Before Cell Phones

[ronandannette]

That was exactly my problem too! My dad would not allow me to have a phone in my room at all. All the phones were in public rooms. My dad did it because he wanted to eavesdrop on my conversations to make sure I wasn't talking about anything inappropriate with my friends. Do you know how hard it is to talk to a boy or talk to your friends about a boy when your dad is sitting there listening to every word you say?

And if it could even get more humiliating, imagine doing all of that on a (very nosy) party-line. It was literally impossible for any kid in my hometown to successfully plan shenanigans.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I didn't have my own phone or an extension in my room. But I became an executive assistant (we were called secretaries back then) with 5 incoming phone lines. That was a life-time ago, and to this day I still hate phones, and only answer after checking Caller I.D.

 

[disneychrista]

Nope. Our house one line. It was not until the internet that a second line was even a consideration.

 

[powellrj]

I am feeling so old. We had one phone in the kitchen. We had a party line for years. For a surprise my mom went to radio shack and got a long cord that I could go into the utilities closet and talk in private. Just me and the mop with bucket and the sweeper. Our phone company was set up weird. If anyone you wanted to talk to lived in a small town that went to our school you had to wait till after 7pm to call or it was long distance. There were only so many lines so you could spend hours trying to get a line to talk. I don’t want to know how many hours I spent trying to get a line.

 

[superme80]

Not only did I NOT have my own phone line, I didn't even have an extension in my room and the cord on the kitchen phone was too short to even reach into the pantry. No privacy, no dignity; I was practically raised by wolves.

Man I remember getting my bedroom phone taken away. It was a nightmare! I got my first cell phone when I was 20.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I am feeling so old. We had one phone in the kitchen.

We had one phone in the dining room (big dining room, one end had the "office" that's where the phone was). And there was an extension in my parents room.

I got my first cell phone when I was 20.

I can beat that - I was 52 when I got my first cell phone.

 

[nancygirl1]

The old black phones are giving me some serious flashbacks

 

[BadPinkTink]

Oh, my family's phone was even older than that! Ours had the metal dial face

I guess what we had was a party line. One of these phones, a cream colour in the hall and this exact one, the black one in my parents bedroom. One phone line, and a short cord. Talking on the phone with your friends wasnt really a thing here, everyone lived within 5 minutes walk from each other, so you just go to each others house after school or at weekends. I got my first cell phone when I was about 19, that was the first time I had my own phone. I remember it was such a big deal to ring the local cinema on your cell phone and book tickets.

 

[dish rag]

Did anybody have their own phone line as a teen? My parents got me one when I was about 15 because they were tired of me tying up the main line. And of course I chose a princess phone.

But it was plain beige with a rotary dial. They were too cheap to let me get another color and touch tone buttons. Oh the humanity!!!

No that was only for rich people. In the phone book under the name it would have the main phone number then say children's, and just the second number. We had a wall phone in the kitchen with a 3 ft. cord. And even now, both our places in Ontario are just like that with no caller ID, that's right, when they ring we answer. But there is a different ring if the incoming call is long distance.

 

[indimom]

In my younger years, we had a party line with about six neighbors. By the time, I was ten or so, we got a single line for our family. We thought that was awesome. lol. My dad was a contractor, and my parents did not want potential customers to get a busy signal all the time, so my three sisters and I were limited to five-minutes on the phone if a friend called. I have NO memories of chatting with friends by phone in my youth. lol.
DH had a pager in the early 90s. We got our first car phone (It came in a zip-up bag and was about the size of your average Bible) in 1997 because I was expecting and DH worked in construction so there were no phones at his worksites. It pretty much just sat in the car, and I ended up going into labor in the wee hours of the morning, ha.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Did anybody have their own phone line as a teen? My parents got me one when I was about 15 because they were tired of me tying up the main line. And of course I chose a princess phone.

But it was plain beige with a rotary dial. They were too cheap to let me get another color and touch tone buttons. Oh the humanity!!!

