What Was Your First Phone?

[HobieSport]

Just for fun, what was your first phone?  Or maybe it should be asked, your first three phones:

1) Your first family phone(s) that you remember as a wee one.

2) The first phone that you bought new when we were suddenly allowed to purchase our own, and

3) The first phone that you bought as a "collector", not including phones inherited or given to you, but the first older phone or two that you bought from choice.

As for me...

1) Our family phone in the 60s was a black WE 554 in the kitchen and we could here it ring all over the house.  In another house in the 70s we had a black WE 500.  We had a parrot that lived next to the phone and he became quite adept at imitating the various tones of our voices while we conversed.  He never did pick up the sound of the ring though.  He just screamed like a girl instead.

2) In the 1980s the first phone I chose to buy was a clear Trimline style (not WE of course) you know, the one that lit up and had bright yellow and pink parts inside.  And it had buttons instead of a dial.  I felt so...modern.

3) The first phone I bought just last year when I found the forum and began to appreciate all that is out there I got a 302 and an AE40, and the madness has continued since.

[AET]

The earliest i remember, we had two beige 500's at least, may have been more.  We went cordless and got fancy stuff with caller ID and answering machines later on and we have many now.  My first phone/collector phone was my 1978 ITT 500 in white, and now I have somwhere around 15 500s and 1 554.

[bingster]

1.  The earliest memory of a phone from childhood is the white 2554 that always hung in the kitchen. 

2.  My first "collector" phone was a 10-57 black 500 (which I still have).  I think I bought it when I was 12 or 13.

3.  I was still in high school when the phone company was destroyed, so I didn't buy anything.  My parents didn't either--when they sold their house in the mid-1990s, they still had the three Bell System phones they'd had for years.  They took one (Design Line chestphone), but left two in the house (white 2554 and aqua 1500).

[McHeath]

Growing up there was bevy of classic WE phones, an ivory 500 in the parents bedroom.  A harvest gold 554 in the kitchen, and a black 554 in the garage.

My first phone I bought was a GE Flip Fone, around 1979 or 80', I bought it because it worked like a Star Trek Communicator.  It was an okay phone, but it eventually broke in the mid 80's and was replaced with the last of the WE 500s, a 1984 model that I bought new and still use.

After the collector bug bit last summer I bought a yellow 1955 WE 500 at a thrift store for a few bucks, and have not stopped.  (No soft plastic here, it was refurbed in the early 80's and modularized to boot)

[Dan]

A black 500 in mom and dad's bedroom, and a 554 harvest yellow in the kitchen with the 25 foot cord that was as close to a cordless that you could get in the '70's.. When we remodeled the basement, a red 2554.

As a  side note, my father owned a grocery store that was taken over when he died in 1983 by my brother. It had a black 554 with a narrow cradle with brushed aluminum finish in the back . They had a trimline (yellow) in the front  with the rotary  dial inset in the handpiece. We thought that was the coolest phone going. The store sold in 2002, the trimline is gone, but the 554 lives on. A few months ago I found an early 1957  Black 554 with the narrow cradle and stole it for $25 (sentimental guy that I am).

[Bill Cahill]

At my earliest age, I believe my folks had a black  302, followed by a black 500, Then, a black 554, soon followed by a yellow 554 in the kitchen.
My first treasure was a 1956 black 500 off ebay.
I now have a 302, a yellow 554, a white 500 from 1965, a black  554, and, several others.
Bill Cahill

[BDM]

My great aunt's originally owned 302/H1. I believe the first phone I purchased was a 1500/TT color white. I actually bought that before the Bell divestiture, around 82/83. Think I paid $5 from some shop dealer. I purchased others around the same time, but I do believe that was the first one.

That being said. The first phone I can remember as a kid was our W.E. 554 in the kitchen, late 60s. Believe it was red. The bedroom had a black dial 500. My mother loved red or white phones, hated black. Said it reminded her of old drab phones (go figure). Later, red TT Trimline's® replaced the phones in the kitchen and bedroom.

First phone I bought new was a cordless. This was one of the early sets that used to be on 27/MHz (CB band). That thing was a piece! Later replaced with the newer 49/MHz sets.

Not sure on the first collector phone I purchased. Maybe a 302 or W.E. candlestick. I'm just not sure

[Dan]

It's amazing what those early TT's (without # and * buttons ) are going for these days. I hope you still have yours. I thought I may try to get a cheap one in green with a cracked front corner, but the auction went for $48!

[BDM]

It's amazing what those early TT's (without # and * buttons ) are going for these days. I hope you still have yours. I thought I may try to get a cheap one in green with a cracked front corner, but the auction went for $48!

It had all 12 buttons. I get I'm confused on the TT designation. I have an early 12 button hard wired set. It's near impossibly to read the bottom, but it may be a 1500. Maybe converted? I can't tell. I know Paul-F has the info on his site. I'll look later (getting lazy)

EDIT: Yup, she's a 2500D I do believe.

[Dan/Panther]

This is a photo of our earliest phone I remember using as a kid. I can only actually recall one call i made on this phone, it was to my Aunt, she lived with us for a time, and I called her after they moved out.
D/P

[HobieSport]

I recognize that photograph. That is Dan/P at age four.

Edit.  Correction: Age 18 mos..

[foots]

The first phone I remember was a beige WE 500.  I remember our first cordless with the long chrome antenna you had to telescope out about 3 feet.
My first phone I bought as a collector is my WE D1 mount 202, followed shortly by an old Stromberg~Carlson 1243. I've since added 2 more phones to my collection and will proabably add another shortly that I recently spotted and want really badly. Is there a hotline for phone collecting addiction?

[mienaichizu]

I remember when I was a kid, we have a red Ericson's touch tone phone (which can be also converted to pulse tone) way back in the early 90's. My first encounter of a rotary dial was an AE80 at my grandfather's house.

The first one I bought was not a telephone but a cellphone (Nokia brand, I can't remember its model number).

Being a collector, the first rotary phone I bought was an AE80 which was the so common here in the Philippines

[McHeath]

The first one I bought was not a telephone but a cellphone (Nokia brand, I can't remember its model number).

My older step-sons have this same kind of experience, they bought cell phones as their first phones not landline phones.  They may never own landline phones at all as they all rely on cells.  Sometimes however that fails them as the time last week one of them needed us to watch the baby the next day and left messages on our cells that did not come through until the next day.  (a not uncommon experience with our cell phones, he tried calling and the cells did not ring, and the messages did not register until later the next morning)  So he never got to us, and when we asked why he did not call our landline he said he simply forgot we had one. 

[Tonyrotary]

First family phone I can remember was a biege WE554 in the kitchen. Then we moved when I was almost 5. The phone in the kitchen was a beige WE2500. After my parents passed away years later, we moved in with my Uncle and Aunt where that old biege WE554 was still in the kitchen. Along with a few more phones scattered around the house. ( The house was where my Mom and Uncle grew up as kids.)

I was in 8th grade when ma bell dissolved. I don't know if my parents still rented or bought the phone.

First collector phone was the white NE 554 hanging in my kitchen. More of a nostalgic phone than a daily driver but it is hooked up always standing by for duty.