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growing up in the 1970s/.500 considered old fashion/2500 considered

Started by southernphoneman, March 26, 2013, 09:33:51 PM

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southernphoneman

how many of you if you grew up in the 1970s thought on the 500s as old fashion and wished that your parents would get one of those cool new push button 2500s.

southernphoneman

you want to hear something funny though. now i am adult and i am almost 50 years old and in the 21st century i now wish my parents had there 500s back ;D

paul

I must have been spoiled in the '70s. The house was touch-tone and in 1976 we even got a Princess. One set of grandparents was TT as well, though one of their phones was a 1500D (wish I had that one today) which puzzled me - "Where are the * and #?". The other was rotary with a green 554, and another set upstairs I can't remember, until they finally stopped leasing it sometime in the '80s. Occasionally some friends were rotary, or had a rotary extension that didn't ring  ;)


dsk

The touch tones came to Norway in 1980!

What do you think we wanted when watching American movies  :P

Still the 2500 are fascinating.

The phone i prefer to use daily is actually an AE 40, Everything works perfect, the anti sidetone function is perfect, and the design..............! :-*

dsk

DavePEI

Quote from: southernphoneman on March 26, 2013, 09:33:51 PM
how many of you if you grew up in the 1970s thought on the 500s as old fashion and wished that your parents would get one of those cool new push button 2500s.
No me. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and wished they would bring back the 302s. I spent the summers here on PEI, where all I saw were magneto sets.

My grandmother who lived just up the street fought tooth and nail to keep her 202 right up into the 80s, when finally the phone company refused to replace its cord, and she was forced to accept a 500 set. She died two weeks later. Say anything? Died of a broke heart!

I guess the real moral is you are going to remember the phones which were around when you were a child best, and they and their successors will be your favorites!

Interestingly, when kids see the phones in the museum, I have literally gotten the statement from them, "They had wires?".

Reminds me of a cartoon I posted somewhere on the forum showing a  young cell phone talking to Mom, with a photo of Grandpa in the background, and they are looking at that photo and Mom is saying, "That's right, dear - our ancestors had tails?".

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

southernphoneman

Quote from: DavePEI on March 27, 2013, 07:34:33 AM
Quote from: southernphoneman on March 26, 2013, 09:33:51 PM
how many of you if you grew up in the 1970s thought on the 500s as old fashion and wished that your parents would get one of those cool new push button 2500s.
No me. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and wished they would bring back the 302s. I spent the summers here on PEI, where all I saw were magneto sets.

My grandmother who lived just up the street fought tooth and nail to keep her 202 right up into the 80s, when finally the phone company refused to replace its cord, and she was forced to accept a 500 set. She died two weeks later. Say anything? Died of a broke heart!

I guess the real moral is you are going to remember the phones which were around when you were a child best, and they and their successors will be your favorites!

Interestingly, when kids see the phones in the museum, I have literally gotten the statement from them, "They had wires?".

Reminds me of a cartoon I posted somewhere on the forum showing a couple of young cell phones talking to Mom, with a photo of Grandpa in the background, and they are looking at that photo and saying, "They had tails back then?".

Dave
I like your reply dave,as far as 302s are concerned i never gave that phone a close look untill almost a year into being a collector. i did not know what i was missing. now my 302 is by far my favorite. :)

twocvbloke

Being born in '85, I grew up with 80s and 90s british & cheaply made foreign phones, mostly BT phones initially, and very few being rotary, they were all push-button LD and DTMF models, so, for me it was a case of never had it, but still want it anyway, seeing how I have plenty of rotary phones to play with now... ;D

southernphoneman

Quote from: twocvbloke on March 27, 2013, 06:00:53 PM
Being born in '85, I grew up with 80s and 90s british & cheaply made foreign phones, mostly BT phones initially, and very few being rotary, they were all push-button LD and DTMF models, so, for me it was a case of never had it, but still want it anyway, seeing how I have plenty of rotary phones to play with now... ;D
i like that reply,i am glad these phones are still around for the youger generation to enjoy.

old_stuff_hound

Quote from: southernphoneman on March 26, 2013, 09:33:51 PM
how many of you if you grew up in the 1970s thought on the 500s as old fashion and wished that your parents would get one of those cool new push button 2500s.

