How many of you still have a Rotary Phone in your house?

[Clintmax]

I'm a collector of the old 60's and 70's rotary phones and have three of them connected in my house! If the power goes out, I still have communication capabilities because they do not get their power from an outlet, but from the phone line itself!

Remember when you had to DIAL a number instead of pushing a bunch of buttons? Remember the actual BELL ringers phones used to have?

Remember when you called a place of business you actually talked to a real live operator who connected you to the right person or department instead of having to push "1" for this or "2" for that?

[swag]

1. I do. I've got a couple, actually, but only one's hooked up.

This one:

[Clintmax]

4. Wow!

Yeah, you gotta love the "Spacemaker" phones! They had to have a separate ringer box too for them to ring.

[swag]

10. Yeah, didn't buy the ringer box for this one.

We've got an old 1970s push-button box with a ringer in it that alerts us when an inevitably unwanted call comes in.

There's a great store way out in Northeast Portland, open usually on an appointment basis, where this guy refurbishes classic old phones and sells them at pretty good prices.

May have to go back soon to see what else he has.

[Clintmax]

12. Oh, my goodness!

I would LOVE to see what he's got! I've got several I still need for my collection and I just BET I could find them there!

[swag]

16. Note to self to fish up his number for you

[Clintmax]

24. I'd love his number!

I wonder if he ships out of state...hmmm...

[swag]

27. Sending you a PM now with the contact info.

[leftofthedial]

2. not our main phone, but we have one

we bust it out when the power goes out

[Clintmax]

13. Do you leave it hooked up all the time?

Or do you just connect it when the power goes out?

[leftofthedial]

31. nowadays, just when the power is out

[RetroLounge]

3. I have two

An Aqua desk phone,



and a White Ericofon.



Oh, and this one too...



RL

[Clintmax]

7. LOVE the A.E. phone! n/t

[lpbk2713]

14. That's an AE Type 80R

They were all basic black until the early 60's. The "R" indicates rotary dial. They used to be caled "HSC" for Handset Combined. This was meant to distinguish them from the old magneto type phone where you would hold the receiver part up to your ear and talk into the transmitter which was built in to the front of the wall-mounted phone. I installed a couple of thousand AE phones of different models over the 35 years that I was employed by "that company" that used them.

[swag]

17. Beauties, those.

[Heidi]

5. Not me . . .

but I'm still wishing for a princess phone!

:hi:

[Clintmax]

8. Hi, Heidi!

:pals:

[Maddy McCall]

6. I have two. A baby-blue princess phone and a...

black rotary phone.

[Clintmax]

9. I have a Brite White Princess...

I have a total of 20 in my collection so far...Goal is to have one of each color in each style...Wall and desk phone.

[Clintmax]

11. The 3 I have hooked up right now...

A yellow wall phone in the kitchen, a baby blue desk in the guest room, and the brite white Princess phone in the bedroom.

[rateyes]

15. And, when you were a kid...

do you remember listening in on the "party-line" to your neighbors conversations? Or hearing your neighbor come on the line saying.."sorry to interrupt, but I need to make a very important phone call?"

[Clintmax]

18. Never had a party line...

I'm sure they were a pain in the ass.

[BrotherBuzz]

20. My buddy was our party line....

and I could not call him directly. Whenever I dialed his number, it was busy because I was on the line. I finally learned that in order to call him I had to dial my own number then hang-up - by doing so, both telephones would ring simultaneously, and I would just wait till mine stopped ringing, indicating his party had answered. Life was confusing, but amusing back in those days. ;)

[Clintmax]

21. Wow.

Didn't know you had to do something like THAT.

[rateyes]

22. I remember that...

which says we're getting old. :D

Which is why I am amazed when I heard about 4 months ago of that lady in that small town in Alabama that just got the first phone to come to that town. How does that happen?

[rateyes]

23. And, I remember dialing the number

999-9999, and there was a continuous "click, click" "click, click" noise that we told all our friends was "Frankenstein's heart-beat."

[CanuckAmok]

34. Where I was a teenager...

...there was a "secret" 5-digit test-number, which connected any number of phones which dialed it; it was the precursor to the "900-party line", because every teen in my city knew the number, and you could just connect with everyone else.

I think the number was 41091. I wonder if it still exists...

[BrotherBuzz]

19. Yes, an early 50's Western Electric desktop model....

and, surprise, it's black. Oh, it says on the bottom "property of Pacific Tel. NOT FOR SALE"

Hey, Pac Bell, or what ever your damn name is today, I got news for you...."I ain't giving your property back!!!!" :evilgrin:

[SmokingJacket]

25. Two, one black and one orange.

Unfortunately, since we got cable phone we can't call out on them, though we can still receive calls. So we got a bright red old push-button number that works great and also looks cool.

[Gold Metal Flake]

26. I have a 102 with a modular plug.

You can hook them up right to the line without a ringer box. It does require a wiring mod, and I have it written down somewhere. I have two of these (102 or 201? I forget. It's the one before the 202. Has the round base from the candlestick with a cradle, an E3 handset and fabric-wrapped cords). I have a coupke of 202s, one being the 1940's glamour phone. I think I have a 302. Couple of others, and a dial lineman's set.

[AndyTiedye]

28. I've Got Some Old Phones Too

including one with a crank.

Actually most bare-bones touchtone phones don't need external power either.


Remember when you had to DIAL a number instead of pushing a bunch of buttons?

Since I have to dial 11 digits most of the time, I'm glad I don't have
to use a rotary dial anymore.

Remember the actual BELL ringers phones used to have?

Yes, and the older the phone, the louder the ringer tended to be,
because people didn't have so many phones.

[Roon]

29. Hey all, remember when..

you moved you left the phone behind? The phone always stayed with the house.

[Ivan Sputnik]

30. I have one sitting in the closet.

A beige desk phone. I hooked it up recently (about a year ago), and it still works. I'm saving it, because I'm sure it will be worth a fortune someday.

I showed it to my son, and he was mystified -- he had no idea of how to use it.

[Clintmax]

32. Some bring high prices even now!

On some of the auction sites, there are hundreds of rotary phones up for bids at all times. The most popular colors bring the highest prices, as well as the older ones from the 40's.

Beige was the most used color and so doesn't bring as much. They made so few grey phones that if you see one posted now, they can sell for as much as $200.

[CanuckAmok]

33. ever go here?

http://oldphones.com/StoreFront.bok

I have one of these, in "ivory":

http://oldphones.com/Detail.bok?no=36

I love it, but I'm thinking of getting rid of my landline; I never use it, and it's $40 a month!

[Clintmax]

35. I have seen that site yeah...

Their prices are a little too high, though. I can get "just about" any color I need from an auction site for around $10.00. Of course I have to clean it or fix it to work, but hells bells, I ENJOY doing that! If you get rid of your land line, either keep that phone you have or put it up for auction. Those Ericofon phones sell really well too!

[CanuckAmok]

36. I'll be keeping my Ericofon, no matter what.

It was actually our rental from Bell Canada, and we bought it off them in the early 80s when they introduced the option to buy your phone. It was $26.