Wednesday, March 14, 2018

"Caller I.D". in the Fifties

Boys would call up girls and ask,
"Guess who this is??"

Just thinking of all the phrases we used to use. We used to "sit for hours by the phone" waiting for our boyfriends to call. If we couldn't answer right away, it would seem like the phone was 'ringing off the hook." I got all tangled up in the cord of the kitchen phone.We couldn't "tie up the phone" because we were on a party line. I was in BIG trouble with Dad if I made a "long distance" call to Atlanta. If my boyfriend insulted me, I could "hang up in his ear". And remember dialing the Operator? She couldn't understand my southern accent and told me to quit playing with the phone!
How did I make it for most of my life without a cell phone?.


13 comments :

Debby Ray said...

The same way we all did...lol! Those were the days!

MadSnapper n Beau said...

same memories, but had no boyfriend, ever. I was not allowed to talk on the phone, party line phone. the phone was used for emergency's or to find out something we needed to know, like what time something at church would be. mother called long distance to FL a few times a year but not many. no money to pay for it. even in 1984 i could only call mother for 10 to 20 minutes on Saturday since it was cheaper. cost for 10 minutes was 5 dollars which it was hard to come by. i still don't use a cell phone, just have one for emergency calls. i truly belive the cell phone is at the very top of the list of bad things that happened to us...

MadSnapper n Beau said...

i did not mean the comment to sound like everyone who uses cells is bad, i meant the way they have taken over our world. they do have some good uses, like the face time thing for family. but we did live well without them.

Lowcarb team member said...

LOL!
Yes, life was certainly different then!

All the best Jan

Red Rose Alley said...

Your stories always take me back to a time long ago, Karen. I laughed when you said, "if my boyfriend insulted me, I could hang up in his ear." I miss those old phones that you could turn your finger around and dial. And I think I'm the last one to still have a land line phone. I still like to hear that phone ringing. : )

~Sheri

Pamela M. Steiner said...

I think we were much better off then...there are days I wish we could go back to pre-cell phone, pre-computer days. But then again, I don't know if I would really like that. I wouldn't be here writing to you right now if we did that...we would never know all these wonderful people here in "blogland" either...that would not be fun! I enjoy knowing all these wonderful people! It has enlarged my world considerably!! Thank you for this walk down memory lane...I'm especially glad we don't have cords on phones anymore...LOL

Ginny Hartzler said...

I remember ALL of this!! Today we use the term HANG UP. But we don't really! We push a button or swipe.

Anonymous said...

I remember dad's secretary dialing the phone with a pencil to keep her nails nice! lol

Ramblings of a Retired Lady said...

Karen, those were the good old days! I sometimes wish cell phones were never invented, even tho I know they are needed at times. Your page is so pretty today.

Karen said...

Funny that "I'm going to hang up on you!" sounds a lot more dramatic than, "I will power off now".

Connie said...

Cute post! I never thought about it before, but I guess we did have a lot of sayings that had to do with using the phone back then.

Karen said...

Such good memories. It's funny that we still say 'dial the number,' but there hasn't been a dial in forever it seems. I miss the old days, but I'm grateful that long distance charges are pretty much a thing of the past.

Carla from The River said...

Oh my, what memories. I love that you share them.

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