Fun & Games You're Older Than Dirt If You Remember....

:cornut: One couldn't dial long distance. You had to get the operator.

jason

 

Operator, can you get me Sherwood 2-3918....

 

Your not that old if you can still remember the long distance operator. The key word here of course is remember.:wink:

 

If you can remember when Long Distance calling was a "big thing" and only done on birthdays and holidays.

 

the mail was delivered 2x a day, first class in the AM and the rest in the afternoon

 

2 longs and a short!

 

:cornut: The ear piece and the mouth piece were only connected by an electrical cord.(in a very small town in rural Texas. Buda ,Texas. Most people in town were at least distant cousins)

Jason

 

Same subject/different topic - Remembering such a thing as a phone booth at a gas station doesn't really make ya that old, but finding one in a real pinch is like finding the Lost Dutchman Mine. And, the call was only a dime... Hell ya can't even call long distance from one anymore without a certificate from the mine.

 

Operator?? If you were older you would remember that she was known as "central". And there was no dial on the phone. You turned the crank to get central's attention and then told her the number you wanted to call.

That was 1940 in rural Virginia. Yeah, I'm old.

 

Zigzag Oregon had a central operator and three digit phone numbers into the late sixties.

Dave

 

:cornut: No sir, she was known as Nell Montague or operator and she was the only operator of the Buda Telephone Company(privately owned and she was my Aunt). We weren't quite as sophisicated as the city slickers back east in Virginia. The call usually went something like this:" CRANK..........Operator...............Yeah Nell let me hollar at Gerald(uncle Gerald the grocer)...............He's(Nell's son) at the depot picking up the mail from the KATY(MKT RR Line) and the he's bringing my lunch from Molly(my grandmother who operated the town cafe)after that........... you wanna hollar at Mary,she's at the store(Aunt Mary, Geralds wife)..............okay I'll put you through. And this was in the 1950s. I remember being told about one call that people today would never believe(1948). The Post Mistress(appointed through the good graces of Senator Lyndon Johnson) cranks the phone..............Operator..........Nell put me through to Lyndon out at the ranch............Lyndon this Betty at the Buda Post office and Molly Montague's son Jason is in the Air Force(just be came the Air Force from the Army Air Force) and is having trouble getting his Scottish wife into the states from England. Thank ya Lyndon..........I'll tell er...............Molly Lyndon says that your daughter in law will be on the next boat.(and she was).

Jason

 

And Party line phones and you had a certain number of rings to know it was for you and you could hear people pick up and listen in on your conversations! No secrets were ever discussed, everyone in town all 177 of them when I went into the Army would know within 30 minutes of what you talked about. And no street lights and stop signs and everything closed at sundown.

 

When you only put snow tires on the rear wheels.....

 

I remember when hurricanes did not hit NJ, Del and Pa.

 

Well except for Hurricane Agnes in 1972... That one hit us here in PA pretty hard. I'm not sure if I am older than dirt but I think that makes me older than Dave.

 

:cornut: .........................when school principals walked the halls with paddles ready for imediate threat or use.

Jason

 

I got whacked by the Nuns on the hands for writing with my left hand. Didn't work out for them so well as I can do most things with either hand (-;

 

I remember a time when there were only two things you could be sure of, death and taxes.

 

.....and taking a sh#%^t.....Three things.

 

As an old friend used to say, "only if you eat regular".

This could become another thread.