Rotary phones as a Rite of Passage
Posted by Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 35 comments
The first telephone in the house that I remember, which must have been 1970 (b. 1966)was one just like the one pictured, although it MAY have actually had a metal rotary wheel? At any rate, it’s amazing what memories the sight of these phones evokes in people on the older end of GenX, as we were the last generation to actually have learned to use phones for the first time on ones like this. And of course, you all remember your very first phone number, right?
classicsat@reddit
Same black kitchen wall phone, short cord. 554 model, for you phone geeks.
We gave it up in the 90s, cheap phones since. A new cordless phone every 5 years or so. Including one of those translucent colored phones with blinking LEDs all over it.
Same number since dial service.
jessek@reddit
We had an old rotary phone in the garage. I never used it because I’d always screw up around the fifth digit it seemed.
Roland__Of__Gilead@reddit
I remember my great-grandmother's phone number, and she moved into assisted living in 1984.
(By comparison, a couple years ago my phone was dead and I needed to call my gf. Through trial and error and muscle memory I got there, but I don't think I will ever tell her how long it took for me to conjure up her number.)
Gomer_Schmuckatelli@reddit
Don't forget the 30 feet of cord.
SnowblindAlbino@reddit
As a teen in the early 1980s I bought a 25' cord for our wall phone, which was in the hallway by the bathroom. With that longer cord it could reach into my bedroom and I could close the door. We had only one (rotary) phone, so it was a big deal to get some privacy.
Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit (OP)
There was the extra long cords you could get for the base, then the ludicrous coiled cords going from the receiver to the phone itself, which inevitably got tangled, and to untangle it you’d have to dangle the receiver from a part of the cord until it could unwind/spin itself back to normal.
Gomer_Schmuckatelli@reddit
The coiled one, from the handset to the base, to the phone in our house was in the passage window between living room and kitchen. I swear you could walk outside or take a bath without the need for a hold button.
SnowblindAlbino@reddit
I had a 1962 Western Bell rotary desk phone in my campus office until 2019, when we finally went all-digital and I had to give it up. We had a rotary wall phone in our home until 2010, when we had to move to VOIP and gave it up. In both cases I had young visitors look at the phone with awe, then ask if they could try it out.
Phone numbers: I still use the one my family had in the 1970s as a PIN for things like garage good openers and web sites.
robertva1@reddit
I did my main growing up in the 1980s 4 to 14. Both type of phones where still common place so i new how to use both
Pocketeer1@reddit
Plot twist…but NOT really - my aging parents CANNOT keep track of their cell phones. We’ve become concerned that they can’t contact emergency services IF THEY CANT FIND THEIR PHONES. SO, landline, going in next week. And NOT the kind that’s cordless. We NEED the cord.
No_Bad2428@reddit
Yeah, I feel this. When I call my mother, I have to hang up and wait for her to see the missed call and call me back. She doesn't know she can keep the phone turned on when not in use.
Pocketeer1@reddit
Omg yes. I feel ya. Good luck to you and yours. 💕
Pocketeer1@reddit
Thank you!
Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit (OP)
But surely you’ll get them a touch tone phone, and not a rotary phone 😅
No_Bad2428@reddit
My dad kept an old rotary phone in his pole barn well into the 90s. I would sit out there in the middle of winter talking to my girlfriend and smoking cigarettes when my parents weren't watching. I should have kept that phone.
tallCircle1362@reddit
Yes. Even the sound of the dial and the feel of the big receiver. Anyone remember when we were able to buy phones for home use instead of having to rent them from Bell Telephone? That was a big deal. That’s when phones got so cheap in quality. Those old phones would take a beating. We had one on the ironing board in the basement. It fell off so many times. Made a heck of a noise. Kept on working.
Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit (OP)
The redundant 8th digit is how advertisers like 1-800-MATTRESS could get away with it
desrevermi@reddit
My nieces and nephews wondered what it was.
A short history lesson happened.
iwritesinsnotcomedy@reddit
My college phone number was 452-eatm(e) …..it didn’t matter if you hit an 8th number on a landline; after you dialed the first seven digits, you were connected. As each group of college kids moved into that apartment, rather than having the phone service turned off, it was just switched into the new lease holder’s name so the number could be passed on. That was life in the 90s.
razzle_dazzle321@reddit
Yup. We had a black rotary phone. It still worked for a long time, as we kept it plugged in for some time. Even after we had the push button phones. I definitely can still hear the sound of the rotary wheel.
ActiveImportance4196@reddit
We had one into the 90s growing up as our only phone. Image dialing the wrong number after you're 5 or 6 numbers in two or three times in a row. I almost had so many strokes in the 80s over this shit
Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit (OP)
Especially with numbers with lots of 9s and 0s!
ActiveImportance4196@reddit
thiswasyouridea@reddit
We had a bright orange one because it was the cheapest color.
Suspicious-Yogurt480@reddit (OP)
I guess no one wanted the orange phone, eh? It wasn’t until the mid-1950s they even came in other colors! Starting with the Princess line of phones, meant to be one of those things people would put on a bedside table matching the decor, I guess.
thiswasyouridea@reddit
Yep, that was the reasoning. Unpopular color. We used it throughout my childhood.
Illustrious-Egg-5839@reddit
My grandmother had one until the day she died in 2019. She didn’t actually use it anymore, it was just the only one she could still hear ring.
uninspired@reddit
My grandma had one until she died at 100. Turned out she'd been leasing it from AT&T (or whatever local Ma Bell offshoot) for like 70 years. She probably paid five figures for that piece of shit.
Illustrious-Egg-5839@reddit
Grandma had 2. One on each floor. I could only keep one working for her though.
PlasticPalm@reddit
Got a pushbutton phone when I moved into the freshman dorms. I was okay with codes for MCI or Sprint and waiting until after 11, but f me if I was going to keep dialing.
csx2112@reddit
Ours was also mounted to the wall in the kitchen, but we had an antique barber chair under it so you could spin around and go up and down while you were chatting in comfort. So fancy! I still have one of those old cobra phones but I don't have a land line so it's just chilling in the garage
PahzTakesPhotos@reddit
I have a red rotary phone. It was still working, but we haven't had a landline in at least ten years (I don't even remember how long it has been). Once in a while, I knock the dust off of it and use it as a prop in photos.
BeenzandRice@reddit
294-3815. Didn’t need no stinkin area codes back in the day.
Hungry-Industry-9817@reddit
I use my first phone number as one of my voicemail passwords.
Our phone was stuck to the wall in the kitchen. The cord was not very long either so we were stuck standing there when talking on the phone. It kept the phone bills down. No talking on the phone for hours.
EdwardBliss@reddit
Having a second phone was a rite of passage in my household. You could actually talk in another room in privacy. Wow, what a concept!