Rotary Phones

[IglooDame]

We had one when I was growing up ('70s). It got replaced by a push-button phone, but they didn't have the tones yet so you hit a number button on it and got that number of beeps. Anyway, as contre says, having high numbers in your phone number was annoying, and that's why major metro areas tended to get area codes with very low numbers in them (e.g. 212 NYC, 213 LA, 312 Chicago).

 

[NickyJ]

When I was a kid my mom would watch the Andy Griffith show with me, and I always envied those sorts of phones. My hipsterish impulse kind of wants to get one with some odd color-scheme.

One of the local TV stations broadcasts the Andy Griffith show every week day. But I also love that phone from the Untouchables.

How do I just answer "no" in the poll?!

I know what they are, I don't have one now, I have a landline telephone (touch-tone based, rather than pulse based)

This.

I don't know what the last option is supposed to mean.

According to Wikipedia (and Twilight Zone episodes), party lines were "an arrangement in which two or more customers were connected directly to the same local loop." Basically, it was a phone line that multiple people used at the same time. If you picked up the phone and someone else was already using it, you could hear them talking.

 

[Ajidica]

I don't know how to use a rotary phone.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

My grandparents used to have one a couple decades ago - they look and sound good, but are a bugger to use for long-distance phone-calls when you had to put in so many digits.

 

[Murky]

My grandmother had one. I haven't seen one myself for a long time.

 

[Traitorfish]

I just use my mobile. Had a rotary phone growing up, though, til maybe '96? Don't know why.

 

[Colonel]

I would be curious to know if a rotary phone would even work to dial some numbers or if it worked at all anymore given most of our telephone system has been updated to incorporate digital signals as opposed to the old style code system used by a rotary phone.

 

[Mise]

Wiki seems to think they still work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing

EDIT: This forum says it works too (UK): http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=73681

 

[Ataxerxes]

I have an old house and the phone wiring in the house doesn't have jacks except in one new room. So my house is mainly rotary phones. Eventually I'll part with the money and get the phone wiring in my house changed.

 

[bombshoo]

My parents had a rotary phone up until a few years ago. Funny enough, they switched right from that to using their cellphones only and got the land line disconnected.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

When I was in elementary school I had an old rotary phone in my bedroom. I was a very sound sleeper at the time, and one of the few things that could wake me up easily was the unusually loud and low pitch ring of that phone. The easiest way to get me ready for school in time was for dad to call home from his office. I think I only made an outgoing call on that phone once though, just to test it, calling the number to get the current time and temperature.

 

[Birdjaguar]

According to Wikipedia (and Twilight Zone episodes), party lines were "an arrangement in which two or more customers were connected directly to the same local loop." Basically, it was a phone line that multiple people used at the same time. If you picked up the phone and someone else was already using it, you could hear them talking.

We lived in Maine for 2 years in the early 70s and we had an 8 party line. Each house on the line had a different set of rings. We only heard 4 though. So it was 8 families all sharing one line. One of those among our 4 was the guy who drove the local snow plow, so when his ring sounded early in the morning, we knew that snow was piling up. One old lady on our line listened to every call that rang. It was her entertainment. I don't miss it.

 

[Zelig]

I yell at my secretary and get her to dial numbers on my rotary phone.

 

[bhsup]

Wow, haha, blast from the past. Yeah, haven't used one in a couple of decades probably at least. Will modern phone networks even still accept the pulse signals?

EDIT: MISE TO THE RESCUE!! ANSWERED ABOVE.

Voted "I have one, or know someone with one, but it isn't used" because dad still has one sitting on a shelf in his basement for some reason. It's one of the old wall mount models from before AT&T was broken up.

 

[Disgustipated]

Couldn't find the appropriate poll option. I had one has a kid, but don't have one now. They were kind of nice as long as you weren't in a hurry to call someone. I'd hate to have to dial 911 in a hurry with those.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't know how to use a rotary phone.

Birdjaguar, I think he's insinuating that people our age ('cause I remember party lines, too) are ready for the old folks' home!

Seriously, how can you not know how to use a rotary phone? You put your finger in the hole corresponding to the number you want and dial!

I would be curious to know if a rotary phone would even work to dial some numbers or if it worked at all anymore given most of our telephone system has been updated to incorporate digital signals as opposed to the old style code system used by a rotary phone.

Some modern voicemail systems are impossible to use if you have a rotary phone. It used to make my dad absolutely furious, since he didn't have a touch-tone (this was in 2007).

 

[amadeus]

Come back, zinc! Come back!...

 

[Verarde]

I'm with Mise. I know what they are, and I like them, but there are none around to use. I just use the house phone or my cell.

 

[Speedo]

Had one growing up in the 80s/90s. My parents held onto it until probably 03-04.