How a 13 year old dials a Rotary Phone

[canuckphoneguy]

Yesterday I had some friends over and their 13 year old son was looking at the rotatry phone in my living room (12/46 302.). I asked him if he knew how to dial it. He said , "No."  So he tried.

I was surprised to see him use his thumb to dial the number instead of his index finger. But then I realized that he's one of the "texting" generation.  It looked hilarious seeing him try to dial with his thumb.

He also asked, "How do you backspace?" when you make a mistake. I told him the backspacer is the two big buttons where the receiver goes. 

[olderdude60]

That is hilarious!  A few years back about 1994 one of my daughter's friends needed to call home!  I directed her to my WE 500 from 1980!  She looked at and asked - how do you work this?

Priceless!

[canuckphoneguy]

I guess we know how they feel when we try to work one of their ipods or cell phones.

[Owain]

Maybe he needs to watch the 'how to use the automatic telephone' information films from the 1920s and 1930s on Youtube.

[Dan/Panther]

One of my Daughters friends pushed the center of the hole.

D/P

[canuckphoneguy]

One of my Daughters friends pushed the center of the hole.

D/P

That would be hilarious to watch too. I wish I could have videoed him trying to use the phone.

[twocvbloke]

What's even more fun is telling people about dialling with the hookswitch, and they can't get their head round how it is possible, and they try it and get it wrong, dialling all sorts of different wrong numbers....

[DavePEI]

You are all right. I see many examples of it with the museum. Years ago when we were still in the museum house, I had a woman there buying a car I had for sale. She needed the phone to call her insurance to tell them she was buying the car, so asked to use the phone.

She would need some privacy, so I pointed her to the phone in my Ham Shack. She went in, and five minutes later, emerged, asking "Which is the phone?" I went in and showed her the 500 set on the shelf amongst the radio gear, and she finally made the call.

Around the same time, Jeffery had his birthday party. One child had to call home, so asked where the phone was. I pointed it out to him, and 5 minutes later he came back out... How do I dial this phone? So, I had to show him how to  dial the 500.

Then one time, I had some kids in, and one was playing with the Centurion payphone I have in the porch. He dialed his phone number, then was shocked when his mother picked up the line from home. He hadn't been expecting it to really be connected!

I now have a room in he museum I jokingly call the "Playroom" where all the phones are either on phone line simulators or the Panasonic KSU. Now, I just let them loose and let them play away while their parents see the rest of the museum.

I have seen a lot of kids who were using a dial phone for the first time. Most tried the "stab the number" method mentioned above.  But they all catch on with varied amounts of coaching. Then, invariable they go to other phones and try them.

But to some, the fact it has a dial isn't the most amazing thing to them, - it is the fact they have cords!

There seems to be little interest among the younger generation towards seeing or using the magneto sets.

One lady who has submitted stories to me told me about the experience they had with their grand-daughter, and an old 500 set they have at their cottage.  Of course, they had to show her how to dial. To this day, the child refers to a dial phone as "the phone which chases your fingers!" Think about it - it makes sense!

Dave

[Phonesrfun]

My grandson says dialing on a rotary phone hurts his finger.

[old_stuff_hound]

In about 1996 or so a coworker told me the following story -- he and his family went down to the beach. His son wanted to call his girlfriend, so he (the father, Scott) told Scotty (his high-school-aged) that there was a payphone over there, call her (handing him some change). Scotty disappeared for a few minutes then reappeared. Scott asked, "What's the matter, line busy?" Scotty said, "The phone doesn't work." Scott said, "Sure it does -- someone was using it a few minutes ago." Scotty said, "You can't dial." Scott: "Huh?" Scotty: "I put my finger in the holes but nothing happened." Scott told me that it occurred to him at that point that they'd never had a rotary phone in the house; Scotty had never seen one!

And that was 16 years ago! I can't image what a current-day high schooler would think of a rotary phone. It must seem like some relic only seen in old black and white movies (and some of the younger people -- relatively -- I work with won't watch black and white movies!)

[Phonesrfun]

And that was 16 years ago! I can't image what a current-day high schooler would think of a rotary phone. It must seem like some relic only seen in old black and white movies (and some of the younger people -- relatively -- I work with won't watch black and white movies!)

Probably like we thought of magneto crank phones when I was growing up in the 60's.  About as many people had experience with magneto phones then as people these days have with rotary phones.  Kids should pay more attention when watching old movies and TV shows!

[Owain]

My grandson says dialing on a rotary phone hurts his finger.

That's why he needs a Dialler, Bakelite, Pencil, Telephonists, For the use of.

[Greg G.]

He also asked, "How do you backspace?" when you make a mistake. I told him the backspacer is the two big buttons where the receiver goes. 

Hahahaha!!!

[teka-bb]

I have a small Siemens dial in my collection that is even more confusing because it has 'push buttons' in the fingerholes. But is still a rotary dial that produces pulses.

[MaximRecoil]

A few years ago, my niece, who was about 10 years old at the time, was visiting and said she needed to call home.

I've had a WE 554 on the wall in the kitchen since about 2000 (so for most of her life), but she'd never payed any attention to it before, and whenever she'd needed to use the phone previously, I would hand her the touchtone phone beside my computer desk. This time though, I was curious to see what would happen, so I said, "Sure, out in the kitchen."

She went out to the kitchen, picked up the handset, and then just stared at the phone, not knowing what to do next. After a minute or so she said, "Uncle, how do you dial this phone?" I thought it was funny that she used the word "dial" even though she had never truly "dialed" a phone in her life, and not even realizing why entering a phone number is called "dialing" in the first place.