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This Oughta Be Good

Computing & Technology > Long Distance Memories
 

Long Distance Memories

I was just reading a 1971 adventure/thriller and the bank robbers were talking about dialing a long distance number, saying it was a small town so you had to do it differently. Reminded me of our telephone service when I was growing up.

When I was very young, maybe up to the age of 6, our small town in northern Colorado had a telephone exchange with live operators. You cranked the phone and when the operator said 'number please' you gave her a four-digit number and she connected you. We could also ask for 'grandma' and she'd connect us.

Then, automated telephones came along and my dad salvaged some of the old crank phones and made an intercom system from our kitchen to the back bedroom down in the basement.

This is like the one in the kitchen:


The one in the bedroom had a box like this. Those arched things are strong magnets.



My grandmother had a candlestick phone like this in all black. It didn't have a dial because she had one of those crank boxes like above.



But for long distance, we still had to talk to a live operator. Of course, at my young age, I didn't make long distance calls, so I don't remember not being able to dial the number myself, but I can remember in high school, and maybe even college, dialing a long distance number, and having to tell the operator the phone number I was calling from so we could be billed.

Back in those days you could still dial zero and get a live operator who could help with directory assistance and in an emergency, or calling collect. I don't know when 9-1-1 service became available in our area, but we even have reverse 9-1-1 now, so we're right up there with the big city folk.

We weren't on a party line in my town, but when telephones finally became available to our cabin in the mountains (where I live now), it was a party line. I think my dad paid some outrageous sum to get a private line when it first became available, but eventually they were all private lines. It was long distance to call from the cabin to our house in Berthoud, and we went through that number please business for the billing for a long time.

I don't know if it's still the case, but in Berthoud, the automated telephone service allowed everyone to dial just the last four digits of anyone's phone number, like you see in a big company where they have the same exchange number. For example, our number was KEllogg2-21348 (532-2148) but you could call us from another in-town phone by dialing 2148.

Now, cities like Denver have had to go to ten digit numbers for local calls, so every number now requires the area code. For example, my phone number there was 303-773-1864, and my neighbor's was 702-291-4532, all ten digits required to make a local call. This complicates advertising because all the older numbers on billboards and trucks, not to mention placards hung on light poles advertising landscaping services have to be spelled out.




posted on Mar 6, 2011 5:22 PM ()

Comments:

We had a party line for a while when I was growing up. My mother hated it. Once a neighbor tried to get her off a lengthy call and my Mom kept telling her "saddap" (shut up). I was laughing through the whole thing.
comment by tealstar on May 1, 2012 1:22 PM ()
Back before there was blogging and other Internet time-fillers, there were party lines for entertainment.
reply by kitchentales on May 2, 2012 5:35 PM ()
We had phones like that in our old home, too, also converted to intercom service. My brothers and I, and all my friends, loved to run all over the house and call from room to room. Really fun to be reminded of that!
comment by marta on Mar 9, 2011 8:40 PM ()
I'm sitting here thinking that surely my dad saved at least one of those phones. It just has to be there in the back garage with all that other great stuff. Can't wait to get back to Colorado and look for it.
reply by troutbend on Mar 11, 2011 10:40 AM ()
Fun to see them, especially the second one. Thanks
comment by anacoana on Mar 8, 2011 4:56 PM ()
I keep thinking I should have one of those phones somewhere around our place in Colorado that my folks would have kept for old time's sake, but not sure if it's there or not.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 6:00 PM ()
Showing our age, eh? I'm with Fredo! Although, even as recently as 33 years ago, when I first moved into my house, we had a party line. Hated it.
comment by solitaire on Mar 7, 2011 11:56 AM ()
So you always had directly-dialed long distance? Even as a teenager. Wow, rural Indiana, center of the technological universe.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 2:11 PM ()
This was before my time.
comment by fredo on Mar 7, 2011 9:21 AM ()
Yeah, right.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 2:10 PM ()
My first job, when I was seventeen was at Southwestern Bell. I was one of
the local and long distance and information operators. I hated it. Southwestern Bell was a slave driver and I was ever so glad to quit. You
couldn't talk and got fired if you listened in. I worked there until my husband graduated from college.
comment by elderjane on Mar 7, 2011 8:07 AM ()
It would be such a stressful job. Remember when the govt decided the telephone company was a monopoly and all those Bells (Mountain Bell, Southwestern Bell, Southern Bell, etc.) had to be dissolved? That was the beginning of the end of some things, not necessarily for the better.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 2:09 PM ()
I remember those old box phones well. We all had party lines with different rings for each household. Didn't matter much because you could always bet someone was listening in. I also remember only having to call the last four digits. Now, I live in an area where we have to call all ten digits. Times, they do change, don't they?
comment by redimpala on Mar 7, 2011 5:47 AM ()
Once I got to thinking about it, I realized there are middle-aged folks, not just young folks today, who take direct-dialed long distance for granted.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 2:07 PM ()
We are in one of those ten number places. It was strange to me but now it's strange when someone assumes you don't have to dial it. When my parents got the lake house there was a party line. I used to listen in on it because I was bored.
comment by kristilyn3 on Mar 6, 2011 6:22 PM ()
When we lived in Denver with the full 10 digits I was so jealous of anyone who just dial 7 digits and be connected.
reply by troutbend on Mar 8, 2011 2:04 PM ()

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