapping.


Jim

[Charlie Sometimes]

Without the technology, I think we would plan better and communicate more thoroughly.

No one communicated very well before technology either, and people did stupid stuff then, too. If it was gone tomorrow, it would be worse.

Without those who abuse the priviledge, or misuse, over use, etc., we would not have these wonderful advancements.

But still, I wouldn't mind some "comon sense" pills to be invented!
Ought to be called "rare sense"- if it was common, everyone would have it!

[pmeisel]

We didn't have dirt when I was a kid, my dad hadn't invented it yet!

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Hardcast, how did you get a phone number like 213 on a crank phone? Our first phone was also an oak wall phone with a crank generator and our number was two short rings and one long. I think it was 1938 or 9. It was changed to a candle stick without the dial in the summer of 1941. One day when I was seven my mother answered the phone and before long I could see she was getting very upset and I started to pull on her dress and asking what was wrong. She finally hung up the phone and said the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. I didn't have any idea where that was but I soon learned that everything would change forever. War, rationing, the draft, flags in the windows with stars on them,air raid drills, women going to work in factories, friends moving away so dad could find work in defense plant and I guess you could say, progress.

[largom]

Born in the hills of West Virginia. No electric, water from a well, outhouse with corn cobs [Sears & Roebuck catalog was a luxury]. Went to school in one room school house with 8 rows of chairs, each row was a different grade, one teacher [Mrs. Harris].

Never seen a phone, television, or inside plumbing until we moved to Maryland in the 1950's. Could I do without all of our modern things? You bet! Would I miss them? Not at all. Wife and family say I was born 200 years too late as it is.

Larry

[DLCTEX]

From my earliest memory we had a rotary dial phone #5803 and was a 4 party line. My grandparents on my dad's side lived in central Texas and had a crank type. A call to them was usually very static plagued but occasionally you could hear fine. I remember parents saying it was as clear as calling next door. They had an ice box until 1952 along with an outhouse and baths in the kitchen with a hand pump beside the kitchen sink. Coal oil was their cooking, lighting, and heating fuel. In 52 they sold that place and built a smaller house with a bathroom and propane for cooking and heating, lights, and a refrigerator. Pa kept a few chickens and rabbits and gardened. He was a disabled WWI vet and always had a cane unless he was using a hand push plow to weed the garden or open a planting furrow. Irish and sweet potatoes, patty pan and crookneck squash, various beans and black eyed or cream peas. Roasting ears, beets, carrots, okra,watermelons, cantaloupes, muskmelons , turnips, collards, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, and other good stuff sprang from his garden with what seemed to a small child as ease. I learned later that he just knew how to make it look easy. Seed was saved from year to year, the chickens furnished fertilizer and kept the bugs down. Eggs and extra produce was bartered for staples and canning was a constant companion. Winter brought hog killings with Uncle Hardy smoking meats that kept very well. Trapping supplied some money and many a coon and ringtailed cat were stretched on the drying boards beside the rabbit furs from butchering. Squirrels supplied meat and the tails were sold for 5 cents to a dime. There was no shame in being poor, most were, but the shame was being lazy or unthrifty. $5 would buy all they needed from the store most weeks. You went to bed at dark and got up at least an hour before light. Fishing in the Leon River was more than sport, it was provision for the table. A good catch of catfish made the chickens happy, as it gave them a few more days before becoming table fare. The radio provided entertainment and news. What more did a person need?

[felix]

It's amazing how one can adjust to any environment with good parents. ... felix

[a.squibload]

Glad you're OK. The one that hit me said she was pregnant and in a hurry
to get home. Wasn't even showing. Wasn't texting though.

I guess I'm not that old after all!
We lived at the edge of civilization, close enough to town to get a TV signal,
far enough out to pick dewberries.
This nice lady played cartoons on Saturday morning. I was in love of course,
but at 5 I didn't know what to do about it. Our B&W TV was a fancy one, had
a remote control, couple of sonic tuning rods inside, remote was all
mechanical. Push the trigger down it would "snap" and the TV would go
"clunk, clunk, clunk" 'til it hit the next available channel (there were 3!).
We kids would watch the farm journal waiting for cartoons to come on.
Last time I saw that TV it was 30 years old & still working.

I think I woulda passed out if I ever got to slow dance with Annette!

