Fond Memories From the Old Days

[Dave F]

Back in the 1960s, local telephone service in Southern California was provided by two companies.  Most places were served by Pacific Telephone.  A small portion of this vast territory, including Santa Monica and some parts of West Los Angeles, were in the clutches of General Telephone.  The source of our dial tone depended entirely upon our address.  There was no choice.  In some parts of the city, one side of the street was Pacific and the other side was General.

Gen Tel had a reputation for terrible phone service.  Common problems included no dial tone, reversion to dial tone during conversations, poor audio quality, and the inability of the company to fix things properly.  We, in "Pacific Territory", considered ourselves lucky (Translation: Superior) and constantly made fun or our friends who were stuck in "General Hell".  Whenever it became necessary to make a call across the border, we would say, "I'm going in, I'm going in!"  It was all part of being a phone nut in the 1960s.

Gen Tel's poor service was widely recognized, even by employees of the company.  When talking to their repair guys, one of their common sayings was, "Hey, don't complain...  General Telephone is better than NO telephone."  Probably the truth, but not very satisfying if you were stuck with their service.

I was recently digging through some stuff and came across this old AE Butt-in which was modified decades ago to honor the memory of those days.  Seeing it made me chuckle, and I just had to let you enjoy it as well.  The first picture shows it sitting on a fiberglass GTE cafeteria tray.  The second picture speaks volumes about those days long gone.  As always, comments welcome!

DF

[Doug Rose]

Dave ...that is outstanding! If you ever make copies, I would love one on my red AE butt set.....Doug

[Dave F]

Doug,

If you download the image, I think you will find that the quality is good enough to paste into your photo editor for some minor clean-up.

Dave

[compubit]

I lived on the east side of Carrollton, TX back in the 80s, and that was the sentiment with GTE SW (horrible service - we had touch calling, but no calling features (Call Waiting, etc.), and you prayed that the number you dialed actually was what the CO processed.... Yet SW Bell was but 1/4 mile away - and I would be taunted every time I went to the Mall, with its Phone Center Store... GTE finally cut over to a new switch and we had much more reliable service, along with additional features (at a price...). Of course the new switch meant a new number, which my mom hated: we had 242-1117 (she liked) and went to 418-5861 (ugh, an area code for a prefix!!!!).

At least Carrollton was better than GTE in College Station - we had to buy a rotary phone when I started school in 84, as the switch serving my apartment didn't have touch calling service (on campus and Bryan did, but our switch did not) - of course that's where I discovered the Stromberg 1654 phone - and wondered why Bell never made a model that size...

[tubaman]

... Of course the new switch meant a new number, which my mom hated: we had 242-1117 (she liked) and went to 418-5861 (ugh, an area code for a prefix!!!!).
...

Interesting that your number totally changed as I don't recall that ever happening here in the UK. My Mum's local number went from 4 to 5 to 6 digits and the dialling (area) code changed due to exchange rationalisation, but the original last four digits have been the same  since she first had a phone in the '60s.
As for tone dialling, well a house I had in the early '90s was still on a Strowger exchange with only pulse dialling available. It moved to tone in the mid '90's just before I moved from it.

[MMikeJBenN27]

Were the Model 80 phones themselves any good?

[Dave F]

Were the Model 80 phones themselves any good?

I'm sure that the various members of this forum will all have different opinions about that. Personally, I have always been a WE fan, and have never been particularly impressed with the AE 80. But, as they say, variety is the spice of life.

DF

[rdelius]

in some ways i think the type 80 improved over the 500 set. The hookswitch hold down latch for repair with cover off, ringer capicator not in a network,try to not hang up improperly, it is hard to do so. no soldered connections to the network from the hook switch and no rivited in parts.   weak point  AE did have a manual line  compensator instead of WE automatic compensation.AE did not reinvent the basic dial design with new models

[MMikeJBenN27]

I, being left-handed, never was a fan of AE and similar dials, as they are awkward to dial with your left hand, whereas Western Electric dials are easy to use with either hand.  Just my opinion.

Mike

[countryman]

Interesting, what makes the difference?
They all have to be pulled clockwise, don't they?

[MMikeJBenN27]

The position of the finger stop.  If you are not left-handed, you won't understand until you try using an AE dial left-handed.

Mike

[tubaman]

The position of the finger stop.  If you are not left-handed, you won't understand until you try using an AE dial left-handed.

Mike

That's interesting as WE are somewhat unusual in their finger stop position. You'd not get on well with GPO phones either as their finger stop is in much the same place as AE.

[MMikeJBenN27]

Sure wouldn't.

Mike

[RB]

I have to side with  you, Mike.
I too am a lefty.
I have a SC stick with an AE dial, and A WE 202 with a WE dial on my desk.
I just tried to dial each with my left hand.
The 202 is simple, Dialing into your hand, but the AE forces you to dial away from your hand.
Interesting, I never thot much about it till now...
Thanks for pointing that out Mike.

[rp2813]

I lived in Santa Monica for a while in the late '70s and was subjected the whole time to sub-optimal service from GTE.  I hated the white AE phone that was issued.  It seemed like a toy compared to a WECo 500.  A friend let me borrow his '40s SC set with metal case.  That phone had the most pleasant ringer I've ever heard.  Nothing like the clunky, cartoon-ish sounding AE.  At the time, I was unaware that a WECo set would work in GTE territory.  I assumed GTE was so inferior that it had to be incompatible to the Bell System across the board, so to speak.

About ten years later, after enjoying life once again in Pacific Bell territory, I discovered after renting a place that even though the address was in a city that was served by Pacific Bell, the service provider was GTE.  I knew that the adjacent town had GTE service, but didn't know that the exchange crept into my new neighborhood.  Service was still as bad as in Santa Monica with issues like not breaking dial tone, or delayed dial tone.  Anyone who called 411 had to ask for the small town rather than my large city, and nobody knew to do that -- who could ever expect them to unless they were a phone phreak? 

After reinventing themselves as Verizon, things eventually improved with a new switch, but by the time I moved in 2008 (I had bought a home in the same neighborhood in 1990), their time-of-day service had gone completely bonkers.  It would state something like, "At the tone, the time will be 4:20, and 94 seconds."  Alrighty then.