Which phone(s) are you most nostalgic about?

[MaximRecoil]

For me it is the Western Electric model 554 wall phone, black, fully modular, clear plastic dial, and chromed metal handset cradle.

We had three phones in our house when I was a kid growing up in the '80s: a 554 on the kitchen wall, a 500 in the living room, and another 500 in my parent's bedroom; all black, all fully modular, and all with clear plastic dials.

My earliest memories date from about mid 1978, and the 554 on the wall always intrigued me the most. It was big, up high, and seemed to be the most important phone in the house. Unlike the 500s, I couldn't reach the lofty 554 without standing on a chair. I used it every chance I got; which meant always volunteering to call over to the neighbor's house to tell my older brother to come home for supper (only had to dial four numbers back then for local calls; 7094; I'll never forget that number even though I haven't dialed it in nearly 30 years).

In '86 my mother let those leased Western Electric phones go back to the phone company and she bought a cheap knockoff of a pushbutton Trimline and a couple of other junk phones at Kmart. My older brother convinced her to do this, as opposed to buying the leased phones from the phone company, because afterall, the Kmart phones were pushbutton, so obviously they were "better". I missed the 554 most of all; I missed seeing it on the wall, using it, and its glorious dual brass bell ring.

My aunt kept her 554 (identical to the one we had) right up until 1997, at which point she let it go back to the phone company and replaced it with an el cheapo department store phone. I was sad to see the last leased 554 in use (that I knew of at the time) disappear.

In 2000 I was once again living in the house I grew up in (now as the owner), and my little Sony pushbutton phone just didn't seem right on that old Ma Bell-installed wall jack in the kitchen. So, using the internet (which was a new thing to me at the time), I found and bought a black 554, and hung it on my kitchen wall in its rightful spot, and it is still there to this day.

The 500 triggers nostalgia for me as well (I now have one of those too), but not to the same extent as the 554.

The only other phone that I have any nostalgia for is the rotary dial Trimline, because my grandmother had one on her kitchen wall, and I remember being fascinated by it as a kid; what with its weird appearance and its dial on the handset and all. I remember the first time I used it I thought it was broken, because the finger-stop moved around as you tried to dial. My grandmother told me it was supposed to do that, but I wasn't convinced until I successfully made a call with it.

[DavePEI]

For me as a child of the early 50s, it is a sort of multiple thing. When I was a youth, the phones we had at home were the 302 series, but each summer when we vacationed here on PEI, the service in the country was still magneto. So, I am nostalgic about both at the same time, and for the same reason.

But there is a third thing I am nostalgic about. Brockville where I grew up was the home of GTE/Automatic Electric in Canada, and I had a fair sized collection of AE phones. This included AE-80s and AE-90s, and I had three 11 digit strowgers rescued from the plant dump amongst others. I had these up until I went off to college and my parents, thinking the phones were just old junk, and not worth anything to anyone, threw my entire collection in the dump to make room. So I am nostalgic about them, too. I still resent very much what they did to them. Little did they know what some of them would bring today. That is why when I finally got another 11 digit last year, it meant so much to me.

For most, I think their favorites will be the phones in use when they were young. 500s didn't show up until I was coming into my early teens, so they don't mean as much to me...

Dave

[canuckphoneguy]

I'm most nostalgic of a NE 500 - beige colour from the 70s. That was the phone that my parents had when I was growing up. It was a desktop phone in our kitchen. When I was a teenager in the early 1990s my parents splurged and put in an extension phone in the basement - a NE beige wall phone.

[paul]

I guess it would have to be a light beige 12 button Princess, which due to its location was the phone I used most often. The phone I wish I had right now would be a white 1500D from my grandparents' house.

[twocvbloke]

For me, it's the BT Viscount 9511R, in red, this is the phone I recall the most from my early years, which started off in service with my mother, then ended up with my dad somehow, and then went to my grandma, and then ended up as my toy, in the end it went back to my mother, after about 15 or so years, until her now ex threw it away as he had a faulty viscount and thus all viscounts were rubbish (and he was a BT engineer in the past too, just not a very good one!!!)...

Still, before he threw it out, I bought my own identical one from ebay, it had an issue with my old NTL line so it went into a box until 2010 when via another forum, which I'm not naming cos the admin/mods are gits, I decided to get advice on how to fix it, and it worked fine, so, I don't know what the issue was, but it works now...

So, it's not the same one we had for years, but it's near enough, and works well, at least it will until they drop support for Pulse-dialling, it's sleek, it's a nice colour, and it's not needed anything more than a wash... 

[Dan/Panther]

Only because I have a photo of me with one, My next favorite is the 302, then the 500
D/P

[Dan/Panther]

A couple years back I went searching for a phone stand, and was able to find one about 75 miles away, and re-staged the photo.
My Uncle was able to recall the phone number, and I put in a duplicate dial card from my home town. Of course we had not dail. It reads "Oneida 2079R". I remember having to ask the operator, to connect me to my Aunts number so I could talk to Her.
D/P

[twocvbloke]

Something's missing from that photo re-stage...

[HarrySmith]

That is awesome! Incredible that you could find the same stand and ashtray to recreate that!

[Doug Rose]

Dan...that is really amazing!

I am happy to see you back with us again. Your input has been misssd...Doug

[canuckphoneguy]

That is an awesome story and awesome photos Dan! I love the phone stand too!

[Greg G.]

There aren't any particular manufacturers or models that stand out in my memory, probably because we moved every 5-6 years, but it was 50s-60s era, so most of them were probably WE 500 sets.  Early 60s we had GTE Northwest, whom I believe used AE.  I remember we had a wall phone and were on a party line.  My older brother rigged up an alligator clip to a transistor radio earphone so that when you attached the alligator clip to the metal finger wheel, you could listen in on the neighbors conversations w/o having to lift up the receiver.  Great fun until we found out the conversations were very boring.

[Dan]

My dad's grocery store went from a 554 to a trimline with the rotary dial in the handset. People would comment on it all the time (it is so futuristic!!). No, I didn't live in mayberry.

[Dan/Panther]

Dan...that is really amazing!

I am happy to see you back with us again. Your input has been missed...Doug

Twocvbloke;
I did take some photos with me sitting in the chair, with shoes taped to my knees, so I looked small, but it didn't work the way I had hoped. I plan to do more.

Doug;
I've been the route of Finlover for the past 2-1/2 years. I've taken up Guitar, and gotten fairly good at it, My newest venture, is learning Slide guitar, Dobro style, Delta Blues has always been in my heart.


D/P

[Dan/Panther]

My dad's grocery store went from a 554 to a trimline with the rotary dial in the handset. People would comment on it all the time (it is so futuristic!!). No, I didn't live in mayberry.

Dan's hometown....

D/P