In '57 our new phone number was "Homestead 8...", Dad still has that
number.
He put surplus fighter jet seatbelts in the back of the Olds 88, mainly to
keep us from jumping around I guess. OK I don't know what kind of
plane they were out of but they had a big toggle and a ring to hold it
closed.
Don't get me started on BB guns, Red Ryder of course, now it has no barrel assembly
'cause my brother took it out. He figured out he could jam the front end
in the mud and shoot a mudball with it. Short range, poor trajectory.
Guess we had it good.

[Hickory]

We did not have it, but the neighbor had a crank phone.
One long crank on the phone got the operator, then
you asked the operator for the person you wanted to talk
to by name.
And when the phone did ring everyone would listen for the
code, our neighbors was 3 shorts one long and 1 short.
Everyone on that phone system heard the ring and it was
a party line for anyone who picked up the phone and wanted
to listen. No secrets when I was a kid. Everyone knew everyones
business.
The place was Ayersville, Ohio

[Taylor]

yep,party line! I still have a rotory phone.Found it in a flea market for $2.It works when storms knock out the power,it rings really loud and it totally screwed up the kids when I first got it.They tried to stick thier fingers in the holes to push the numbers,now they hate it!

[Bret4207]

Well, we just got a cell tower about a mile away as the crow flies, so I can hot it from most anywhere on the farm. Considering I work alone in the woods and fields a lot and am not known for being any too careful with sharp objects and things that can kill me I'm okay with that.

As for the rest, the two biggest pains in my butt are public schools and automobiles.

[mroliver77]

I love technology! I am still a redneck with a garden. I can, hunt, spit, pee outside, heat with only a woodstove, butcher animals etc. I was in a bad wreck a few years ago and help was there very quickly. *I was hauled off and given pain meds, accessed, gassed and shipped to a larger hospital in the city within a couple hours. Heck my sister was informed and waiting at the hospital for me.I would hate to live without a refrigerator! Only phone I have is a cell and like anything else it can be abused or used wisely.I forget things and the ex likes to text me so that I get done what needs done. Sometimes I think the beep means it needs charged so I plug it in and miss the text!
At 49 I was in the end of the generation you'all are reminiscing but we lived in NW OH and it was slow to catch up with the rest of the country. My parents were older and products of the depression and both farm folk. I stayed with Gramma and Grandpa on the farm and missed school for planting, harvesting and first day of hunting season. Crank phone, 389 the #. I cant remember the ring. Sick animals were shot but one favorite female dog was spayed. It cost $6! Grandma didnt think the good ole days were that good. She wanted nothing to do with wood heat, cook stoves, ice box and out houses. We did have enough food in the house for a couple years and all who showed up were asked to stay for the next meal or two. Cold water plumbing until 66 when the new hiway bought some land off the corner of the farm and the money used to put in a bathroom and hot water heater (second hand). I do miss the folks from back then. Most werte very honest upstanding folk that would give you the shirt off their back if you NEEDED it.
Jay

[another gsxr 1k]

I guess that I'm one of the young'uns here. I'm 43 but remember a bunch of the things you folks have mentioned. We moved to rural Pa in '86 from Atlanta. Huge culture shock for me. Like a foreign country. We went from cable tv to an antenna on an 90' tower, phone was a party line and we only had to dial 5 digits to make a call in the local area. Still had milkmen there too.

[3006guns]

Well, I've read this thread twice and finally decided to jump in.........

I've seen quite a few members mentioning the old phone systems, but do you remember what the old dial tone sounded like? Not the musical chime tone of push button dialing, but the growl that sounded like a pit bull with one leg caught in a trap? They changed to the new electronic system (and it's new dial tone) around 1958 in my area. I still remember the repairman's explanation of how the new stuff would sound. Ironically, I ended up working in the telephone industry for over 40 years......must have been that guy's fault.

Mickey Mouse Club........yep, that combined with Disneyland's own show once a week. I always had a "thing" for Mouskateer Darlene, which probably launched my lifelong passion for blondes in general.............

I remember Warner Bros. cartoons every Saturday morning (Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, etc.) when they were still NEW. Gads!

The internet is great.....allows sites like this one and the quick exchange of valuable information........but..........I cut my cell phone leash about two years ago and actually find it "funny" that you "can't
get along" without one.:violin:

[Char-Gar]

When I was a kid, there were no dial phones, rotary or otherwise. You jiggled the receiver hook and the operator came on and said.. "number please". Of course it was a party line.

Out on the ranch they still had the old crank magneto phones. You ring was a combination of longs and shots. Talk about your pary lines!

