Remember long-distance calls in the old days?

[begin_within]

They were still rather expensive then, so making a long-distance call was sort of a family event. The rotary-dial phone was all anyone had at home. The whole family was notified that the call was about to be placed. The Dad or Mom talked first, then each kid took a turn at the phone, saying "hi" to the grandparents 3,000 miles away. Even though you barely knew them, and couldn't remember too well what they looked like, they were still delighted to talk to you. You were kind of relieved when it was over, and one of the parents took the phone again. The sound quality was less and the volume was definitely lower - you could always tell a long-distance call when it came in, as it did sound far away, compared to local calls which were loud and clear. I always imagined one of those coiled phone cords laying on the ground for 3,000 miles. Then all of a sudden, one day, I think around 1983 or so, long-distance calls sounded as loud and clear as local calls. I remember being amazed at how clearly I could hear someone I was talking to across the country. Now, it's almost like time and distance have no meaning any more.

[MajorChode]

1. I can remember when local calls required only 4 digits

We had an old wall crank phone that originally required the person to turn the crank to generate a ring voltage for the operator. Even local calls required operator intervention. Dad modified the phone by pulling out the ring generator guts and installing a more modern dial inside. We kept that old phone for many years.

Long distance calls required 7 digits within the area code and 10 for outside the area code. Most states had only one area code but Texas had several.

Now even if I want to call my next door neighbor, I have to dial 10 digits.

This is what the phone looked like when I was a kid. It was the only one we had in the house:

[Deep13]

18. I remember when it was five digits.

My home town had that well into the 1980s.

[Yavin4]

23. Did You Tie An Onion Around Your Belt?

And do you have 5 bees for a quarter?

[MilesColtrane]

24. "It was the only one we had in the house:"

You forgot to add, "And, we LIKED it that way, dagnappit!"

[MajorChode]

25. I didn't care for it much

It's kinda hard talking to a girl right by the dinner table with my old man providing the play-by-play. He seemed to enjoy it.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. And now there's Skype.

No charge and video thrown in.

[pokerfan]

3. Yep

We had to wait until 7 or 8 at night when the rates went down. We all took turns and were supposed to keep it short. It was always weird being last. "Do you want me to hand you back to XXXX or is this it?"

I remember calling my parents from Saudi Arabia in 1990. It was a ocean land-line so there was very little delay, at least not as much as if it had been routed through a satellite. Plus it was probably digital. In any event, it sounded like I was next door. They couldn't believe I was halfway around the world.

[sammytko]

4. I remember getting radio relay phone calls from my brother in the 'nam

My mother would always forget to say "over". It was interesting.

I still remember our prefix "Pilgrim" or P I 2

[zabet]

5. I still have

a rotary phone with old style hard-wired lines. Yes it still works.

[tigereye]

6. I think there were "party lines" in my town - shared lines in the old days

fun for nebby people! :D

[Kali]

7. and now we all use cell phones and all calls sound shitty again

:rofl:

[Ron Green]

8. My phone # was 3038. That was it.

[rurallib]

13. I can top that. Ours was 491 (town of 15,000)

god, I feel old.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Ours was 5. We got lots of wrong phone calls from the drunk at 8 trying to call home.

[InvisibleTouch]

9. I remember them as rather terrifying, panicky events.

Yup, talking to grandparents across the ocean, but the costs were so exorbitant (or seemed to be to my parents, anyway), that there was always a sense of hurry and panic about the occasion. I remember being quite pissed when my mom went on and on with my grandmother about some irrelevant crap, but when it came my turn, she would rush me so I could barely get in a word and hear a reply. Not a happy memory.

[MorningGlow]

31. My mom (85) and my aunt (82) still physically RUN when my brother calls from California

(They're very spry for their ages.) Terrifying and panicky--yes indeed! I can't convince them that current phone plans don't charge $10 a minute for long distance, nor can I convince them to keep the cordless phone NEAR them throughout the day instead of in the charging stand. :eyes:

[Aristus]

10. Gathering around the phone on holidays was a family event.

My dad always sounded so important when he said: "Operator, I would like to place a long-distance call to San Antonio, Texas, please......yes, I'll wait. Thank you. Yes, I'll be right here when it comes through..." and he would motion to us kids to come closer. When the call came through, he would thrust the phone at us and say: "All right; say 'hi' to your Mama and Granddad!"

