The fall of the phone

[John Boyer]

So far through 2009, my Blackberry remains off until the end of the day. At that time, I will review any voice messages, emails or texts to determine what should be returned that day or by next morning. My attitude going into 2009 is that "the Blackberry is for my convenience, not necessarily yours." I will , however, take all calls from my office phone and respond same day to written letters and cards. I will no longer be "Pavlov's dog", reacting to every silly sound produced from my Blackberry--all day long--without some restraint. John

 

[ScionPI2005]

Why can't you use it?

I shouldn't say "I can't use it", I can. Personally, I seldom make phone calls, and due to being away at college for four years, anyone who has called me has needed to call me on my cell phone. The land line is mainly for my parents, so I seldom get calls on it.

In regards to the future, whether or not I use my vintage phone will depend on whether or not I have an active land line account.

 

[Chrome]

I enjoy using my cellphone and I need it too. I'm not heavy user and I usually don't bother to answer it or even check how's calling. I don't have such a family who would call me in emergency so no need to be online. Good thing about text messages is that friends don't call me that much for just small talk and now they send messages if they really have something more important to say.

Also it is good to have phone with internet, you never know what info you need to find out about vintage stuff when in thrift shops And previously I didn't take that many pics, but now the camera is with me and it gets use too.

Modern age makes good and bad stuff, one good thing is ATM because I'd hate to pickup money for whole weekend and play by it. ofcourse the modern age invented the plastic so you don't need to visit the ATM anymore.

 

[kampkatz]

Since there seems to be no end to inventions, someday the cell phone, also will be an "antique" that some of the younger folks on this link will fondly remember.

 

[Lily Powers]

Since there seems to be no end to inventions, someday the cell phone, also will be an "antique" that some of the younger folks on this link will fondly remember.

Can you imagine? Seventy-five years from now there will be a group of vintage lovers posting photos of their vintage cell phones that they picked up at some antique store.

I splurged on a 1930's Western Electric candlestick phone - all pieces original except for the cloth on the cords. It's been fiddled with so that it works in modern modems and I love it. What was really amusing was watching people try and use it. One friend was unsuccessful at dialing counter-clockwise and figured "it must be a left-handed dial." lol Another friend held the the phone by the long neck and placed the mouthpiece to his ear and held the ear piece to his mouth, like a microphone. And these people have law degrees!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever I want to feel really, really old, I think about the fact that there are now millions of functional adults in the world who have never dialed a telephone.

 

[carouselvic]

Up until I was in the seventh grade we had an oak wall phone. Our ring was two longs and one short.

 

[Lily Powers]

Whenever I want to feel really, really old, I think about the fact that there are now millions of functional adults in the world who have never dialed a telephone.

Think positive! I think you should look at it this way: "Whenever I want to feel DEXTEROUS, I think of the millions of functional adults in the world who have never dialed a phone!"

 

[Miss 1929]

I also remember the party line!

I'll bet a lot of our Loungers are so young they never had one...

Annoying as hell to have to wait for the neighbors to get off the phone to make a call. But amusing to listen in on them.

I haven't had a land line in a few years, no point to it as I need my own phone for my business. And I love the connectivity, the ability to take a picture with it and send the picture ( I don't use it a lot but it is so cool), and all those nice things.

I do have a swell old bakelite 30s rotary phone, and nowhere to plug it in!

I wish there was a docking station for my cell phone that I could plug my old phone into, so that when I was home i could hide the Treo in a drawer and take the calls on Black Beauty.

 

[ScionPI2005]

I wish there was a docking station for my cell phone that I could plug my old phone into, so that when I was home i could hide the Treo in a drawer and take the calls on Black Beauty.

I wish there was something like that too. The closest I've gotten is a bluetooth handset shaped like an old telephone handset, which I then sit on an old rotary base (non working), and take calls on the bluetooth handset from my cell phone, which uses a ringtone like an old fashioned telephone bell.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Simple, just give two numbers, home and cell... and let people call ya at home... those you really want to talk to at home. I will say this, it is important to have a land line incase the cell takes a dive! The technology isn't perfected as of yet and it's recommended that one should still have a good land line incase something happens to cell service. These old phones wont let you down! The number of times the phone company will have issues can't even be counted on one hand to that of a cell phone.

I can't think of a vintage life without a vintage phone... it's a true connection to the past... the sound of the bells, the weight of that handset and the sound of a rotary dial... music to my ears! And by my bed is the WE candlestick! That's fun to answer when in a fog early in the morning or late at night! lol I feel like I'm living in an old movie! Man, I have fun!

 

[Miss 1929]

I guess I have been lucky -

My cell phone has never died on me. Not once. I am careful about charging it, and the system hasn't gone down.

Whereas the land lines can go down in a high wind...

 

[Flivver]

I also remember the party line!

I'll bet a lot of our Loungers are so young they never had one...
QUOTE]

We had a party line right into the mid-1960s. I remember thinking how luxurious it was to finally get a private line so we never had to wait to make a call.

Our party line only had one other party on it, so it wasn't too bad. But my grandparents were part of a four party line and it seemed they aways had to wait to make a call.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I do so hate it when people use a pencil instead of fingers to dial the numbers so damaging

 

[Subvet642]

I hate phones! I didn't have one until I got married at 32 (except, of course, when I was a kid, and that was my folks' phone). I won't have a cell phone, now. As others have pointed out, it is a machine that demands your immediate response to its' ring. People will actually get out of the shower to answer the phone, they will stop whatever they are doing to respond to a machine, amazing! shakeshead A cell phone would last a week (maybe) before I threw it in the toilet. To have a phone means that anyone who has access to your number, can have your immediate attention, night or day. For me, the ring of a telephone is one of the most hateful sounds in the world.

 

[3PcSuit]

I'm still looking for a decent Star Trek communicator-shaped cell phone. ;-)

I agree that not having a landline is silly. How do you call 911 with your cellphone out of charge and no landline, or with a bad signal???

 

[Buddy]

I wish there was a docking station for my cell phone that I could plug my old phone into, so that when I was home i could hide the Treo in a drawer and take the calls on Black Beauty.

There are a couple of devices that do do this, though I'm not sure which, if any, support pulse dialing. You might also need a pulse-to-tone converter.

This bluetooth model is available through amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Digital-ITC-BTTN-Bluetooth-Device/dp/B000WM811G - it connects to your cell phone via bluetooth and gives your an RJ-11 jack to plug in a standard land-line phone.

I wish there was something like that too. The closest I've gotten is a bluetooth handset shaped like an old telephone handset, which I then sit on an old rotary base (non working), and take calls on the bluetooth handset from my cell phone, which uses a ringtone like an old fashioned telephone bell.

That's cool, I have that handset too (ThinkGeek.com) and have used in the car to comic effect. Only at stoplights though. Then again, I have ADD and a phone addiction.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

To all the people who feel that they are obligated to answer the phone, whether landline or mobile, I introduce to you this incredible modern invention I found in my 1950's telephone directory:

 

[John Boyer]

Thank you for posting the early 1950s information on Early Answering Machines. I had no idea, or had forgotten, that this technology was developed that early.

For some reason, it reminded me that as a child (early 1960s) I was prohibited from answering the phone or making an outgoing call without permission. So much different than how my daughters are raised, today. John

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had that exact machine at one of the radio stations I worked at -- used it to record weather forecasts for the "Weather Phone" service. I don't think it actually used a wax cylinder for recording, but it certainly sounded like it did!

I miss New England Telephone and Telegraph. Fairpoint, Verizon, Nynex, Bell Atlantic, phooey.