Those old telephones in the '50s and '60s that the Cleavers had to use were a real nightmare,because you had to actually 'Dial' each and every number,with a rotery dial. Not to mention being anchored to the wall by a cord. Not like we do today boy!
No matter where we are on earth,we have a portable cell phone at our disposal,with push button technology to boot! (LOL) And NO CORDS!!!
Ain't we a lucky bunch?


http://www.braggs1.fsnet.co.uk/50s/survival/telephone.htm

:happyface

I gotta wonder though,what in the hell did all these people telephoning everyone today, ever do without a portable cell phone before,... huh?

:confused:

I grew up with one of those rotary dial wall phones. In fact, it is still on the wall at my mother's house. We had a pantry/storage room off the kitchen and I remember stretching the cord into there to talk so I could have privacy. Now with cordless handsets you can go in any room to have conversations! I guess we have all become so spoiled with technology.

Well I take after my dad when it comes to unnecessary technology. There might be one reason to own a cellphone and that to me is emergencies. I still don't own a cellphone and do not plan on getting one either. Heck, I don't even believe in call waiting, I figure if they get a busy signal they will call back cause I certainly ain't gonna put someone on hold to answer another call than can wait. I find it silly that kids of all ages have their own stinkin' phone and all they do is yack on that phone and run a huge bill up that mom and dad are crazy enough to pay.:rolleyes:

Originally posted by UncleBilly
I grew up with one of those rotary dial wall phones. In fact, it is still on the wall at my mother's house. We had a pantry/storage room off the kitchen and I remember stretching the cord into there to talk so I could have privacy. Now with cordless handsets you can go in any room to have conversations! I guess we have all become so spoiled with technology.
I remember the weight of those old black telephones of yesteryear. I was 3 y/o when we had one,and could hardly lift that ole thing off the cradle. :talk:
Ahhhhh.... memories!
:crazy:

My great grandmother still has one of those. I think it's fun to dial the numbers.:)

I don't have a cordless or a cell. I still have a corded phone. Works find with me. I don't call many people or do they call me. I do remember the heavy black phones of yesteryear. I think they were made more of metal. Now all plastic

my friend has a rotary dial phone in his kitchen and it is the main phone they use. it's fun to dial the numbers so i make up excuses to call people so i can dial the numbers:lol:

We had rotary phones too. I remember before the breakup of A.T.&T. in 1984, if you moved the phones stayed because they were screwed into the wall. It was an old person that owned the house and she had three phones. A square yellow wall phone in the kitchen, a pink Princess phone with a lighted dial in the master bedroom, and an extremely old black table-top dial phone in the hall. It was one of those heavy metal phones that were coated with some sort of a black plastic, as opposed to the table phones that were actually made out of plastic. I remember my Dad cut the wire from the wall when he found out that New York Telephone was taking the old phones for parts and then melting them down. He said their wasn't a phone there when we moved in (only time I ever knew him to lie), and would they come out a put in a green trimline phone (dial - of course). I still have that old black phone now and use it in my living room. Great conversation piece. I have Queen Anne furniture in Mohagany and it really suits the room. If you turn over any of those old phones, they're stamped with the date of manufacture (mine is 5/46 - April 1946). All my other phones are cordless. My Dad finally broke down and got touch-tone phones in 1991. Now he's got 3 cordless phones, an answering machine, fax, cell, etc. and all the calling features.

Great memories, Comet97!

Growing up, we had a black wall phone in the kitchen. I remember we got that phone back in 1964, when I was 10. In fact, we only had that ONE phone until my parents bought their first home, which was in 1971. And it wasn't until '71 that we finally got TWO phones: a wall phone, and one of those small nightstand phones. Lol!

YOu discuss how many telephones we have. My family only had one television til 1981. Now my house has 6

I grew up in a large city and many people I knew were still using them in the 70's and 80's.

We only had one phone in the house when I was growing up...a black kitchen wall phone, similar to the one in June's kitchen in style, but not in color. Unfortunately, today old rotary phones simply wouldn't work with most businesses, since all require a touch tone phone to work in order to navigate through the prompts.

I grew up with one of those rotary dial wall phones. In fact, it is still on the wall at my mother's house. We had a pantry/storage room off the kitchen and I remember stretching the cord into there to talk so I could have privacy. Now with cordless handsets you can go in any room to have conversations! I guess we have all become so spoiled with technology.
You must be really young because I grew up with those phones. We never thought they were so bad. Hek, it's all we knew.

Yeah, and I remember the phone company owned the phone, and if you wired another phone up with out the ringer, They didn't know you had it.
You could buy old ones at Olsen's.

rotary phones were still pretty common in the 70's and early 80's, and cordless phones really only became common in the mid 80's and they were pretty crappy with horrible antennas.

