In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Old Phone
gesshots
Member Posts: 15,678 ✭✭✭✭
Never saw a "crank" desk phone !
Hello Sarah, Connect me to the Courthouse, please. 😋😎😊 ... (in your best Andy Griffith voice)
It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't. ~ J.B. Books
Comments
Back in those days, the old crank was usually on the other end of the line.
yep, gives a whole new meaning to a crank call............
Back in the dark ages my great aunt was the operator in a small farm town in Ohio. The switchboard was in her house and she was literally the only operator. The customers knew not to make any calls that were not emergencies late at night. If she had to be away from home no calls went through and the customers just tried again later. When I was very young I asked, what if someone needed the sheriff and she wasn't there to put through the call? Her answer was that the sheriff would get the message sooner or later and go clean up the mess and rescue the bad guy if he was still breathing. Times were a lot simpler back then. Bob
I remember the wooden box hanging on the wall with crank on right side. Late forties I guess. You picked it up and your neighbor down the road was yacking away. You had to tell her to hang up because Uncle Jake just broke his leg and you need to call the Doc. I think they called them party lines.---------------------Ray
clean the out side up some ,,ebay 1000.00
I have my grandparents wooden phone hanging in the entryway to my house. Their replacement one looked like the one above except no crank. All you did to get the operator was tap the top of the phone. Actually you can call out that way if you pace the taps correctly. The big advantage they got with the new phone was it only rang for them instead of having to listen for their ring. That was about 1955. Before that the customers in their general store would listen for their ring on the phone & answer if it was for them.
We had the identical phone and a eight party line in 1966. The line was from hedge post to hedge post. The switch board was in a small house in the local town. If you went to make a call you would turn the crank and wait. When she got around to it Fanny the old operator would come on the line and say "Allo, wait a minute." It wasn't terribly efficient. At that time everybody around had C.B. radios and they worked way better than the phone.
We got areal phone system the following year, but still a party line. I let the kids play with the old crank desk phone and they tore it up. I kind of wish I'd kept it.
Have one just like it in the basement.
I have never seen one like that
mom and dad got a phone I would guess mid 1960's us kids were not allowed to touch it ( LOL ) and we knew better that break a rule . some of the family and neighbors would use it but sparingly . I know it was on a party line . I remember people always asking some one to hang up they had a important call to make most were back to Tennessee to family or my moms sister in CA. during Christmas .
when my wife and I were marred even in 1979 (we moved into the country about 8 miles from town ) all we could get was a party line for the 1st year until a private line was Available .
I use to search flea markets for a old original hand crank wall phone but they always wanted some crazy price just for a wall hanger I gave up many years ago . I think we have a couple old rotary phones out in the garage . its even funny to see them now .
fun fact I collect HO gauge slot cars from aruora from my child hood, I am sure some of you had or have them . the plastic they used to make the car body's from was left over plastic used to make phone housings with that's why all the different colors and some are really rare today ( purple being one of them )
Where we lived in Colorado, years back the ranchers had a loop phone circuit that connected all the ranches- using the top strand of the barbed wire fencing. The loop passed thru the newspaper office- and they could patch a call into the real phone system.
They used to claim there was an old lady that talked so fast she knocked all the barbs off the barbed wire.
I've never run across a dial phone with a crank handle but do remember a few cars\trucks with knobs on the steering wheels.
You can buy them on Amazon for about $10. ... + many other retailers
Illegal in most states !
We all had the Brodie knobs, most of them with the picture of Marilyn Monroe when I was in high school.
How do you text?
Don
Brad Steele
Knock three times on the ceiling...
WAY before my time. Though our first phone number was 9923.
I have something similar but it's the wireless version
I had one like that until a few months ago when I sold a whole lot of old phones that were mostly missing significant piece parts.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Oh the memories of the monthly AT&T rip off bills when the phone rental fee was incorporated along with the separate long distance service!
Ma Bell was a hussy!
Yes....she....was!!!!
I remember back in the day...If any of the family traveled out of town we/they would call home collect and ask if (insert callers name)...they would say no and they knew we had arrived and OK...With out any phone charges... 😁
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
"Hello, Operator? I'd like to make a collect call."
"Certainly sir, what is your name?"
"You're kidding."
"Hello this is the Operator, will you accept a collect call from I Got Here And Realized I Forgot My Passport Please FedEx It To Me?"
call person to person and use their name, when in boot camp/ training school I did this quite a bit, would call mom to ease her mind and ask for dad, she knew it was me and I was ok, didn't have to pay long distance charge.............
I saw quite a few of these when I was a young lad.
My dad moved an old brick building that was a house but was used by our towns grade school for classes until the new school was built.
He turned it into an apartment housing.
I was only 4 or 5 but remember him stating something to the fact that you could put the wire from it down into the water, start cranking, and watch the fish come up. 😁.
To my knowledge, he never used it as such but, 45 years later, I still remember him telling me that.
One time I was having problems with the push button ignitor on my gas grill. I removed it for cleaning and gave it a push while holding the hot end with my other hand. I will never do that again!!!⛈️
My recently deceased aunt from New Jersey was on a party line back in the 50s. During my last visit to her, I asked if she remembered being on a party line and that her number was Pittstown 277R2. (Hers was evidently party line #277 on the Pittstown switchboard back then. The R2 meant her ring was two shorts) She looked at me as if I were some alien being and asked "How in the heck could I remember that?"
Remembering numbers for me is kind of weird. I can recite many phone #'s from the 60's, like my grandma's and others but have forgotten more passwords than I care to count!
😄😆😆