Aug 26, 2010

Phones have changed over the years. Describe how you used a phone to call up a childhood friend.

Yes they really have changed. When I was young we would hear the phone but not pick it up unless we heard two rings close together separated by a sort wait and then two rings again. If it only rang once before the space it was going to our neighbors who were on a “Party line” with our family. We could easily pick up the phone and listen to their conversations and they most likely listened to some of ours as well. We would call someone by moving what was called a rotary dial around from a number to zero and letting it return to the resting position before dialing the next in line of the four required numbers to contact someone. Later we got a private line and no longer could talk to the neighbors by simply picking up the phone but rather had to call them with all four numbers. Then toward the end of y teenage years we had to start dialing all seven numbers that made up a phone number that was listed in the phone book. (I might add too that just in this last year at an age of 56 we now have to dial all 10 digits that include the local number and the area code.) Long distance was always extra and we rarely made them. Now with cell phones we make a majority of our calls as long distance as defined in my early years but for little or no extra charge above the standard cost of our cell phone monthly bill. (Which is far more than if we had made a thousand long distance calls back then.)