Good news -- I discovered it today!
I want something real. Something historical -- but with a personal connection to me. Something old enough to be outdated but recent enough to have been around in my lifetime. Ideally, something I used in my childhood.
I found one today in an obscure vintage shop. The phone was made in 1964 The store-owner was cool and we chatted a while about his wares. He laughed when he told me children come into the store, see the rotary phone and keep pressing the dial, unable to figure out how it works. The idea of putting their finger into a hole and turning the dial around never occurs to them. (That's the "rotary" part.)
Rotary telephones were replaced by push-button phones in the 1970's. I remember using the rotary phone in my home as a child in the 1960's. You felt like an adult when you used it. "Quiet! I'm making a phone call!"
Have you ever used a rotary telephone? What do you think of my idea of displaying one as a home decoration?
I grew up with a rotary phone. I don't think we got a touch tone phone until I was 18. I'm 41 now. I always hating phoning someone with 9s or 8s in their phone number. =)
ReplyDeleteWow, Megan. I knew some people hung onto them but your family really stretched it out. At some point, phone companies stopped accepting calls made with these phones and only push-button phone dialing worked on their equipment.
DeleteWe had a rotary phone! Both my grandparents and my parents had them in their homes when I was growing up - and I'm only 22. I remember both beige ones and red ones. I think we had them more for the nostalgia, but I also grew up listening to books-on-record on a briefcase sized record player and listening to the radio on one of the big console sized record players.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great choice for displaying in your home.
I should add the ones we had were probably reproduction styles!
DeleteI think it's a great look, using vintage phone in your decor! I have an aqua princess rotary phone in my bedroom that I bought off ebay several years ago. I am 34 and in my childhood several of my older relatives still had rotary phones so I definitely remember using them as a kid. These phones were WELL made and many of them still work today.
ReplyDeletei think using it as a home decoration is an awesome idea! i've used a rotary phone before but only at my grandma's house. i also had a toy one once.
ReplyDeleteLOL I remember the rotary, and being annoyed about numbers that had 8s and 9s too.
ReplyDeleteAlly, if you can find one of those old princess phones with a rotary, that would be perfect! My cousin had one, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I agree, Kristen, and am looking for one. In the store where I bought this phone, there was a princess phone but it was in such bad shape it was painful to look at.
DeleteI think in India we had them up until recently ... and I am 30 :) ... I kinda still like them.
ReplyDelete∞ © tanvii.com ∞
In the UK they were in use through the seventies and into the eighties I think. We didn't convert to touch tone untill relatively late by the sounds of it (probably because BT - British Telecommunications - was a state run monopoly).
ReplyDeletesebbie
We had one when I was very little as the "extra" phone in the basement. My parents did show me how to use it though!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have an old phone hanging up in our house as decoration, I think it's a great idea!
I think your phone is beautiful and a great interior design touch. I often wonder why our family even has a working ground line - since everyone has a mobile phone :o
ReplyDeleteI love your phone! I grew up with ones just like that (we had a red wall version that was very modern for the 70s). I only gave up my rotary phone when I moved in with my boyfriend (now my husband) in the late 90s.
ReplyDeleteWe still have our landline phones - my husband has a cell phone for work, but leaves it in his desk every Friday! We get odd looks for being such anomalies - no one at my tech company believed me that I didn't have a cell phone.
I hate cellphones and was one of the last people to get one. I didn't want to, but what pushed me over the edge was when public payphones disappeared.
DeleteWe had a phone exactly like yours and I think my dad kept using it until he sold our house, just after I went away to university, around 1993. It was the only phone we had in the house... and it was rented from Bell Canada. I'd have to say that the rental cost paid for the thing many times over. I remember answering that phone, getting my first ever summer job offer, and jumping for joy in the kitchen. Another time, the phone rang very early in the morning and I ran part way down the stairs to answer it, only to see my dad standing there buck naked (facing away from me, thankfully), talking into the handset. I quietly went back to my room and never told a soul about it (until now, LOL). Also, I still dream about using it and getting the number wrong, forcing me to keep dialing over and over and over. Lots of memories about that darn phone! I wish I still had it. Good find!
ReplyDeleteI do recall rotary phones. In fact, the other day we were trying to decide if it was possible to hook up an answering machine to one. I can also remember when phone numbers started with letters instead of numerals.
ReplyDeleteI love rotary phones- we had one at my cottage growing up and my sister and I always found great amusement in spinning the dial around. I think antique decorations with sentiment hold the most meaning!
ReplyDeleteYou finally got it ! i remember reading about you wanting to get one.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of having one at home is a fabulous one ! this - coming from a person who has a 1960s tv that is falling apart in the living room :)
We had a rotary phone - so i can totally relate. I wanted to get one a few months back but it was too expensive... it was mint colored.
Oh wow! I grew up with a rotary phone in the late '70s, early '80s. You know how touch phones have sounds associated with each key, so frequently dialed numbers got a sort of tune all their own? I'm surprised to find that I can still remember the sound of dialing my best friend's number—how long each number took to get back to the starting point. Wow. Thanks for the memory!
ReplyDeleteThat is one magnificent piece of telephone. Though vintage, it still has the essential purpose of allowing people to communicate or handle message taking. Thank you very much.
ReplyDelete