young generation enjoys vintage phones

[southernphoneman]

do you want to know what I think is really cool? the fact that the 20 somethings and younger have discovered phones that people in 30s, 40s and 50s and older grew up and probably took for granted,i wonder how they discovered them . most certainly they were born after the bell system break up, and a lot of these phones were no longer being made. if you are a part of this generation and you are on this forum,reply if youi want to and tell us older collectors your story of how you discovered these cool old phones.remember it is your generation that will keep these phones going for many years to come.

[ESalter]

I was born in 1988, so I missed out on the Bell System era completely.  My dad was born in 49 and he has always liked phones.  He had a handfull(500s, 2500s, a couple 554s, etc) but didn't really put effort into accumulating any more.  I grew up around his stories of dumpster diving at the phone company and phones he had when he was younger but didn't any longer.  He gave me a white 2500 to play with.  I absolutely DESTROYED that phone.  Housing was broken, buttons were missing.  He wasn't too happy about that.  I was probably 6 or so at the time.  He explained about Western Electric and the Bell System and how they weren't around anymore.  I was fascinated, so we started looking for old phones at garage sales.  Things snowballed from there for the both of us.

---Eric

[Dan/Panther]

Just for the young uns out there. Here is a photo of me in 1951, when I was 18 months old. I also was born in 1949, that 19 before the 49, is the last century.

D/P

[Dan/Panther]

Here is a photo, I thought you might enjoy. This is a recreation of the same desk, a couple years ago.
The phones dial card even has our original 1950 number, 2079R2
D/P

[paul-f]

I also was born in 1949, that 19 before the 49, is the last century.

Not only is that in the last century, it's in the FIRST HALF of the last century.

I was born in 1949 too.

[twocvbloke]

Being in my 20s I guess I'll pitch in...

I grew up as GPO telephones were basically going extinct as a maintained telephone option from BT, so most of the traditional bell ringers were being replaced with bleepy tone things, and of course grew up being taught that those old rotary phones were old fashioned and no good...

Onwards to about 2002, I found a GPO 746 in a box in my mother's house at the time, and I had no idea where it came from as she didn't have a 746 as far as I knew (the only phone with a bell in it she used to have was a BT Tribune which broke sometime in the 1990's), so when I got my first phoneline with NTL, I used that as I had nothing else of my own at the time, it worked fine and dialled properly, but looked like it had been through the wars, I did want to try and clean it up at the time but I had no knowledge of how they came apart....

I later bought my red BT Viscount (I like the tone ringer on those) and latterly my BT Studio cordless, and for some reason the 746 disappeared without my knowledge, which I blame on the mother's ex who was a GPO/BT engineer and seemed to have quite the disliking for them (probably cos he got laid off as he was a "do as little as possible while getting paid as much as possible" worker, still is today), as he had thrown out my mother's old red Viscount too, aswell as his own which had a slight fault...

Anyway, onwards a few years, I picked up a cream GPO746 from Burnley market, the fella said he'd had it in his house since the 70's, but the phone being built in the 80's would have meant he was a time traveller or it was replaced without him noticing. I don't have that phone now, I have the other one which isn't in as good a shape as that one was (wish I'd kept it!!), but it was from there that my phone collection started, cos after that it was the black 500DM to the left there, followed by a Mk1 746 in two-tone green, the red 500CD, and so-on right up to today, and even now I'm still eyeballing phones that I'd like to buy...

[xhausted110]

well, I discovered the world of vintage phones a year ago, when I started going "payphone hunting" because payphones were disappearing. later that year, my mom got me a payphone, a working elcotel COCOT, that eventually led to my wanting a rotary phone, so we went to an antique shop and asked for one, "oh, I've got a whole barn full of those! come back next sunday and I will have a couple for you.. $15!" so I came back the next sunday,  asked about the phones and got a box with 2 "farm fresh" 1954 and 1957 500's the 1954 had straight cords and the original four prong and the 1957 had a cut cord and curly handset cord. the first one I wanted to hook up was the one with the four prong, so I looked up the color codes for ring and tip and opened up a phone cord, started poking at the four prong and was very surprised when I got a dialtone! getting it to ring is another long story.  so, that is how I got into phones!

[Dan/Panther]

I also was born in 1949, that 19 before the 49, is the last century.

Not only is that in the last century, it's in the FIRST HALF of the last century.

I was born in 1949 too.

OUCH!!
D/P

[DavePEI]

Just for the young uns out there. Here is a photo of me in 1951, when I was 18 months old. I also was born in 1949, that 19 before the 49, is the last century.

Sheesh you ARE an old Man! I was born in the SECOND half of the century in 1952! No photos of me in '51! But I bet I feel older than you!

Dave

[paul-f]

"It's not the years ... it's the mileage"

(I. Jones)

[southernphoneman]

"It's not the years ... it's the mileage"

(I. Jones)

the funny thing about that is that when I get up in the morning, my body tells me that it is the years and the mileage due to the aches and pains and the old man noises that I make.

[K1WI]

"It's not the years ... it's the mileage"

(I. Jones)

 I hope that is not meant literally.  .... After I retired from "Ma Bell" with a quadrillion miles in the seat of my trusty company truck ...I went on to become a flight attendant with a few zillion more miles  

 Andy F  ( K1WI/VP2V )

[4123]

Hi everyone,
I've posted these photos elsewhere in this forum but this seems to be a good time to post a few here.  We've shown old telephones to literally thousands of elementary school kids over the years.  Sometimes the reactions are amazing.  I remember one fourth grade boy looking at a Strowger candlestick and saying "I've GOT to have one of these"   (a future telephone collector for sure...)
And we get lots of  "whats that?" "whats this do?"  "how come they are so big"  "whats that round thing with holes in it?" and so on....
Olga and I will continue to show these things to kids until we....well....can't anymore.

There's more about the Children's Traveling Telephone Museum here:   http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=9101.msg97467#msg97467

[AE_Collector]

I remember one fourth grade boy looking at a Strowger candlestick and saying "I've GOT to have one of these"

Heck, I'm 55 and can still be heard saying that exact same thing when I see a Strowger Stick!

Great job Ron!

Terry

[southernphoneman]

"It's not the years ... it's the mileage"

(I. Jones)

 I hope that is not meant literally.  .... After I retired from "Ma Bell" with a quadrillion miles in the seat of my trusty company truck ...I went on to become a flight attendant with a few zillion more miles  

 Andy F  ( K1WI/VP2V )

no I was only kidding