I did not have my own. But my parents' room had this exact phone and I spent many hours on it talking to my friends! (The only other phone in the house was on the kitchen wall, but this one was much more comfortable as you could either lay on the bed and talk, or sit in a boudoir chair, lol.)

It was a big deal when this phone style went to push button!

 

[Mizzoufan]

No, they would have laughed if would have even mentioned such a thing. Heck, for most of our lives we had a party line.

 

[DisneyHardin]

No private phone line here. We had a phone in the hall with a super long cord that I could stretch around the whole first floor of the house. I think when I was in 8th or 9th grade I got a phone in my room (not a private number, just my own extension). Not too long after that, we got our first cordless phone and we got call waiting (this would have been the early 90's)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I never experienced a party line!

But our kitchen wall phone looked something like this. (Originally black, but newer one beige. Hey, I think that's our wallpaper, too! )

Such a pain when a line was "busy", having to re-dial over and over... (I think originally we had 7 digit numbers but then we went to ten, to add the area code, when we ran out of numbers.)

Anyway, one day I was sitting on the kitchen table mindlessly talking to a friend. I had keys in my hand for some reason, I guess someone left them on the table. There was an electrical outlet on the wall right where I was sitting. (Ya, you know where this is going!) For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to stick a key in the outlet while I was talking... Ya, BOOM! It exploded and I got shocked! I think I screamed, and my friend was like, "What's going on?"!

It's amazing how phone technology has changed!

I was at a conference the other day where participants all used their smartphones to answer questions the lecturer was asking. (Several ways to do it, either by text or App.) As answers were submitted, they were projected onto the big screen. I hadn't seen that anywhere before, but we were all commenting at our table on how much times have changed!

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Five kids, one phone line.

One phone was attached to the wall in the kitchen. If you wanted privacy, you had to go into the coat closet by the back door.

The other phone was upstairs and looked like @PrincessShmoo's. It sat on a phone table that looked kind of like this...

https://cdn0.rubylane.com/shops/1317328/6146.1L.jpg

That phone I could drag into my room - just barely - if I had important business to discuss and wanted privacy!

 

[Marchand63]

I never experienced a party line!

But our kitchen wall phone looked something like this. (Originally black, but newer one beige. Hey, I think that's our wallpaper, too! )

Such a pain when a line was "busy", having to re-dial over and over... (I think originally we had 7 digit numbers but then we went to ten, to add the area code, when we ran out of numbers.)

Anyway, one day I was sitting on the kitchen table mindlessly talking to a friend. I had keys in my hand for some reason, I guess someone left them on the table. There was an electrical outlet on the wall right where I was sitting. (Ya, you know where this is going!) For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to stick a key in the outlet while I was talking... Ya, BOOM! It exploded and I got shocked! I think I screamed, and my friend was like, "What's going on?"!

It's amazing how phone technology has changed!

I was at a conference the other day where participants all used their smartphones to answer questions the lecturer was asking. (Several ways to do it, either by text or App.) As answers were submitted, they were projected onto the big screen. I hadn't seen that anywhere before, but we were all commenting at our table on how much times have changed!

We had the exact same wall phone. It was over the desk in our hallway next to the kitchen. The only other phone was in my parents bedroom.

Nope, no phone for me. Plus house rules no phone calls from friends before 9am or after 9pm

 

[mamamary]

One phone line for us growing up too (parents and 4 kids). Our phone was in the hallway just off the kitchen. At least it had a long cord that could go down the length of the hallway and you could get halfway up the staircase for privacy. I did have an extension in my bedroom. I guess the wiring was there when we moved in and that bedroom was mine growing up.

 

[MamaBelle4]

This was grandma's phone. I loved it. She had it until I was 20. She used another one but kept this one hanging in her hallway by the kitchen and it still was hooked up.

 

[MamaLema]

Yes but I paid for the phone installation , phone, and monthly bill myself from my part time job at Wendy’s.
Basically I saw my friends at school all day and then went home and talked to them from 3-12 every night. The good old days

 

[Skippy918]

Oh, my family's phone was even older than that! Ours had the metal dial face

My grandma had a beige one of these issued by the phone company until the mid 2000’s.