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1960s telephones: signal and call back?
#919613
09/08/17 08:24 AM
09/08/17 08:24 AM
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,473 No. Virginia
mustachepete
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When I was a kid in the City of Pittsburgh in the late sixties, we had to let the phone ring one full time before answering it. The reason was that my sister might call. She lived 10 miles up the Ohio River from Downtown Pittsburgh. The phone rates from her house to the city were apparently about the same as calling from Timbuktu, so she would call, let it ring once, and hang up. Then my mom would call her back. If mom wasn't home, when got back we would have to tell her who had called, then add, "...and it rang once." I'm pretty sure that the system continued into the early 70s, after we had moved to a suburb on the other side of the city.
Did anyone else have a system like this? Anyone know how the phone company came up with a rate system like that?
"All of these men were good listeners; patient men."
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: olivant]
#919630
09/08/17 12:49 PM
09/08/17 12:49 PM
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,473 No. Virginia
mustachepete
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Pete, do you remember this one? If someone was flying in and you were to pick them up at the airport they would call person to person and ask for themselves. You'd say no, they're not here right now. Then they'd say I'll call back at 2. That way you'd know they were arriving at 2.
Yeah, this was kind of a ubiquitous dodge - like if someone was travelling somewhere, they'd make the call as a signal that they got there all right.
"All of these men were good listeners; patient men."
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: olivant]
#919640
09/08/17 02:44 PM
09/08/17 02:44 PM
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Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 712
RollinBones
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Pete, that was exactly our experience with phones. Cool memory. For you youngins', long distance was a very big deal because it was so rare and so expensive. Every family had its procedure just like Pete's and mine.
Pete, do you remember this one? If someone was flying in and you were to pick them up at the airport they would call person to person and ask for themselves. You'd say no, they're not here right now. Then they'd say I'll call back at 2. That way you'd know they were arriving at 2. Lol bunch of little loopholes for that. Reminds me of this old commercial. https://youtu.be/9JxhTnWrKYs
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: olivant]
#919643
09/08/17 03:37 PM
09/08/17 03:37 PM
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,473 No. Virginia
mustachepete
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Overall, long distance was a really big deal. Yes, always specifically identified, as in, "Tom is calling long distance," even if everyone knew Tom was all the way across the continent.
"All of these men were good listeners; patient men."
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: mustachepete]
#919694
09/09/17 04:28 PM
09/09/17 04:28 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984 California
The Italian Stallionette
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
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Yes, long distance was a big deal. I remember every time one of our relatives from Detroit called it was "Mom, hurry up it's Uncle Joe from Detroit." LOL I swear my mom talked even louder during long distance calls. How about party lines? I remember my mom having to wait to make a call until the other person hung up. Some people got pretty testy. SC Calling person to person and asking for yourself was used in my family as a code for "I arrived safely." That way you don't pay long distance.  TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
"War is over, if you want it" - John Lennon
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: The Italian Stallionette]
#919696
09/09/17 08:46 PM
09/09/17 08:46 PM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,696 AZ
Turnbull
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Joined: Oct 2001
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Pete, the system you're referring to was common in the Bell System in that era. When Area Codes started being assigned, the local phone company would designate any suburb, including near-in suburbs, with a different Area Code in order to classify a call from the city to the "suburb" as a long distance call, and charge LD rates. Even within a city with a single Area Code, the phone company might designate some neighborhoods that were "far" from the city center as being outside the unlimited monthly calling area. How about party lines? I remember my mom having to wait to make a call until the other person hung up. Some people got pretty testy.
We had party lines in my neighborhood in Brooklyn into the early Fifties. And, remember when the round "button" in the center of your phone (where your phone number was) said, "Please Wait for Dial Tone"? Both were remnants of WWII, when all of AT&T's output was for the war effort, and no home phones were manufactured or installed. Calling person to person and asking for yourself was used in my family as a code for "I arrived safely." That way you don't pay long distance. We used that dodge, too. When my father in law, in Brooklyn, called his son, in Paterson NJ, he always shouted--as if he needed to have his voice carry across the Hudson.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: mustachepete]
#919711
09/10/17 09:32 AM
09/10/17 09:32 AM
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,473 No. Virginia
mustachepete
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Pete, the system you're referring to was common in the Bell System in that era. When Area Codes started being assigned, the local phone company would designate any suburb, including near-in suburbs, with a different Area Code in order to classify a call from the city to the "suburb" as a long distance call, and charge LD rates. Even within a city with a single Area Code, the phone company might designate some neighborhoods that were "far" from the city center as being outside the unlimited monthly calling area.
Thanks, TB. They have all these little TV channels now showing old shows, and it's not uncommon to hear a number given as Klondike 5-xxxx. That would be 555-xxxx, which would route to information if any idiot at home would dial it just to see where it went.
"All of these men were good listeners; patient men."
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: olivant]
#919715
09/10/17 10:53 AM
09/10/17 10:53 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984 California
The Italian Stallionette
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
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True enough TB although I never experienced a party line.
But, how many of you remember phone numbers starting with a couple of alphas? I can't remember our phone number, but I do remember my aunt's: MO (Montrose)1-9271 Oh yea, in Grand Rapids it was either "Cherry" or "Glendale". Sounds SO old school. Ha ha. Btw, a little off topic, speaking old school. on my 5th/6th birthday, my Godmother from Detroit sent me a savings bond. She sent it Special Delivery. I still have the envelope. Not only my kids, but my grandkids asked "What is special delivery." TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
"War is over, if you want it" - John Lennon
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: The Italian Stallionette]
#919716
09/10/17 12:38 PM
09/10/17 12:38 PM
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 15,030 Texas
olivant
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 15,030
Texas
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Btw, a little off topic, speaking old school. on my 5th/6th birthday, my Godmother from Detroit sent me a savings bond. She sent it Special Delivery. I still have the envelope. Not only my kids, but my grandkids asked "What is special delivery." TIS Indeed TIS, I remember special delivery AND Airmail. Remember that. While we're remembering, how about 1 cent stamps.
"Generosity. That was my first mistake." "Experience must be our only guide; reason may mislead us." "Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read."
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Re: 1960s telephones: signal and call back?
[Re: olivant]
#919754
09/11/17 09:04 AM
09/11/17 09:04 AM
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 22,902 New York
SC
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Posts: 22,902
New York
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Since we're posting about 60s "the way it used to be" telephones, how about expanding the discussion to include other 60s "used to bes"?
Any body here ever ride streetcars? Quite often but it was in the '50s in Brooklyn. We called them trolleys. The tracks for them (similar to railroad tracks set into the pavement) ran along the same avenues as car traffic. You'd have to stand in the middle of the street traffic while waiting for a trolley!! The service was slowly phased out in Brooklyn by the late '50s although the tracks themselves remained on streets into the late '60s. BTW - the name of our baseball team, the Dodgers, came from the term, "Trolley dodgers". Coincidentally the team left Brooklyn about the same time as the last trolley service.
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