A story from a friend....

[markosjal]

A friend recently saw my WE202 .  She called it the "Chigago Phone" then told me why...

She said she had one like it but the handset was different (my handset is the 1950s F )

She is older than I and in the 1960s moved to Chicago and rented an apartment . There was already a phone in the apartment form the previous occupant and she had it activated.

She apparently was in that apartment for a very long time and years later (1970s?) she had some phone problem. The tech wanted to change the phone , and she did not want to. he was insistent. She would not agree. Turned out the phone set did not need to be changed (thats Western Electric), and a problem was fixed elsewhere.

A short time later a man identifying himself as a manager from the phone company knocked on her door, offering her any other model phone for free in exchange for the old phone. She stayed with the old phone for many years later. Apparently this man returned a few times trying to persuade her to get a free upgrade to a more "modern" phone.

I wonder if this was telco policy to get the old phones out of use or whether it was that the manager himself wanted that phone himself? The pressure to swap the phone started with the repair tech though so maybe the installer knew that the manager wanted one?

Maybe one of you guys here know something about this that I do not?

[poplar1]

A retired Bell man who was an installer-repairman in midtown Atlanta told me that in the 1950s, there were still about 25 candlestick phones in the area. But the foremen knew where every one of them was installed, so there was no chance for the repairman to get one.

Another friend said his grandmother kept leasing a 151-AL in the 1950s because she had an old fashion hearing aid with the microphone worn in front. She could hold the receiver up to the hearing aid's mike and speak into the telephone transmitter.

Some places were still installing 302s in 1960.

[Jim Stettler]

A friend recently saw my WE202 .  She called it the "Chigago Phone" then told me why...

She said she had one like it but the handset was different (my handset is the 1950s F )

She is older than I and in the 1960s moved to Chicago and rented an apartment . There was already a phone in the apartment form the previous occupant and she had it activated.

She apparently was in that apartment for a very long time and years later (1970s?) she had some phone problem. The tech wanted to change the phone , and she did not want to. he was insistent. She would not agree. Turned out the phone set did not need to be changed (thats Western Electric), and a problem was fixed elsewhere.

A short time later a man identifying himself as a manager from the phone company knocked on her door, offering her any other model phone for free in exchange for the old phone. She stayed with the old phone for many years later. Apparently this man returned a few times trying to persuade her to get a free upgrade to a more "modern" phone.

I wonder if this was telco policy to get the old phones out of use or whether it was that the manager himself wanted that phone himself? The pressure to swap the phone started with the repair tech though so maybe the installer knew that the manager wanted one?

Maybe one of you guys here know something about this that I do not?

You should create a poll.
I say manager.

Jim S.

[Dan/Panther]

Seems I heard a similar story once, where it turned out John Dillinger used the apartment for a hideout for a period of time. It may have been another gangster but Dillinger sticks in my mind. I'm not sure who wanted the phone, but they knew it's supposed history.

D/P

[AL_as_needed]

Perhaps they didn't so much want the phone, maybe it was policy to push and have everyone on the same technological page within the network. I had a similar experience with my cellphone. After many years someone in Verizon realized I still had an i-phone 4 (this was this spring). In short Verizon was almost offering to pay me to upgrade as I was allegedly highhandedly straining the network with my older generation of phone.

[twocvbloke]

In short Verizon was almost offering to pay me to upgrade as I was allegedly highhandedly straining the network with my older generation of phone.

And of course, they were polluting the atmosphere with the strong scent of bovine excrement, so fair's fair...