To this day I hate telephones and as they numbers and portability increase, so does my hatred. My wife insists I carry a cell phone, but it really does grind me and I turn it off quite often. Often enough to really piss her off.

My wife is pretty high toned. Were it not for her "toneyness" I would be living in a cabin in the brush somewhere with a wood stove for cooking and heating, water from a well or cistern and a Winchester over the door. When I finally gave up the ghost, the buzzards overhead would tell somebody to come and check on me.

[StarMetal]

When I was a kid, there were no dial phones, rotary or otherwise. You jiggled the receiver hook and the operator came on and said.. "number please". Of course it was a party line.

Out on the ranch they still had the old crank magneto phones. You ring was a combination of longs and shots. Talk about your pary lines!

To this day I hate telephones and as they numbers and portability increase, so does my hatred. My wife insists I carry a cell phone, but it really does grind me and I turn it off quite often. Often enough to really piss her off.

Gosh, you're older then dirt!!!! :kidding:

I believe I'm the only person in the U.S. that doesn't have a cell phone. Particularly aggravates me to see drivers, who I might add are causing a traffic problem of some sort, are on those blasted cell phones. Worse invention ever created.

[felix]

Amen, Joe! I am in your camp as well. No cell phone here, but Pat has one for work calls only which happen no more than once or twice a week. She works from home. ... felix

[StarMetal]

Amen, Joe! I am in your camp as well. No cell phone here, but Pat has one for work calls only which happen no more than once or twice a week. She works from home. ... felix

Felix, ditto my wife, but guess what? We live is such a remote area of the mountains that cells won't work here....and her company knew that...but insisted she still has one. There are far too many modern gadgets in automobiles now since that first Model T's.

[mroliver77]

So where do you old farts draw the line on technology? There is nothing stopping you from driving a ModT or A or Stanley or riding a horse. It is actually funny seeing guys rag on technology on an INTERNET forum using a COMPUTER to acess it. I know some are using their 8086 to do so but still funny. ')
I really do understand the frustration with the folks that are so addicted to their phone that one cannot interact with them in person. I just blow them off and move on. Better things to do. Back to my garden.
Jay

[StarMetal]

So where do you old farts draw the line on technology? There is nothing stopping you from driving a ModT or A or Stanley or riding a horse. It is actually funny seeing guys rag on technology on an INTERNET forum using a COMPUTER to acess it. I know some are using their 8086 to do so but still funny. ')
I really do understand the frustration with the folks that are so addicted to their phone that one cannot interact with them in person. I just blow them off and move on. Better things to do. Back to my garden.
Jay

I'm kind of inbetween. I love some of the new technology and love some of the old stuff. I still have a 61 Impala I drive and of course all the older firearms I love to shoot. I'm not again the cell phone, it's just that some people don't have to be on them 24/7 and driving is one of them. They are great for an emergency on the road as is On Star.

To tell you the truth I think home computers are todays Televisons of yesteryear.

[MT Gianni]

55, We had TV until I was 4 or 5 then it died and was replaced by family vote when I was 11. I found out I hadn't missed much. I usually have 3 books going at a time, I have a cell for work and use it like a personal one, I have never sent a text, get by with maps over GPS and enjoy living in the present.

[woody1]

Air raid drills in elementary school. "Lassie" in black and white on Sunday evenings. "Sky King" on Saturday mornings. Black phones with no dial and no curly cord that belonged to the telephone company, had to tell the operator the number you wanted. Telephone trucks were OD green. Studebaker family sedan. Dad drove a Model A to work. Hurricanes without names. Milk and bakery goods delivered to the door by very nice delivery MEN. Doctor visits and house calls that were paid for by Mom and Dad at the time of service. Crank gas pumps. Steam locomotives. Diesel equipment with jimmy engines for starting. The first air conditioned grocery store in town. The old Madison Square Gardens. The flying wing and Sputnik. Polio and iron lungs. Pocket transistor radio. Indian head pennies, Mercury dimes and quarters, and half dollars in circular. The large two dollar bills. Silver certificates.

An' don't forget the ice delivery guy and our milk man used a horse drawn wagon.
Fibber McGee & Molly, The Shadow, Sgt. Preston, The Lone Ranger on the radio. Regards, Woody

[waksupi]

I remember the crank telephone, getting plumbing in the house, and listening to the Grand Olde Opry on Saturday nights, direct from the old Ryman Auditorium. All the old timers were on it, and it didn't sound like what passes for country type music now.

