Early phone memories

[Phonesrfun]

I don't know if this has been a topic before, but here goes....

In an earlier post started by d_s_k, Atomic Tom commented on his earliest phone memories of a time-capsule home that had original 500's.  Tom is a young guy, and we definitely need more like him and Kyle to keep this hobby alive for the future.

I, on the other hand am an old fart.  58 to be exact.  I grew up in the 50's and the 60's.  My first memories of phones as a child were of the 302 and the 354 in our home.  We also started out with a 6 digit number LIncoln-1971 in Portland, Oregon, which became ALpine 4-1971 in about 1957.  Notice that all they did was add a number "2" digit in the front of the number, and changed the name of the office accordingly.

In 1959, my mom was the first on our block to get a brand new Princess.  As a teen in 1967, I had a paper route and since I had money, I got my own number and a touch-tone Moss Green 10-button 1500 phone.

Earlier on, we had to dial the "0" for any long distance calls, and a call to the other side of town that was on another phone company had to be a toll call.

I remember once going with my dad to a farmer friend of his in a small town about 50 miles away.  They actually had a real working wooden wall phone!  For real.  Both my mom and dad have memories of using magneto phones as they grew up.

Going to the beach on the Oregon Coast was also kind of fun.  The motel where we stayed had no TV because of the coast range in between the beaches and Portland which is about 100 miles away.  Only the office in the motel we stayed at had a phone.

In 1964 we took a road trip to San Francisco to visit my aunt for a week.  On the way back, we went through Nevada and stopped in Virginia City, which is a ways outside of Reno and Carson City.  I remember we drove by the telephone central office, and because it was warm, the door was wide open for ventilation.  Inside were a couple of operators sitting at a manual cord switchboard that served Virginia City.  None of the phones there had dials.  They were all Aunt Bea/ Andy Griffith style 500 A's with a dial blank instead of a dial.

I also remember that during my childhood, 302's were very common place and it was not uncommon to see a 202.  I don't remember ever seeing a candlestick in actual use, but I can tell you that in my early years, a candlestick was thought of with distain, since it was very old fashioned, and nobody I knew collected things like we do now.  That probably isn't really true, but that is the way it seems everyone felt at the time.

-Bill Geurts, the old fart

[foots]

     My earliest phone memories (I'm 31) are of the 2 phones in my grandparent's house. There was a yellow 554 in the kitchen and a very old black 500 on the dresser in the bedroom. Since I was in South Central Bell territory, those 2 styles of phones were very common in homes around here. There were  plenty Princess and Trimline phones also. I remember a business, though I can't remember what business, had an old black multi-line phone with lighted round line buttons.  I also remember only having to dial 4 digits to call anyone around town. I still remeber several of my relatives' phone numbers thogh most had died by the mid 90s. My parents still have the same phone number since 1982.

[Greg G.]

I only remember 500s and wall phones.  I remember party lines being the norm in the late 50s and early 60s in the northern burbs of Seattle, private lines were for the well-to-do.  I remember a neighbor getting a push-button phone when they first came out, it was the coolest thing!  I'm pretty sure my memory is accurate, it was a green colored 10-button.

[bingster]

The only pre-500 phone I remember from my childhood is a 302 in a gas station down the street from my house.  It was there until the station closed in the late 1980s. 

Our phones at home were  all modern touchtones, because my mother hated rotary phones--she always complained about breaking her nails in dials.  We had three:  white in the kitchen, aqua in my parents' bedroom, and beige in the living room, which was replaced later on with a Design Line chestphone.  One of the two older phones was 10 button, but now I can't remember whether it was the one in the bedroom or the one in the kitchen.

My grandparents had rotary 500s.  A black one in the bedroom, and a pink 554 in the kitchen.  I can't remember any others.  As fascinated as I've always been by telephones, you'd think I'd have paid more attention to them, but for some reason I must not have.

[Dan/Panther]

I hope people don't get tired of looking at this, but this is my earliest recollection of a phone I can remember using to talk to my Aunt when I was 4 years old.
I'm 18 months in the photo.
D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Dan, it's a great photo.  We all wish we had one (photo) of us seated next to a vintage phone when we were that age. You're lucky to have that picture.

