Memory Lane: Call Home!

I can!  In fact my parents still have that number... 52 years after they were first assigned it.

Area codes were put into use in 1947.  My area (Eastern MO) was 314.  The first two numbers were the exchanges (hubs) the call routed thru... ours was JU which was spoken as 'justice'.  The words were just an easy way to remember the numbers.  The last 5 numbers were your personal phone number.

This is what your phone probably looked like in the 1960s.  This was a 'desk phone'.

Or you might have had a 'wall phone'.

If you were stylish, you might have had a 'princess phone'.

But the thing all the phones had in common were a SHORT phone cord... only about 3 feet long.  So 'telephone benches' were popular.

Then someone came up with the idea of making a really long cord.  Then you could at least move around a bit.  But be careful... they were really good at tripping you up!

Then there came CORDLESS phones!  You might have been able to walk from one end of your house to the other.  The freedom of it all!  

Yep... phone service was charged by the minute length of your call.  The most expensive rates were during business hours- highway robbery!  Then in the evening (like 7pm to midnight) were about 40% cheaper.  

Night time rates (midnight to 6am) were very cheap.  But who makes calls after midnight (except my late father-in-law)?

Before the Internet there was the Yellow Pages.  Yes, they really could get that thick if you lived near a large city.  Made a great booster seat for the little ones too.

Ahhh ... party lines.  Or 'gossip lines' as they were often know as.

A party line was a way to get phone service to rural areas (often) to get service out there cheaper.  It means you shared a phone line with other people (tho everyone had their own phone number).  But the lines were open lines... so anyone on the line could pick up the phone and eavesdrop their neighbors conversations.  And you could not make a call until the first person hung up the phone.  Neighborhood wars started over phone hogs!

Incoming calls were handle in one of two ways.  Either each person on the line had their own personal 'ring';  maybe one ring for the first person, 2 quick rings for the next, 2 rings with a space between for the next, and so on.

Or if you were living fancy, an incoming call on rang to the number being called.

And before cell phones were pay phones.  Better have some coins if you needed to call.

This phone would have been inside a building.  A local call would cost you .10c and you had a limited amount of time to talk.  For a long distance call, you would dial the operator and tell her the number you wished to call.  She would tell you the rate for X amount of time.  Then you'd drop your coins into the machine.  Each denomination of coin made a different sound so the operator would know how much you had paid.  Then she would let the call go thru.  When time was up, you'd get a warning to deposit more coins before it disconnected.

A moment of joy for a kid was finding forgotten change in the coin return!

Outside phone booth.

A drive up phone booth so you didn't have to get out of your car.

There are still pay phones in existence (about 100,000 of them).

And then it happened...

... cell phones were invented!

In 1988 Motorola introduced the bag phone.  They were powered by a plug that went into your cigarette lighter and you had to put a big whip antenna on your car's roof.  At first you could only get reception along highways, even that dropped calls were many.

And there was even a carry phone with a rechargeable battery.  You were really something if you had one of these beauties!

Then came "The Brick".  Amazing stuff here!

That evolved into the 'flip phone'... yep, that is what they looked like back in the day.

Ain't it something??