Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => General Discussion => Topic started by: BDM on March 03, 2014, 04:11:42 PM

Title: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: BDM on March 03, 2014, 04:11:42 PM
I looked around to see if this has been posted yet. If so sorry, I missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkuirEweZvM
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: Dennis Markham on March 03, 2014, 07:26:47 PM
Brian, just the other day the link was posted.  It's a great video and deserves it's own thread.  Thanks for posting and good to have you checking in again.

~Dennis
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: BDM on March 03, 2014, 07:35:38 PM
I went and looked also, and of course, I missed it  :o ....... No need for it to be here, please delete, thanks Dennis.
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: ESalter on March 03, 2014, 08:11:20 PM
Just the other day my little girl (going to be 4 the end of this month) came home from school excited that she learned her phone number.  Of course, I took the opportunity to teach her how to dial it on a 302. :)

---Eric
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: WesternElectricBen on March 03, 2014, 09:08:28 PM
I taught my little Cousin how to dial my cell phone, from my payphone, she learned pretty quickly.

Ben
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: Sargeguy on March 03, 2014, 10:21:21 PM
Notice that the wise-ass who was asking the kids trick questions could not figure out how to hook the phone up so it would ring or provide tone! 

This reminds me of when I had a booth set up at a studio sale before X-Mas.  I had about eight phones hooked up to a Panasonic 308.  Kids loved figuring out how to call the other phones and make them ring and talk to each other.  They caught on pretty quickly. Meanwhile I cannot figure out how to return a text message.
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: DavePEI on March 04, 2014, 11:26:11 PM
I remember years before I started the museum, when my son Jeffery was quite young, we held a birthday party for him. One child was to call home when the party was over, and he asked for a phone to make the call. I led him to my office, where I still had a 500 set (this was the 80s). He was in there forever. I finally went in to see what the problem was. He was trying to punch in the numbers in the holes of the dial, and of course, getting nowhere. I showed him how to use it, and in minutes, his ride was on the way.

Since the museum opened, I have made sure every kid who visits gets a chance to make a call on one of the dial phones connected to a line simulator. They have a ball calling each other on phones connected to the simulator. One such child took to the dial quickly. Later, I showed him the Centurion payphone in the entrance-way, a TT dial phone, and just for fun, he dialed his mother in Cornwall. Imagine his surprise when she picked up her phone! He had not expected to be able to dial out.

Now, I have an entire room set up with phones connected to each other either by one of two line simulators, or by my Panasonic KSU.

One child who visited the museum after being showed how to dial, dubbed the phone, a a phone which chases his fingers!

Finally, in a story which gets a bit off topic, but I feel is worth telling, is the time we were selling one of our old cars. The lady who was buying it had to call her insurance agent to put insurance on the car. At the time, my office was my Ham radio station. Buried amongst the equipment was my trusty old 500 set. I left her alone, and came back in a while to see her staring at the wall of equipment. She looked at me, and said, "Which one is the telephone!" :)   Hid in plain sight!

Dave
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: WesternElectricBen on March 05, 2014, 05:06:39 PM
Interesting story,

Now the issue is, which phone is hooked up to an outside line!

Ben
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: WEBellSystemChristian on March 05, 2014, 05:42:44 PM
My friend, who is also named Ben (he's my age, but he can be immature enough at times to be seven ;D) walked into my bedroom, and immediately started to use my phones. He somehow was able to get every other 500 to ring, and when he left I had to turn every handset on every one of my 500s around, because he had the handset cords draped over the dials  :-\
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: Matilo Telephones on March 05, 2014, 06:02:18 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on March 05, 2014, 05:06:39 PM
Interesting story,

Now the issue is, which phone is hooked up to an outside line!

Ben

LOL, my wife, when she is upstairs, and the phone rings in my phone room, never knows which one to pick up. So she goes downstairs to answer the phone.
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: WesternElectricBen on March 05, 2014, 06:12:56 PM
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on March 05, 2014, 06:02:18 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on March 05, 2014, 05:06:39 PM
Interesting story,

Now the issue is, which phone is hooked up to an outside line!

Ben

LOL, my wife, when she is upstairs, and the phone rings in my phone room, never knows which one to pick up. So she goes downstairs to answer the phone.

Quick fix, and it shouldn't be that hard, just install a telephone on her desk.

Ben
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: Matilo Telephones on March 05, 2014, 06:35:11 PM
Her desk? Hm. That would be the washing machine. I could put up a wall phone there. But somehow I think I'm in trouble if I'd do that.
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: ESalter on March 05, 2014, 08:16:01 PM
All of our phones that are on display are hooked to either our 755A crossbar PBX, Step by Step switch, or 555 cordboard.  Quite a few years ago we had a contractor working in our building.  Apparently he had to call his wife for something and we weren't there.  When we got back he asked my dad how to make a phone call because he picked up practically every phone he could see but they all "sounded sick" (old dial tone).  Beside that fact, he could have called any other phone in the room, but hot outside the building.  We had hundreds of phones, but no telephone service!

---Eric
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: dsk on March 06, 2014, 08:19:14 AM
6 years ago a young PC-tech. (born 1990) came in to my office to help with a network cable, he saw my rotary, stood there for a minute or so, and asked how do you use that telephone?  At that time we still had regular push button phones, except for me :-) 


dsk

PS
For the moment we have some IP telephones with a special Cisco protocol, have not found a way around it.
Next year we are moving into a new building (~1920) There it will be tabletop cell phones. Maybe an adapter may do it there. :-)
ds
Title: Re: Kids and rotary phones
Post by: mrbugsir on March 06, 2014, 11:39:37 AM
I showed my stepson my phone collection and my PBX setup a month ago. I suggested that he ring the AE40 himself and told him to dial 105. He put his finger in the hole of the rotary dial and that was it, he didn't know what else to do. He hadn't been exposed to rotary phones since I had only just started collecting them. He is 24.