Yup. We didn't have touchtone service until the mid-80s. All my friends had TT. Always wanted a push-button phone in the house, but oddly enough, when I was old enough for my parents to put a phone in my room, I wanted a candlestick! Ended up with a cheap-o repro. Still have it.

As I recall TT service was an extra 80ยข or so a month. Silly to waste money on something like that.... ;-)

jsowers

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and my parents never got Touch-Tone. They had a party line until the phone company did away with them about 1986 and by then I had moved away from home. My county in NC had two different area codes and was served by five different telcos, including Southern Bell.

As I recall, Bell had Touch-Tone long before the independent telco that served my house. I recall someone bringing a 2500 to school for us to use as a prop in a play and I had never seen one in person before. I don't think my telco offered TT service until about 1979 pr 1980. It was ten years behind.

After they offered it, they charged $1 a month for it. I never signed up for it, so I saved about $250 until they dropped rotary-only service about 2009. A TT phone would work on the line even with rotary-only service, but not to initiate calls. So the few times I had to navigate a menu, I would call with rotary and then switch to a TT phone. It wasn't much of a hassle. I still have all rotary phones plugged in. I still prefer the sound they make.
Jonathan

old_stuff_hound

Quote from: jsowers on March 28, 2013, 04:52:33 PM
My county in NC had two different area codes and was served by five different telcos, including Southern Bell.

Where 'bouts in NC? I was in Forsyth county -- we had a "not-Bell" telco though I don't recall which one*.....

Before that I was in SC. In Chester we had a private line, but my grandparents had a summer lake house (calling it a "house" is being generous -- really a not-very-glorified trailer) in Fairfield county -- we had a party line there.

*EDIT: I remembered -- it was United Telephone Systems

jsowers

Quote from: old_stuff_hound on March 28, 2013, 09:07:12 PM
Where 'bouts in NC? I was in Forsyth county -- we had a "not-Bell" telco though I don't recall which one*.....*EDIT: I remembered -- it was United Telephone Systems

It's Davidson County, just south of Forsyth County. Arcadia, Midway and Wallburg all were in 919 in the northern part of Davidson County covered by Southern Bell out of Winston-Salem and could make local calls to Forsyth Co. The rest of Davidson County was 704 and had to call long distance to the same area. My junior and senior high schools had to have two different phone numbers in two different area codes.

Now it's all a local call. That was a great improvement.
Jonathan

southernphoneman

I have only lived eastern north Carolina for 7 years. can someone native to the area tell me what phone company served my area(Pamlico county) way back when? when I moved here it was sprint, later embarq, then that changed to centurylink which now serves this area.

kleinkaliber

As a kid in the '70's, my parents had a black 500 in their bedroom, and there was a white or ivory 554 on the kitchen wall. I don't remember seeing any touchtones until we moved to a new house in '81. There we had a couple of slimlines, as did most of the new friends I made in the new neighborhood. The first 2500 I remember seeing was in the office at the new school I went to.


The phone that really impressed me at the time was the moss green 554 with a dial blank and a handset with volume control that my grandfather had in his workshop that he said was so he wouldn't have to run back into the d*** house every time the phone rang. That phone is now here beside me on the wall.

cchaven

I remember 500's and trimlines...and when I was in my teens we had a green SC 500D dated 1966 as an extension phone.  I still have that one...it has an RCA logo dial card in it.  This was in central Illinois and the St. Louis area around 1980.  Not sure where my dad got it, but I'm pretty sure it shouldn't have been hooked up.

Jeff