Telephones

I was at the Family History Center and one of the ladies that works there got talking with me about how things have changed in our lifetimes, especially telephones. She's five years older than I am and can remember when you couldn't dial the number yourself. You would pick up the handle and the operator would say "Number, please." After you gave the number, the operator would connect you. I remember when you could not dial long distance directly. You would dial 'O' for operator and give the number and wait to be connected.

When I was very young most people had 'party lines'. Generally two customers shared the same line. Each had their own number and your phone only rang when it was for your house, but when you wanted to call out, the other customer might be using the line (you could hear their conversation) and you would have to wait until they were finished before you could place your call. Usually, people were considerate, but once my friend's party line got mad and left their phone off the hook for about a week! My Grandma Sharp lived near Rigby, Idaho and she had three people on her line. They each had a different ring, and you had to listen for the correct ring.


Originally, our family had a rotary dial phone. You would
stick your finger in the hole corresponding to the number
you wanted and pull it around to the right until the dial stopped
and then remove your finger and wait for the dial to return to the original position. Then repeat for each number.

Pushbottons came next.

 Princess phones were a slimmer version

of pushbutton and sometimes hung on

the wall. the occasionally had a very, very

long curly cord so you could

work while you were visiting.

.

 Phones with built in message machines soon followed.

.

When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, the family
got a portable phone so she would not have to try
to hurry to answer it. We didn't have cell phones at that
time.

My first cell phone ONLY made phone calls. Imagine
that!

Technology quickly advanced us to the iphones we use today which are actually phones and computers.