Spreading the Word of Old phones

[happy hooligan]

Thought I'd spread the word of just how great old phones are...

I posted my WE 202 on my blog.  Hopefully it will get some guys who don't really know about old phones interested...

http://www.poohbang.com/

[HobieSport]

It's interesting about the different ways some of us have become so fascinated with old phones. Some have been collecting and working on them and appreciating them for years. And for some of us, like me, the whole thing just kind of snuk up on us.

In my case, I bought a 1954 travel trailer last year to use as a studio, and started to look for various standard home appliances of the mid century era to go with it. So then I started looking at phones and found this wonderful forum last Autumn, and needless to say, I became hooked.

How about You?

[foots]

I missed the good quality of the old rotary phones versus my high dollar cordless that only lasted 3 years. I was looking on the net to see how to service my dial when I came across Dennis' site. I was hooked after seeing some of the restorations and from there I found this place.

[foots]

Happy Hooligan, its nice to see another percolated coffee drinker, that's a nice perc you have there. I myself have 2 large Corningware electric percs with the blue cornflowers on them. I don't know how old they are but they sure do make good coffee.  I like your 202 also. I have one that's in really nice condition that was refurbed in '51 and has the F1 handset on it. I still need to get a subset for it though.

[Dennis Markham]

Mr. Hooligan, I hope you don't mind but I added a link to your blog on your posting.  That way more people will see it.  It's a great looking phone and a very nice posting.  Thanks for sharing them.

[jsowers]

I too like old percolators. Foots, I have four of those old Corning Ware Electromatics. They seem to last forever. I use them for spiced tea at Christmas (it's hot Russian tea made with fresh orange and lemon juice, pineapple juice, tea, sugar, whole cloves and allspice). I bring them all to my office and put the cloves and allspice in the percolator basket when I heat the tea. Don't knock it till you've tried it-it smells like Christmas. What's great about the Corning perc is it's non-reactive to the acid in the juice, with the Pyroceramic outside and the stainless steel inside. Just don't keep it plugged in very long when the tea or coffee runs out or you'll have a burned mess.

I also have a Revere Ware stove top percolator, but it's a drip model with a basket that sits atop the main part and it has no glass insert. Happy Hooligan, that's a very nice one you have and all the parts are there, which is a miracle after all this time. So often the cords or the basket are gone from the Corning Ware percs I find in thrift stores.

And about how I became fascinated with old phones, it was sometime in childhood. My parents were always going to auctions and antique shops, collecting antiques and refinishing them, and the bug rubbed off on me. I got some old Select-o-Phone intercom phones at a shop for about $5. They resembled 202s with spitcup handsets and brown cloth cords and large bell boxes. My uncle Joe wired them to a Burgess dry cell and we could talk between them. I wanted them to ring, but that wasn't possible.

I had another uncle who worked for Southern Bell. I always saw the latest phones at his house. Everyone else in the family had "the one black phone" and he had three, all in color. And he got free long distance. What's the saying--"you always want what you can't have?"

As I grew up, I went to yard sales and found phones now and then. I thought I hit the jackpot at one sale with a moss green modular 554 and 500 for $5 each in the days before the Bell System broke up and phones were expensive at the Phone Center. I still have that 500 in my living room as the one phone that's plugged in. My whole house is furnished with thrift store and yard sale phones--all rotary--that have worked fine for the 25 years I've used them. I do have touch-tone phones and connect one when I have to call one of those menu things.

I became a computer technician and always noticed how simple phones were to work on compared to computers. I have rotary phones on the shelves in my office and you'd be surprised how many people comment on the phone they had as a child. It's nice to work on something mechanical sometimes after dealing with things like computer viruses, lightning damage and dead hard drives.

[happy hooligan]

Thanks everyone.

The whole reason I did a blog of my stuff is, one I have a bunch of stuff but more importantly I think there are a lot of guys just like me who like old phones, coffee makers, watches, radios... etc, etc...

I think I was lucky to find that percolator with all it's parts.  I really want to try a vacuum coffee maker next..  they look so cool when they work....

the dial on my 202 is original to the dial, but it's not a WE dial.  Everything else matches with the date 1936 but the dial.

I realized the other day that I might have a phone addiction as in my living room there are 4 vintage phones and only one is hooked up.... luckily my wife likes them too, but said no more...

[HobieSport]

That's a nifty blog you have there, HH. I bookmarked it so I can check back in from time to time see more of your neat stuff.

I don't have a coffee percolator, but I love the looks of them. Is that a vintage kitchen stove that the percolator is sitting on in the picture? I'd like to see pictures of the stove too.

The 202 phone looks great, and I like that Fender acoustic guitar too!

Some of my vintage items I have and use (besides the 1954 Roadmaster trailer) are Revere Ware pots, pans and teakettle, a couple of mid-century clocks, an Osterizer, Toastmaster toaster, and a really cool 1950s rotisserie. I'll try and post pics sometime.

And of course way too many phones...

I think I should start a blog too, where I can show some of my stuff and share some interests.

Glad you joined the forum. There are a lot of shared interests in all kinds of vintage items here, besides the phones.

-Hobie

[Greg G.]

Here's my contribution to vintage kitchen stuff, an Sunbeam Model T-9 toaster I found at a yard sale.  Works, but kinda stinks (that old electric smell).  Probably just needs a good cleaning, but since I don't cook, not even toast, for now it's just decor.

[HobieSport]

Those rounded Sunbeam toasters are real nice classics, BB. I was looking for the same model on Ebay but they usually go for somewhat higher prices than other mid century toasters. So I ended up getting a Toastmaster; clean, in good working condition, for about $25 including shipping.

I don't know about the Sunbeams, but the timer on the Toastmaster has some  nifty mechanical "clockwork" in it, complete with a little brass pendulum that ticks.

[happy hooligan]

Here's my contribution to vintage kitchen stuff, an Sunbeam Model T-9 toaster I found at a yard sale.  Works, but kinda stinks (that old electric smell).  Probably just needs a good cleaning, but since I don't cook, not even toast, for now it's just decor.

I love that toaster!  I have an old toastmaster but it's more rectangle.  I love that half circle!

[happy hooligan]

Here's my contribution to vintage kitchen stuff, an Sunbeam Model T-9 toaster I found at a yard sale.  Works, but kinda stinks (that old electric smell).  Probably just needs a good cleaning, but since I don't cook, not even toast, for now it's just decor.

Today I highlighted my 1954 O'Keefe and Merritt Stove...
more pics on my blog...

[McHeath]

That is a great stove!  Is that blue an enamel paint of some sort? 

[happy hooligan]

I actually went to a professional stove place...   They totally rebuilt it, re chromed it, and re enameled it.

The only color they can't do is red.  CA law doesn't allow it...

well worth it.

For an apartment, they did make smaller apartment sizes stoves you know...

[bingster]

The only color they can't do is red.  CA law doesn't allow it...

I'm curious as to why they don't allow red.  Do you know?