[dk17hmr]

I remember when my dad got dial up internet on our home computer...I think I was 7 and thinkin this is lame it will never catch on.

[DLCTEX]

Oh Boy! I was 50+ when people here started getting internet.

[pmeisel]

My grandfather had the last horse-drawn milk route in Detroit. He and the horse retired together, shortly after the Korean War.....

[Rockydog]

I grew up in a big farmhouse with a crank phone on the wall in a big oak box. I remember getting an indoor toilet. We had had running water in the house for 40 years before I was born. My grandfater had hand poured a 12' X 12' cistern that rose 20 feet above ground. Our windmill pumped water in the top and we had pressurized water in all of our farm buildings with no pump other than head pressure from the cistern. We had a big wood furnace in the basement with a 4' X 4' grate in the floor directly above it. We used to set a big wash tub on it in the winter to take our bath but if you weren't careful you'd burn your feet on the grate. Later on we got a new forced air furnace from Montgomery Ward that actually blew heat to the upstairs of the house. If we had a good year on the farm we'd buy a load of coal to supplement the wood and stretch it a little so we didn't have to dig it out of the snow on the pile outside the house. RD

[starnbar]

well lead fred i allways liked doreen better on the mouseketeers she was a little bigger up front than annette but its what you fancy that counts. any way i still remember our 6 digit phone number from 1952.

[wallenba]

At 58 years of age I contemplate these things a lot. When I was a teenager I had to ask permission to use the phone. Often I was told no, as someone was waiting for an expected call or other business. If I wanted to talk to a friend I walked to their home (often over a mile) just to see if they were home. I cringe almost daily at seeing young men and women texting while driving and most times tailgating me as they do it. Just before I retired a young new hire coming into the parking lot had a serious accident with a semi. He had dropped his cell phone while driving and could not wait to park his vehicle before retrieving it. He is brain damaged to this day. I was 11 years old before I ever saw a television set or listened to a record, or had a potato chip or a candy bar. I lived in post war Europe where my father served in the USAF until 1960 when we returned stateside. Today teens feel deprived if they can't get dad to buy them a car.
Oh yeah...when we did get our first phone it was a "party line" remember those? Someone else shared the same phone number and you could hear them talk when you picked up the phone, you would have to wait til they hung up before you could use it. It had no dial on it as I recall. You told the operator the exchange and number and it was usually only 5 digits!

[Beekeeper]

I grew up during WW2 on a farm inWest Texas.
My Dad was ( by his words) a gentleman farmer (ment he couldn't make a living farming) so he worked in town as a machinest.
We spent a lot of time hunting rabbits or else went hungry.
My favorite memorys are listening to the Grand ol Opry on Sunday night,The only other time the radio was turned on was to hear the war news and morning farm reports, and waking up one morning at 4 am and going in the kitchen and seeing my mother making breakfast rolls.
She set me down on a stool by the stove where it was warm and made us both a cup of hot ovaltine (chocolate).
She put out dough to rise every night and made bread and rolls every morning.

When She passed away at age 86 there was still a big bowl of dough on the counter waiting to be made int bread and rolls.

I was in the Military before I saw my first TV and had never made a phone call as I didn't know anyone that had one.
I still do not watch much TV and altho we have a phone it is seldom used.
Was almost 70 before I got this computer and still barely know how to use it.


Jim

[zardoz]

I remember back about a quadrillionth of a second after the big bang.

You know, back when the Higgs boson condensate had not yet formed any quantum superstring loops, and a bit before the oscillation of any manifested primordial particles.

Of course, then those young whippersnapper sub-atomic particles had to come along, with their new fangled ways, and ruin everything by forming those darned
radical "communes" of elemental atoms , which really got out of hand when they got together and formed molecular structures. Blasted communists.

Things were a whole lot better, before all that.
:bigsmyl2:

[TDB9901]

I think we may have had one of the last crank telephone systems in the US. Got dial phones in 1974 if memory is correct. Changed things forever.

911 used to be grabbing the phone and ringing a "Line Ring" or just a bunch of "shorts".. You could have the whole county on alert instantly. Our ring was one long and one short.

There was a button on the most of phones that had to be pushed before you could talk, so you could listen with out anybody hearing you.
Seemed like we owned the lines ourselves, did most of our own repairs, remember doing some anyway....

I never did have guts enough to call a girlfriend..... One of my buddies used to do a "Line Ring" and tell everybody that he was about to call his....... didn't want them to miss it.

