What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

It seems yooperdave screwed up asking people to think back 20 years on the phone thingy. Perhaps they should think further back.

In my time when I think of my childhood, I have few memories of any telephones simply because we had none. My first memory of a telephone was one like this:


Then came the rotary phone but the biggest problem with that was just like with the crank phone in that we were on a party line. If someone else was using the phone, you could not use yours....except for the little old ladies that wanted to listen to their neighbor's conversations with others.

I do remember, with pleasure when we finally got off the party line. There had been 4 of us on the line but one neighbor had teenage kids that seemed to spend most of their home time on the phone... Believe it or not, that was only about 30 years ago.

Then came push-button phones! Wow! No more callouses on the fingers from dialing. That was then followed with cordless phones. Today it is cell phones and they all started as flip phones or just a solid receiver. Today it is smart phones. Wow! Talk about change.

Of course there are some really big changes other than the phones. Consider that when my wife and I were married, we installed a phone (rotary) and paid our bill once every 3 months. Total 3 month charge was $9.30. That's $3.10 per month. Compare that to your phone bill today. In addition, the phone used to be free. What do people pay for a new phone today and how long do they last?

How do you read this yooperdave

 

What do you mean about being persistent? Perhaps there is something here that I'm not aware of?

 

Okay, I got the hearing aids yesterday. I am still amazed at the sounds I'm hearing now that I was missing. My wife kept after me because she would constantly hear things outdoors that I missed. She was right! Working in the garden yesterday was a noisy affair indeed! I knew we had lots of birds but forgot how noisy they can be. Sweet music it is.

 

We grew up with no cell phones or tv. My parents had one turn dial phone. I honestly don’t think life was more enjoyable or less enjoyable based on a phone.

In my current field of work phones are a requirement. Millions of dollars ride on our service techs keeping them charged.

About 18 years ago I was stuck on the side of the road in northern MI walking for a LONG ways to find somewhere to get to a phone. Spent half the day and was totally annoyed. My drive shaft fell out of my truck. Banged on a door after 3 hours of walking just to discover nobody was home. After another hour I found a house and got to a phone they where nice and drove me back.

I’ve been lost in some BAD areas and the gps has saved my bacon.

2 years ago when my very close friend was in the hospital I found out ASAP because of a phone. I wouldn’t have been there to be with him and his family without a phone....

Truck driving I was in a bad accident and the moron that cut me off drunk as you can get almost died however because I called the police he lived thankfully. ( still a moron lol ) he was on a 24 hour test drive of a mustang in Pennsylvania in I80... That was long before Qualcomm in trucks back when phones where mostly Nextel and had the worlds most annoying two way beeper...


All that said do I like phones NO NOT AT ALL but I wouldn’t be without it.... My wife and I travel for work I cross the state daily and the wife drives an hour to work. It’s worth it just in case one of us gets hurt....

 

You certainly are right about hearing things differently and yes, I hear motors like refers and freezers. But I really like hearing the birds especially.

I even got an extra case to carry with me in case I'm out somewhere and suddenly have to remove them, perhaps because of dust or whatever. That could come in handy. I am finding that I do have to turn them down just a bit from what they have it programmed.

 

I'm in the same boat.

 

DSL is carried on the phone line, true, but here (and you might consider a call to customer service) it is extra to have a dedicated house phone #.
So it is smart phones for Fire Flake and I, and when home, our internet is broadcast through the house from the WIFI router, which let's our phones not eat up cell data.

 

I think the clearest take away from the phone debacle and how much simpler life was before cell phones is that people (in their selfishness) have made these phones such a ridiculous part of their lives, almost as a statement of status, etc.

 

DSL is indeed carried on the phone line but here, you can't get DSL unless you also have a home phone. They just won't let that happen.

 

Dang, I remember what she looked like but not the name.