My earliest telephone memory was from the time between 1955 - 1962.  Since I was born in 1955 my first memory probably isn't until a couple years later.  We had a desk phone that had a crank (probably a Leich).  We were on a party line as we lived in a rural farming community.  I recall my father saying he could hear a "click" when the nosy neighbor would pick up the phone and listen in on the conversation.   Later after leaving that area we had a rotary 554 in the hallway of our home.  Some years later, mid 1960's my sisters were able to talk my parents into their own telephone with a separate number.  It was a black 500 with metal finger wheel.

We moved to Florida in 1967 and had much more modern Trimline rotary phones.  There were at least three of them in the house.  I know one was beige but don't remember if the others were in color.

I have an Aunt and Uncle that live in Northern Michigan where he retired from Michigan Bell.  We'd visit there in the summer time during the 1960's.  They always had the latest stuff.  That's where I saw my first 4 prong plug.  Their whole house had flush mounted wall jacks for the 4 prong plugs.  They also had a rotary dial Panel Phone in the kitchen.  It's still there today and used every day.

I don't remember having touch tone phones until the early 70's.

I also recall a black 302 that my Grandmother had in Manistee, Michigan.  She lived in a huge old house there.  I remember picking up the phone and was amazed at the weight.  It weighed a ton.  Perhaps it was a metal model, I don't recall.  Even though it was her son-in-law (my Uncle the Bell Telephone man) she kept that 302 probably up until her death in 1975.

[jsowers]

I grew up in AE territory, as I've said before. Our first phone was a black AE40 with a party line switchhook. Pick up the receiver and squeeze a chrome lever to get dial tone, or don't squeeze the lever and listen into the party line without being heard. The frequency ringer on that phone was more like a thrumm. Must have been a low frequency. It vibrated more than it rang. The phone sat on a knotty pine built-in countertop and bookshelf/cabinet in my parents' den and it was wired to a flush mounted box in the wall (which is still there, but now it's an RJ11 faceplate I installed) with an 8-foot mounting cord.

My grandmother Sowers next door had an AE50 Jukebox wall phone in the hallway. The outline of it is still on the wall, where they painted around it. I need to take a picture of that and post it. Later it was replaced by an SC 554.

I'm from a very small community called Welcome, NC. All our numbers were REgent 1 and still are. Before digital switching went in, about 1983, you could dial 1 and the last four digits and get anyone locally, and the same went for other exchanges in the neighboring town of Lexington. Once I was able to call the local doctor by just flashing the switchhook on our AE80 (we updated phones about 1973). His number was RE1-2121, but all I had to dial was 1-2121. It wasn't an emergency--just to see when he could give me an allergy shot. It went through. Boy was I amazed. I must have been fascinated with phones from an early age.

My Uncle Don worked for Southern Bell and like Dennis' uncle, I saw all the latest phones we never could get at his house. Uncle Don would always lift the handset first thing and check to see if a phone was Western Electric when he visited a motel, according to my aunt. They always had free long distance at home and kept touch with all the members of the family (mom had six brothers and sisters). He retired and when he died, so did the free long distance.

I do remember a 302 at my aunt's house in Salisbury, NC. She still has the same MElrose 3 phone number she had in 1956, though the 302 went away when they converted to touch-tone about 1976. That was about the time I saw my first touch-tone phone. I don't think we had them locally until the 1980s. When I built my house in 1985, I had the option of getting rotary-only service, and I had that until recently when they made a mandatory change. Same for party lines when I was still living with my parents. Only when they did away with them did we change to a private line. By that time it was only us and Granny and that was not too hard to manage.

I live in a county that has five different telcos. Once it also had two different area codes. It was long distance and a different area code to call five miles down the road. We had to dial 112+area code+number for direct dial calls and 110 for operator-assisted.

I think my earliest telephone memory is from October 23, 1962. I was four. The phone rang and mom answered and found out her father died suddenly of a heart attack. We had just been to see him at home a few days previously and taken pictures with him holding my sister, who had just turned one year old.

Among other old phones I remember was the one in Long's Barbershop. They still used their AE50 Jukebox phone up into the 1990s. And at my dad's place of business they had a rollover line. CHestnut 6-2346 and 2347, I think. I loved going there on the weekends and being able to call myself on the two phones on my Uncle Max's desk (he worked there too, and answered the phone). One was an AE40 with chrome dial and the other a black metal dial AE80. One thing I will never forget about those chrome fingerwheels was they were COLD to the touch.

Thanks to the others who have posted their childhood memories. It was interesting to read and sparked several of my own memories.