It was a different time...

[FloridaJudy]

11. In my family we had a secret code

When one of us was driving from my parents' house in Santa Cruz home to Berkeley (a whole 80 miles!) we'd ring twice and then hang up to let them know we'd arrived safely. Some folks made a person-to-person call to themselves for the same reason, but we never had the nerve. We feared Ma Bell would prosecute if anyone blabbed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Yep. Or if one person had more money than the other, the poorer one would

call and then the other one would call back so the rest of the cconversation was on their bill. LOL

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. A friend in college had a deal in their family that they would call collect from obscure name

when they got to where they were going.

Like, he'd drive to college and arrive safely, so he'd collect the parents but tell the operator it was a call from "George" (and no George in the family), the family would refuse to accept it, and so they'd know their son was safe and it didn't cost anything.

Now with today's helicopter parents and cell phones, they can track their kids on the computer at home or get a text from 'em every 20 minutes saying where they are.

[Submariner]

12. I remember the Party lines

I pick up the phone and a neighbor would be talking. We'd hang up and keep checking back until the line was clear and we could make our call.

[femmocrat]

19. We had one too. And if anyone picked up their phone during a long distance call,

they would get an earful! "This is a LONG-DISTANCE call" (you moran!!--- as if they would know!)

The "good"(?) old days, huh?

[Arkansas Granny]

20. We had 8 parties on our line. Luckily, most of them were very courteous

about phone use and no one kept the line tied up for too long. Of course, if you told anyone using the line that it was an emergency, they would hang up immediately and let you have the line.

[supernova]

14. My grandma had a party line

She shared it with several other older ladies in our neck of the woods. It was nice because they could all just pick up the phone and check in with each other every day.

And yes, you had to check to see if anyone was on the line when you picked up to make a call. But it all worked out. Usually the chatters would say that they would wind it up in 10 minutes or so, then you could make your call. Of course if it was really important or an emergency, they would hang up immediately.

I only remember our seven digit number, though.

[texanwitch]

22. My Grandparents had a party line.

Each phone had a different set of rings, short and long.


You didn't say anything private on a party line.

[LynneSin]

15. I remember not having long distance for about 5 years because I was so broke

I had an outstanding bill I couldn't afford and ended up with only local calls, which sucked since most of my family was not in a local calling distance. Fortunately I was visiting my family about every other weekend and those pre-paid calling cards came out. So I used those to make quick calls to my family and only got chatty on the phone when my mother was paying.

[Arkansas Granny]

17. You mean when you had to call the operator and tell her if you wanted

the call the be "station to station" or "person to person"? When the family was going to make a LD call, we would decide the order in which you got to talk and how many minutes you were allotted. It was a big deal.

[LiberalAndProud]

21. I remember picking up the phone to tell the lady I wanted to "talk to my dad".

In a couple of seconds, I heard him say, "Hello".

Simpler times.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Indeed! And I remember, when I was young, when direct dial (dialing a "1" first) arrived.

And I remember how all activity in the house stopped when a long-distance call came in - and most of our long-distance calls were coming only from about 150 miles away.

Many a time we were all chillin' together at home, the phone would ring, and Mom would yell "It's long distance! it's grandma!" or something to that effect, and we'd all stop and go to the phone and marvel at it stupified and in awe like a bunch of fucking neanderthals seeing their first wire-lift bra. "Oooh, long distance - I wonder if they went through the operator, or tried that new direct dial deal. Who'dathought we'd have this kind of technology in 1972!"

[peacefreak]

29. I sure do.

My first real job was a telephone operator on a cord board. There was even a woman who looked like Ernestine. didn't say one ringy dingy though.

[orion007]

30. Remember the busy signal? Dad worked in NYC, and all too often

when he called home he got a busy signal, hour after hour.
Then came the operator breaking into the conversation saying "emergency call from Joseph".
We'd all disappear when we heard his car arrive home.
He's rant for a while and then get over it.

[MorningGlow]

32. That kind of behavior got me my own phone line

THAT was a big deal. But it was the only way to keep my parents from murdering me before I turned 16.

[IDemo]

33. Here, too

Along with spending a year and a half reading Directory Assistance off a microfiche reader (in a darkened room to eliminate glare).