Remember these?

[DanM]

Every time I see a new color I pick it up. The prices on some of the rarer colors would provide a years service in the old days. Enjoy.

[philellis]

Oh wow, nice collection, I retired from the dark side in 2018 after almost 25 years, they wanted me to move too far away from home.

[Sierra_Roadrunner]

Lot of history there Dan. Black one in the center looks unique, is it an early wall phone? The red phone brings back memories of the Cold War era Presidential direct line from the White House to Moscow. All those look to be in great condition.

[lynn225]

I have a black one. I hooked it up to my landline... I could call out, receive calls... but couldn't get it to ring. I read something about how they are keyed to a local exchange signal, and ring signals are not the same in all areas.

[Majicwrench]

Lynn, how did you know when you recieved a call if it wouldn't ring?

We have a couple rolling around in the prop room, fun on stage when doing oldies.

[TwoCanoes]

When I was a kid our phone number was Myrtle 77324. I wonder what would happen if you asked Siri to dial it.

[BSAGuy]

We had a blue one when I was growing up. They weren't for sale. You had to rent them monthly from the telephone company.

[Gavercronos]

I remember a piss yellow wall hanging version from when I was five; one day in the early 1990s the phone company came and replaced it with a new dialtone one in whorehouse red. At the time, the change in dialing blew my mind. It had the square block of push buttons in the round hole where the dial on the old one would have been, but was otherwise the same. Mom specifically requested they leave behind the 30 foot cord the old one had. Years later the ringer on the red one broke and they replaced it with a boring white one, still with the push buttons in the round hole. They took the old cord this time so Mom couldn't walk around the house with it anymore- that was about 2005. All a moot point now- it's still there on the wall, but hasn't been used in years. Phone company never bothered taking it when the service was canceled.

[Whitegas Extraordinaire]

I remember my father getting a second phone but was too cheap to pay for the second one.
He disconnected the ringer so they couldn't tell we had two phones.

[lynn225]

Lynn, how did you know when you recieved a call if it wouldn't ring?

We have a couple rolling around in the prop room, fun on stage when doing oldies.

Had my wife stand next to me and call our landline from her cell. She told me when her cell indicated it was ringing... I picked up the handset and we were connected.

[DanM]

Lot of history there Dan. Black one in the center looks unique, is it an early wall phone? The red phone brings back memories of the Cold War era Presidential direct line from the White House to Moscow. All those look to be in great condition.

The black one in the middle has the holes in the back for wall hanging,but I have it free standing on a table top radio, the plating you see on it is in great condition.

[Stovie]

Somewhere as a kid I learned that one could dial 11911, and then hang up, which would get a "ringback". I used this to great effect to annoy my babysitters, just doing my part. Funny how you remember things like that.

[gwillmot]

Can you hear me now? .... calling from Robin Egg Blue "Princess" phone ....

[hikerduane]

I still use a rotary dial wall phone, upgraded my second phone to a touch tone so I could make some calls. Bought it off of the bay.
Duane

[Tgarner01]

We still have and use a pair of rotary phones... One table top and the other a wall hanger. Mainly there so we can hear the ring in the shop... I can still remember having a party line in the 90's too

[Whitegas Extraordinaire]

[/size]

We still have and use a pair of rotary phones... One table top and the other a wall hanger. Mainly there so we can hear the ring in the shop... I can still remember having a party line in the 90's too

1890s?

[Weirdnerd]

We had an avocado color one for many years at my moms house.

[outlawmws]

My oldest daughter used to take pics of pay phones as she noticed they were (and are) disappearing - almost all gone now. She still does on occasion - sometimes its just an empty booth, or wall shell thing.

I can remember seeing rows of pay phone booths in some public places like airports and hotels. Heck our mall had 4-5 at every exit.

[Stovie]

Here's some young-er folks - they have no idea how to place a phone call from a rotary phone. They were tasked with figuring it out. I won't spoil it for you. Do you think they were successful? Is your money on the guy with the backwards baseball cap?

[campinut]

Nope, doesn’t ring a bell....Russ

[critmass_34]

I have never thought about collecting them. When we still had a land line, I considered getting a rotary phone for use during power outages.

[camperfanatic01]

We had a black one, and a 30ft coiled cord so it could reach anywhere in the 1st floor of the house…. Lol…

Reminds me of old TV’s too where I was the remote control, and with rabbit ears with foil flags.

[graygable]

I bought this one in the 80's and was in use until a couple years ago.

[kellyblues]

We had that mauve one with 3339 in the middle. Yep, 4 digit phone number. Nice collection.

[TSPORT]

I saved my grandmother’s black rotary phone. We use cordless phones in our house but when the power goes out, no phone. Plug in the rotary and we’re back in business! Love that ring.

[macwacs]

I recently got rid of mine, it had a crank on the side and had not received a call in years.
RMW

[Hot_Diggity]

My last memory of those phones was calling Headquarters Marine Corps nearly every day. It was the most time consuming and tedious part of my job. I pictured hundreds of other career planners all over the World trying to call the same number, over and over and over, getting nothing but a busy signal. I finally started dialing the last few numbers slower. Maybe it helped me slip in a call at just the right instant, maybe it was just a coincidence, but I did start to get more calls through. That was back in the days when I could smoke cigars in my office.