[JorgeAmely]

Growing up in Puerto Rico, we did not have WE or AE in the island, only Kellogg equipment. In 1964 our family got their first phone, a DK500 in black. It took over a year from application to installation. It was a party line with some other people from town. It was hardwired to the wall. Back then the island area code was 809. Later that area code was assigned to the Dominican Republic and it is now 787.

At the beginning, we always had to use the operator to call other towns or relatives in USA. When DD service started, we dialed 137 + area code + 7 digit number.

I remember playing with the dial many times trying to figure out why the dial returned at a constant speed. Other that black and beige, I didn't see colored phones until arriving in the US in the early 80's. Then I bought a blue Trimline for my apartment in 83, but I regret to say that I sold it for a buck at a yard sale later (bummer!).

Someone gave me a beige 2500 in 1992 which I used until 2007 when it suddenly "stopped" working after DSL installation.  When working on it, the kids began to wonder what was that sound (the sound of the bells), so I decided to get a pink Princess for my daughter and a red 500 for my son. They are probably the only kids around here that know how to use a rotary phone. The first official phone in my collection is an Aqua Blue 500, which I still have.

Many years after my father passed, my niece found a black 554 among his things. It is now fully restored, with a phone card from the island. It is in the garage and is the only wall phone I have.

[Dan/Panther]

Jorge;
If you get a chance post a photo of the 554 wall phone.
D/P

[JorgeAmely]

D/P:

Here are the pictures you requested:

1) Just a simple "554" with a rural dial.
2) The card is original to the day it was installed.

When I picked it up, I had to throw away the base because the heat and humidity of the tropical island caused the network to bulge and spill the "cosmoline" (whatever the name of that stuff is) on the base. Reminded me of the movie Alien.

Dennis provided me with a WE base to complete the restoration. All parts are 1974, except the base that now is from 1958.

[bellsystemproperty]

I don't remember what is my earliest memory of a phone, but I know the first phone I used was a GE corded phone which we still have, but it has been replaced by the rotary phones. I remember my mom's Motorola cell phone pretty well, it is not a brick phone. Until about a year ago when my rotary phone obsession began I never paid much attention to phones, which is why I don't remember that much. I do know my first rotary was the WE Sculptura. Our house currently  has no touch-tone phones connected since we never call anything that would require it, and the PBX converts pulse to tone except for # and *, since there aren't those keys on a rotary phone.

btw Bill, my 1232 came today. It is working great, but I'll need to mount it.

[AET]

When I was very young, we had a couple of beige 500's in the house, which went for 'caller ID/answering machine' phones later on.

Dad says he remembers a 302 in his grandma's house.  And I am going to pick his brains for some more phone memories.

My grandpa worked for Menomonee Falls Wisconsin Bell Telephone in the 1950's, replacing dry cells.  He still has the Ericofone that was in my mom's room as a teenager.

Dad talked my grandparents into letting him have a phone, but he had to install it himself, so he learned to install a phone himself (4-prong) and the phone was a yellow 500.

[Phonesrfun]

Kyle:

That is great that it came.  Sounds like a good project to be working on.

Keep us posted..

-Bill

[Tonyrotary]

I remember at my Uncle's house he had at least ten 554's. When he sold the house a couple years after I joined the Army I found out that he threw out all those phones. I found that out recenty after I sent him a picture of my 302 that I worked on. The phones were in good shape and makes me wonder what kind of dates they all had and if any might have been soft plastic. I also found out that before he joined the Army he worked at Ma Bell in the mailroom. 

[HobieSport]

Gee, There are lots of good stories and memories here.

My memories are very basic and simple. I was born in '57 and grew up in a small town on the mid California coast in the 1960s. We always had just one phone, a very standard black WE554, just like the one Jorge has pictured. It hung in the kitchen. Dad and Mom had to pinch pennies to raise three kids in comfort, but we never felt like we needed more than the one phone. All my friend's families usually also just had a single standard 554 or a 500, usually black. In the 1970s in another house we also just had a single black 500. I never recall seeing any other types of phones all during my childhood or teen years.

Perhaps this explains why I still love black dial phones.

So my only fun phone story is that we used to have a parrot that lived under the open staircase right next to the phone, and he learned to imitate the tones of our various individual voices from phone conversations. He didn't use words, but he would imitate the sounds and timbers of each of our voices. It was uncanny and a bit scary how well he did it. But he never imitated the sound of the phone ringing. Perhaps it was beyond even his own amazing vocal abilities.