60+ year old thread.

Hey my friends, I'm still alive and kicking. Haven't been posting due to being too damn busy with work.
Volcano is calming down, but now we have a hurricane on the way! Fun times. Will try to get on more often, still need to catch up with this thread.

Aloha!

 

Evening all:
Good to hear from you Cheech, and glad you have nothing bad to report. Hope you fare well also if the hurricane hits the island.

 

The struggle to find a payphone on the road was real.

 

Whew! I almost didn't make it, but as of now I am officially ON VACATION until Sept. 4. I had a meeting 2 days ago (I'm remote, called in) where one of my so-called coworkers insisted that something I *know for a fact* is possible was, sorry to say, impossible.

I lost my cool. Hey, maybe they'll let me go with a few weeks' extra in my pocket!

Anyway. I'm on vacation now! Whew.

Good to hear from cheech! Hope he's doing okay with that Cat 4 running over the islands.

 

My first phone was on a party line

 

The first phone number I can remember was a party line, but it was my parent's line. The crazy thing was that they took that same number with them for the next 50+ years. The only change was the area code.

 

Yes, what I meant, first I remember using was parents

 

Or dailing an old rotary phone for a prize off AM radio! That dail could not go any faster!
And while on this subject,listening in the early 60's to "The Shadow".My dad listened to the show when he was younger. He said you had to visualize in your head what was going on..

 

Sort of like reading a book with sound or an audio book.

I remember this well.

 

The first phone I remember having, hung on the wall, was made of wood, and had a crank on the side you would spin to get the operators attention. Then the operator would connect you to the party you were calling. Crap I'm old.

 

Once upon a time, TV shows weren't so vivid and detailed as they are today. Even the writing left a lot to your imagination. That allowed some interpretation....No more. TV shows are like everything else in todays world. Just too "high tech". I do an information overload on most of them.

Take me back to when life was simpler....

 

My dad bought an old phone at auction years ago that I since inherited. It was the first phone in the state of Indiana.

 

True Story: I was working residential repair in Belaire Maryland and had to fix a phone for a lady that was on an eight party line. Simple repair to the service wire into the home. When I tried to up sell her to single party touch tone she told me No Thank You. I am the only party on an 8 party line is the service is less than $2 a month. She was a wise lady.

I have worked on hand cranks in my day. Crap I am old too.

 

Good morning Susan, gang. I only have two rotary dial phones, have never upgraded to cell phones. Cell phones only get one bar at my place and that is out in the driveway. Many places I cant get thru their phone systems because I cant hit 1 for English etc.
Qualify for Medicare next month, got supplemental insurance lined up thru United Health Care, get a discount if signed up thru AARP. Hate having to join AARP.
Well, off I go after lunch for a small Coleman campout less than an hour from home. Small group again this year, I think only five of us, talking shop mostly. Working on, trading so forth lanterns and stoves. I fixed a couple non-Coleman stoves this Spring for guys at the campout we had at Death Valley. I started collecting European brass stoves a few years before I started getting some Coleman lanterns then some of their stoves too. I have stoves from at least 10 countries.
Duane

 

When we moved to the old farm there was no phone at all. I was too young to remember but my older sister tells me my dad strung a line along the fence row from the neighbors house a quarter mile away to get phone service.

Of course, this old house didn't have running water either, we got our water from a well with a hand pump and the "bathroom" was a little wooden shack out back. While we did have electricity, heat came from two old pot-bellied coal stoves in the living room and kitchen. The upstairs bedrooms were a mite chilly in the winter. Air conditioning? LOL

Imagine how bad I feel for the guys whose "$40,000 Tacomas" don't have power seats or a light to tell them when the washer fluid is low.

 

I shimmed up a telephone pole to use the phone on a party line. The operator was named Sarah. Here's a picture of her...

 

When my mom got out of HS in Minnesota, she moved from the cold to California and had a job with the phone company as a operator.
Duane

 

Afternoon all:
Duane: I also have the UHC supplemental ins. through AARP. From my understanding you only need to be a member of AARP when you sign up for the ins. and then never subscribe to AARP after that if you so choose, at least that's what I did. I got a 30% discount initially, with the discount being reduced by 3% a yr., until you are at the full premium amount after 10 yrs.

 

I went thru a agent in town where I had insurance before turning 65. Did not mention that big a discount, only a small discount using AARP and direct payment.
Duane