That’s so cool. I remember my grandparents, ours & my cousins phone number. Sometimes I wish we had a landline. I’d probably keep it unplugged unless I needed it. Back in the old days you could take the phone off the hook not the new phones.
If you didn’t live in the time of party lines you could never understand. My dad would get on the phone and tell them to get off. The people on our line were on it 24/7.
Ah yes. There were those. But you could dial 0 and get a real person to find numbers for you and put through calls and could reverse charges to your parents when you were in college. And there were pay phones.
My dad was too cheap for that. They had the pay phone number of the one on my floor. I’d call collect and they denied it then called me. My favorite thing was calling the time and temperature.
I remember those days. I'd give them 20 min from the time I first picked up, then say in a clear voice, "you have 5 minutes". In 5 min, I'd take the phone off the hook, and if they were still on, I'd put the phone on the floor, and play with the buttons with my feet, as I watched tv. Didn't take long for 'them' to catch my drift after that.
The old crossbar and step-by-step switches definitely had trap and trace and pen register capabilities. The later electronic switching systems carried the capabilities forward. Nuisance and prank calls just weren’t worth the effort to obtain the necessary court orders and set-ups to trace. Later generics (operating systems) of the ESSs implemented services such as caller ID and redial the last call.
It used to be that one of the fastest ways to get fired by Ma Bell was unauthorized disclosure of call records.
Oh the good ole days. From prank calls to the grocery store and the funeral homes to my dad working for the local phone company so we had multiple phones in the house. God forbid you stretch out that long cord on the wall phone. I saw an old phone from 70s or 80s for sale online for $60.00. That’s crazy. My daughter bought a house built in the fifties and it has a wall phone. My granddaughter will learn about the old days.
Very true. My bedroom was beside the phone in the kitchen. I got in trouble for stretching the cord under my door. Our cords were extra long because daddy stole them from work, probably stole the phones and phone wire also.
Ah, good times indeed. I still have a landline with a corded phone too.
Us, too! We live in the house my Pawpaw built 85 years ago...same phone number as them, I would never change it!
That’s so cool. I remember my grandparents, ours & my cousins phone number. Sometimes I wish we had a landline. I’d probably keep it unplugged unless I needed it. Back in the old days you could take the phone off the hook not the new phones.
I know fren...miss those days!
Random dial…riiiiing…
“Hello?”
“Is your refrigerator running?”
“Why, yes?”
“Better go catch it!” Slams phone down, laughs hysterically.
Ahhh…good times…
Party lines and always at least one who listened in.
If you didn’t live in the time of party lines you could never understand. My dad would get on the phone and tell them to get off. The people on our line were on it 24/7.
Ah yes. There were those. But you could dial 0 and get a real person to find numbers for you and put through calls and could reverse charges to your parents when you were in college. And there were pay phones.
My dad was too cheap for that. They had the pay phone number of the one on my floor. I’d call collect and they denied it then called me. My favorite thing was calling the time and temperature.
"At the tone the time will be..." 😺
It's 10:00. Do you know where your children are?
I remember those days. I'd give them 20 min from the time I first picked up, then say in a clear voice, "you have 5 minutes". In 5 min, I'd take the phone off the hook, and if they were still on, I'd put the phone on the floor, and play with the buttons with my feet, as I watched tv. Didn't take long for 'them' to catch my drift after that.
I remember that.
Oh yeah.
That was the first thing that came to my head! 😆 it was harmless fun
The old crossbar and step-by-step switches definitely had trap and trace and pen register capabilities. The later electronic switching systems carried the capabilities forward. Nuisance and prank calls just weren’t worth the effort to obtain the necessary court orders and set-ups to trace. Later generics (operating systems) of the ESSs implemented services such as caller ID and redial the last call.
It used to be that one of the fastest ways to get fired by Ma Bell was unauthorized disclosure of call records.
I remember when they allowed you to BUY your own phone instead of renting the ugly but armor plated phones from Ma Bell.
I recall having to look at the Ringer Equivalency Number (REN) and it had to be less than 1.0 or it would not be supported by your phone company
I am old
Oh the good ole days. From prank calls to the grocery store and the funeral homes to my dad working for the local phone company so we had multiple phones in the house. God forbid you stretch out that long cord on the wall phone. I saw an old phone from 70s or 80s for sale online for $60.00. That’s crazy. My daughter bought a house built in the fifties and it has a wall phone. My granddaughter will learn about the old days.
And the cord was never quite long enough to reach from the kitchen for endless evening talks with the girlfriend...
Very true. My bedroom was beside the phone in the kitchen. I got in trouble for stretching the cord under my door. Our cords were extra long because daddy stole them from work, probably stole the phones and phone wire also.
😹
I read the title to the tune of 'Good Times Bad Times'.
I remember having to dial only five numbers for those in the local exchange.