Well, I installed, and repaired those phones for over 30 years while at Ma Bell.
People still have them. The Cleaver's kitchen phone was a very common 554 wall set, the study/living rm one was a 500 desk model. FYI

What was a fun, (actually a nightmare) was when they had party lines.
Wiring those sets for YOUR ring could be very frustrating. People still have those too, but are very rare these days.

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy249/dahur1/560675_2207723289881_548226087_n_zps3bb3bbb1.jpg (http://s796.photobucket.com/user/dahur1/media/560675_2207723289881_548226087_n_zps3bb3bbb1.jpg.html)

So would the phone co really know if you had an extension if you did not un hook the ringer?

So would the phone co really know if you had an extension if you did not un hook the ringer?


It's possible you could get a way with it. We had "Testmen" we would call to test cable pairs for us. On their down time from us, they would use that time to randomly test phone numbers. On the meter, one phone shows up as so much resistance. If the customer record showed they had one phone, and the meter showed more, then the customer was busted. Un hooking the ringer usually allowed them to get away with it, (pre-1984).

Remember this was the era of only Ma Bell phones and manual testing at random.

I have a black rotary dial phone from my grandparents dating back to the 1940s. I use it as a decoration since I don't have a landline.

I have a black rotary dial phone from my grandparents dating back to the 1940s. I use it as a decoration since I don't have a landline.


They were literally built like a tank in those days.

I might be from the last generation of people that actually used a rotary phone.

I still have my parents rotary dial....It's yellow (remember when they started making them in COLORS?) And ya, when the power goes out and the cells don't work, guess what still does?

I also remember back in elementary school, every year they used to get somebody from Ohio Bell to come to our school to teach/tell us about using the telephone - what got us all excited was when they told us that one day, we would be able to see who we were talking to...

They were literally built like a tank in those days.

And felt as heavy as one too. We had a black rotary dial table-top phone and you sure wouldn't want to knock it off & have it land on your foot. :lol:

I got news for ya - I still don't...This yellow one we still got has ALL the metal still inside, and you're right - you DONT want it falling on your foot - I've seen this thing actually CRACK flooring...

Our family grew up with rotary phones. They were never an inconvenience because we didn't have anything to compare them to. Several of the rotary phones used on the LITB show have sold for quite a bit of money on ebay lately, so I guess they are collectible items now!

Well I take after my dad when it comes to unnecessary technology. There might be one reason to own a cellphone and that to me is emergencies. I still don't own a cellphone and do not plan on getting one either. Heck, I don't even believe in call waiting, I figure if they get a busy signal they will call back cause I certainly ain't gonna put someone on hold to answer another call than can wait. I find it silly that kids of all ages have their own stinkin' phone and all they do is yack on that phone and run a huge bill up that mom and dad are crazy enough to pay.:rolleyes:

Yeah there are times all this technology seems over the top. People walking down the street oblivious to everything around them(like traffic) yakking on the phone--blab blab blab BLAB blab blab....it's enough to make your eyes roll.

I get where you're coming from about cell phones but they DO come in handy for emergencies. I never come close to using my minutes, have texting blocked, and my cell has no camera. So it's a very basic cell. It may not be "smart" but it's good enough for me.

I never come close to using my minutes, have texting blocked,.

Same here..!

I have a black rotary-dial telephone that can be connected and used (along with a couple of touch-tone models). It is from about 1980 or so, but has had some parts like the diaphram for the mouthpiece and the screw-on hard-plastic covers for both the mouth and ear portions replaced.

How about the one you see when Larry Mondello is talking on the phone?
It's even older yet.

How about the one you see when Larry Mondello is talking on the phone?
It's even older yet.
There's a really old model rotary phone listed under "Leave it to Beaver" (props) on ebay right now, if anyone on this forum wants to take a look.

You talk about old phones on tv. I happened to bumped into Lassie with Jon Provost and there is June Lockhart talking on phone which looks to be a phone from 1940's. As least the phones from the 1960's you could move the base. This phone you had to be glued to the wall to talk. The History Channel could do a show on the phones used on tv shows. I think the more rural you were, the more primitive phone you had.

Does anyone remember the neat Princess phones from the 1960s? They were very nice and came in pastel colors like baby blue, pink and white.

I still use another old type of Bell System phone in my bedroom--the Trimline with the dial or pushbuttons in the handset itself, not the base. I like the design of the trimline and have kept it as a secondary phone for years.

In my household we only had one phone in the 1960's, a black heavy rotary style.

Ever notice, sometimes they dial 5 numbers, sometimes 6, and sometimes 7.