[Emorr123]

Built in phone nook in my house.

[BSAGuy]

House I grew up in was built in 1956. It had a phone niche similar to the one above centrally located.

[Emorr123]

Yes this house was built in 1950.

[outlawmws]

I'm guessing the lights indicated "in use for the party line"?

[DougA]

Very nice assortment of phones! Phones are my main collecting/hobby vice and I have a bunch (well, a lot) of them hooked up around the house. Most are connected to the step switch I built, but others are connected to my landline. Yes, I still have a rotary dial phone on the wall in my kitchen ... and it works. Most years the weekend of the Gettysburg gathering has me nearby in Lancaster, PA for an annual phone collectors' show ... it's open to the public on Saturday so wander over if you're interested. https://www.telephonecollectors.org/sho ... /index.htm

The phone nook is awesome. The grandson of a friend bought a house recently with a phone nook in it. Of course he has no landline but I helped his grandmother get a candlestick phone to give him to put in the nook to look "authentic." The phone with the lights appears to be part of some sort of local system; never seen that particular configuration before.

[DanM]

Thanks DougA, I have quite a few more wood case Strowgers strewn about my home as well, my latest addition is a serviceman's model the tech would clip onto his belt when working up the pole.

[Loganeffecto]

My father worked for a small international airport from the 60’s through the 90’s. When AT&T went touchtone they threw out all of their rotary pay phones in a dumpster. My dad took one home. I remember him coming in with this 50 pound pay phone and screwing it into our wood paneled kitchen wall. That was our only phone for years. The change box was left open so the quarter could be reused but with 8 kids it always would up missing. This was in the mid 80’s when rotary phones were already pretty much gone. The ringer could wake the dead. Why my mom tolerated this, I’ll never know but we kids thought it was an amazing piece of technology

[Murff]

My favorite phone story goes back about 50 years when my bride and I bought our first house. The Pacific Northwest Bell installer showed up and the first thing he did was call his dispatcher to tell him it would be the last install of the day. He was asked why and the installer said my house was three story brick. (It was actually a two bedroom basement rambler)

I asked why he told the other guy it was three story brick and the installer told me it takes a long time to drill through brick and the real reason is, the day before, he was installing "Taxi Phones" in nearly every bar from downtown Seattle in to the south end. Taxi phones were put in bars so patrons to drunk to drive, or dial a phone, could just pick up the taxi phone and be connected to the cab company. The installer had received free drinks and was a bit hungover when he was installing my phones.

The install was actually pretty simple with two phones being installed on the main floor and one in the basement. Now, what was funny, when I ordered my phones, the Bell System custome rep said I could have any model in any color I wanted. I replied, really and she said yes. So, for my basement phone, I ordered a Trimline model with a green base, a pink hand set, with a light blue curley cord from the base to the handset and a red wall cord.

The look on the installer's face was priceless when he opened the box of the Trimline and saw that phone. He said there must have been an error with the phone. I told him no, that was what I ordered. He was surprised someone could do this and he said he was gonna have fun now that he did know.

He had a beer with me and we BSed for an hour or so before he departed. The good ol' days!

Murff

[Volvoguy]

As a note on multi colored phones (since I haven’t seen it).

A buddy of mine collects phones and has done a lot of custom touch tone phones. I picked up this odd multicolored phone (it’s upstairs and don’t want to wake my folks, but it’s some odd brand).

I asked my buddy about it and why it was this weird combo. What he told me is that back in the day when a phone was returned or whatnot, they’d take it all apart and put each part on its own bin. So receiver in one, speaker in one, mic in one, etc. When a phone is ordered they put it together right then and there, so that’s why you could do those combos.

These phones are something way past my time but we have one in the basement I unhooked for a touch tone that actually rang. Currently the basement phone is one of those radio shack 90s clear phones that could be made from kits.

[WYSIWYG]

When I was a kid our phone number was Myrtle 77324. I wonder what would happen if you asked Siri to dial it.

Mine was Lycoming 35795. Weird the things we remember.

Now what was my high school girl friends number..... Nevermind we're back together

[TwoCanoes]

When I was a kid our phone number was Myrtle 77324. I wonder what would happen if you asked Siri to dial it.

Mine was Lycoming 35795. Weird the things we remember.

Now what was my high school girl friends number..... Nevermind we're back together

I remember my high school girlfriend's number. Fifty-two years later, she's still my girlfriend and the number is still her dad's. His 95th birthday is tomorrow.

[Northman49]

I have one of these in my computer room connected to the same phone line as the PC. If I answer that phone my internet connection is lost for a few minutes then resumes. Not a big deal but anyone know why this happens?

[Mcnairy]

I have one of these in my computer room connected to the same phone line as the PC. If I answer that phone my internet connection is lost for a few minutes then resumes. Not a big deal but anyone know why this happens?

All phones in your house must have a dsl filter. The one in your computer room should look like this and is very different from a splitter. Has a connection for your phone for your router, which both operate on different frequencies. It will also lessen background noise you hear on a phone call. That "frying hiss" you hear is actually your router.

Awesome examples of phones of the past you guys have shared!

[Northman49]

[DougA]

NorTel Contempra. Made in Canada and came in a variety of colors, oops, 'colours.' I have four of those, one each in red, blue, yellow and brown. I can't remember the other colors they came in.