Rotary phones...

[Polyluvr]

We have one in the basement, it was my dh's grandmother's phone (it's avacado green) we kept it for sentimental reasons.

OMG! We also had an avacado green 1 in the basement when my parents bought my childhood home-it was still there when we moved in 1996.

 

[piglet50]

my mom still has one and uses it all the time. it's also avacado green! she has a portable and a cell phone but when she makes a service call she always uses the rotary for faster human service.

 

[C.Ann]

I have one - that can mount on the wall - but don't use it anywhere.. It's just in my tote of "stuff" for when my DGD is older and she has kids of her own - a piece of nostalgia..

Back when I was active selling on eBay, I sold a blue princess-style rotary phone for a pretty good amount.. Some people like to collect stuff like that..

Oh - and many of the Amish still have the old style rotary phones in their "phone shanties"..

 

[GeorgeG]

I don't have one, but it's a good idea. I wonder how many young people might be stumped on how to dial one, though.

 

[Pembo]

My parents do...however my dad worked for the phone company and we had LOTS of phones. When I was kid, we had 8 phones in our small ranch house including 3 outside. That was in the day when people who had 2 phones were fancy.

 

[southern_redhead]

On another note, I always act as if I have a rotary phone instead of going through a telephone tree, it gets you to a REAL PERSON much faster!!

Me too!

My mother had one up until maybe 3 years ago. It was mustard yellow and had like a thousand ft cord that stayed tangled all the time. My stepdad "updated" by taking it out and installing a cordless phone. She didn't speak to him for a while. They have replaced the cordless at least 2x and now have a corded push button one. She still says, on a regular basis, "I wish I still had my OLD phone."

 

[SandrA9810]

There's an old fashioned one in the Main Street Barber Shop. The kind where you hold one piece to your ear and talk into the microphone mounted on the phone. The one prior to rotary, where you had to wait for an operator to connect you. Of course with a little Disney magic, they hard wired a little key pad on the inside, but you use it the same as the old days.

 

[GeorgeG]

I'm remembering back to the 1964 World's Fair in New York where the new pushbutton phones were being demonstrated to show how fast they could be dialed. I guess it caught on.

 

[Boots]

I still have one. It is red trimline. My dad retired from the phone company as an installer repairman and I always thought that everyone had a phone in every room when I was growing up. I have had this phone for over thirty years and just hang on to it, because I like it.

 

[tvguy]

I don't know about the rotary phone creating its own electricity. Any older phone--even push button--gets all the power it needs from the telephone line, at least, that's how I understand it.

That's correct. Rotary phones do not generate their own power. The phone company has 3 power sources at each central office. The entire phone system is actually run off batteries. They are continuouesly being charged by AC from the local electric company. If they power goes out, those batteries can continue to run the phone system by themselves for 20 or 30 minutes. But the phone company also has a diesel generator at each central office, which is designed to kick in 30 seconds to a minute after a power failure, and take over charging the batteries. And when the AC comes back, they switch back. The phone service power is never interupted.

 

[tvguy]

My dad has one that is hardwired into the house! When my grandmother passed away a few years ago we found out that she was still "renting" her phones from SW Bell. She had paid a rental fee for who knows how many years!

Actually, your grandmother was very smart. Those phones SOLD for $250, and if they broke, you had to take it in, and pay to fix it.
The phone company would rent them to customers for 50 cents a month, if it broke, not only did they fix if for free, but they sent someone out to fix it.
If your phone never broke, it would take over 40 years to pay as much in rent as you would buying the phone outright.

 

[superme80]

No. I miss having one. I loved the really long cord. My sister and I used to get into trouble because we would play with the cord so much and put kinks in it.

 

[browneyes106]

My parents keep an old rotary phone in case of power outages. My aunt still has a rotary phone in her kitchen but she only uses it if she does something in there.

 

[DisneyMim]

My mother still has one. It has been dropped many times over the years and is still working!! LOL!!

 

[pennymom]

I have a family member who won't pay the $1/month for touch tone service from the phone company , so can't "press 1 for...", well, anything!!!

 

[tvguy]

I have a family member who won't pay the $1/month for touch tone service from the phone company , so can't "press 1 for...", well, anything!!!

I have to confess I was the same way, but the phone company eliminated the extra fee for touch tone service about 15 years ago here.

An important point too about rotary phones. If Grandma and Grandpa still have a rotary phone, make sure your kids know how to dial 9-1-1 from a rotary phone. We have a safety expert on a couple of weeks ago that made that point because there are still plenty of rotary phones out there, and older people tend to be the ones that still have them.
And even if you have a touch tone phone, make sure your kids are taught to dial 9-1-1, not 9-eleven. That apparent is still confusing to some kids who can't find an 11 button on the phone.

 

[Jestocost]

My parents have cordless phones and touch-tone phones in most rooms, but in the basement workroom their old rotary is plugged in. I doubt they ever dial out from there, but if they are working on something in that room they will answer it.