Now people ride over the hills horseback moving cattle while gabbing on the cell phone or texting....... Kinda takes the "romance" out of it.......

[HORNET]

Way to go, zardoz!! I figured that there were a couple of members that had been sitting on lead outcroppings waiting for somebody to invent fire.....

[wallenba]

Many thanks to Zardoz for being around to help create those heavy elements from hydrogen so we could have Pb.[smilie=l:

[1Shirt]

Will be 72 this year, and yep, crank telephone, party line, Mom hung clothes outside on the line (had a wringer washing machine). There were only 7 enlisted ranks in the military when I enlisted, had my first 22 at 8 or 9 years old, and the first T.V. we had was about a cubic yard accross with a 5 inch screen, and a test pattern until 5:00 p.m. when Howdy Doody came on, and the test screen was back on after 10:00. Grew up poor but didn't know it until I enlisted. Feel sorry for kids today who don't know what a day's work is, because the libs have legislated out thier right to work young. Feel sorry for kids who don't grow up in the country, don't know a Deere from a Case, a holstien from an angus, or a durock from a poland china, and wish I didn't live in a city.
So much for wishing!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[leftiye]

Nunya.

[Sonoma2k2]

:drinks:whats with all these black n white photos???? I've never seen those before wowsa you guys are old old and older. much love to my brothers and dads out there and even grandpas!!!

[EOD3]

:drinks:whats with all these black n white photos???? I've never seen those before wowsa you guys are old old and older. much love to my brothers and dads out there and even grandpas!!!

You know it's an OLD picture if it's black and white and the edges look like they were cut with pinking sheers. Even older if it has a slight reddish hue... 8-)

[EOD3]

Feel sorry for kids today who don't know what a day's work is, because the libs have legislated out thier right to work young. Feel sorry for kids who don't grow up in the country, don't know a Deere from a Case, a holstien from an angus, or a durock from a poland china, and wish I didn't live in a city.
So much for wishing!
1Shirt!:coffee:

A few years of farm labor is good for a growing boy. You haven't lived until you've spent a summer or two with a pair of hay hooks...

[sundog]

Dad worked heavy construction while I was growing up. Off months he was an independent logger. I worked in the woods with him. Whatever I was capable of doing I did at whatever age, he taught me, and I did it, bucking brush, rigging chains, operating equipment, ax work, whatever. Later, I worked on the farm. There is a lot that can be said for the education a young person gets by the time the product is delivered, whether logs or produce. Sure gives a body appreciation for a dollar, too. And a work ethic.

[twotoescharlie]

73 on april the 14th

TTC

[Tom Myers]

74 today

[Hickory]

About 3 years ago I remodeled the kitchen for the wife.
She cried when I told her that we were getting a new stove.
This one we cooked on for over 30 years



http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab247/hickory_01/Kitchen/PICT0308.jpg

This is what the area looks like now.
We have a gas stove now, sometimes I still miss that old stove.

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab247/hickory_01/Kitchen/xrc001.jpg

This is the new stove.
http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab247/hickory_01/Kitchen/xrc003.jpg

[waksupi]

74 today

Happy birthday, Tom!

[a.squibload]

Tell me when you're ready to start on our kitchen!

[Hickory]

Tell me when you're ready to start on our kitchen!

I don't now if you noticed what wood was used for the cabinets, but it was hickory. It has a nice look about it.

Sorry but, it was like pulling teeth to get me to do this kitchen.
I had it all the way down to the dirt.
Rewired it. Replumbed it and reinsulated it.
Cost more that the house and 5 acers of ground.

[Whitworth]

By the way, your kitchen looks great!

I'm in my mid-40s. Where communication technology bothers me the most is on my off-time, including vacation. When I was a kid, the family would take a two week vacation just about every year, and drive somewhere (long hours in the car), and we would communicate with no one over the course of those two weeks -- you know, real down-time, real vacation, real rest and relaxation. Nowadays, anyone can contact you at any time. Are we really better off????

[Matt_G]

Nowadays, anyone can contact you at any time. Are we really better off????

When the wife and I go on vacation, the electronic leashes are turned off. If they are on, its not a vacation IMHO.

[woody1]

When the wife and I go on vacation, the electronic leashes are turned off. If they are on, its not a vacation IMHO.

Absolutely! You are, after all, the one who controls the ON/OFF switch. Regards, Woody