Remember Ma Bell?

Gaer

Gaer

"Angel whisperer"
Location
New Mexico U.S.A.
What do you miss or remember about the solid, dependable old telephones?

Remember the operators? You could ask if Sherry had her baby yet or if a storm was coming in today?

You could ask the time. "When you hear the tone the time will be"

You could rush in the house; "Did he call? Did he call?"

You didn't have to carry it around or feel like an old horse tethered or tied down. If you wanted to be alone, you're alone.

The ring of it was comforting ,nostalgic, like the soft glow of an incandescent light bulb.

The phone bill was nice and easy.

With a cell phone, you're always checking. With Ma Bell, You could answer or not answer, as your mood dictates.

If you wanted to hang up on someone, you could SLAM the reciever down HARD! With cell phones,it's more, "Hello? Are you here?"
 

Oh my, Gaer. You're joking, yes? Otherwise, things in New Mexico must have been very different from Michigan. While our phones were indeed very solid and dependable (they even worked when the power went out), I barely thought of telephone operators as being actual mortals, much less neighbors. As I recall, ours were all business and generally brusque, bordering on surly.

The standard tether was a coiled cord that limited our range to within about four feet of the base. For a fee, on a desk phone you could have a longer cord installed attaching the base to the wall. For a wall phone it was an extra long coiled cord between the receiver and the base. Being alone was a function of who else might be in the room. And our phones had a loud, grating ring that would wake almost anyone whose body temperature was above ambient.

Our service was pretty expensive, too. The hardware had to be rented from the phone company. Some opted for a party line to reduce the cost of monthly service. For most of us, long distance calls were special events and even then their duration was kept to a minimum due to the per minute cost. Ma Bell had a government sanctioned monopoly and they used it to their greatest financial advantage.

Over all, I prefer our current land-line phones. The equipment isn't as well made nor is the sound quality nearly as good as the Bell phones, and they don't work when the internet goes down They do, however, have some advantages. I own the equipment and it's relatively inexpensive so I jusr figure on replacing it every seven years. I'm able to have cordless handsets scattered liberally around the house yet only need one phone jack in the wall. The handsets have a range of up to 100 yards, maybe more. I can select the nature and volume of the ring tone.

My system screens my calls so I don't even have to leave my chair to ignore a call I don't care to answer. It takes messages for me. It stores the phone numbers for me so I don't have to remember them. It functions as an intercom so I can call other handsets within the house.

Because it's an adjunct to my internet service, the monthly costs are reasonable and there's no additional charge for long distance calling. And, if service goes down, there's always the (rarely used) cell phone.

No, I don't lament the passing of Ma Bell.
 
We had great operators and it was nice to make a call say to a doctor's office or a business, someone would answer and you'd immediately know if you could talk to whomever you desired. If not, receive a call back in short order. None of this extremely inefficient automation where you have no clue where the recorded voice is located and then after going through at least 2 more so called agents and giving whomever your message, you have to await a call back. Yes, I miss Ma Bell like there is no tomorrow.
 

Tommy said:
Oh my, Gaer. You're joking, yes? Otherwise, things in New Mexico must have been very different from Michigan. While our phones were indeed very solid and dependable (they even worked when the power went out), I barely thought of telephone operators as being actual mortals, much less neighbors. As I recall, ours were all business and generally brusque, bordering on surly.

The standard tether was a coiled cord that limited our range to within about four feet of the base. For a fee, on a desk phone you could have a longer cord installed attaching the base to the wall. For a wall phone it was an extra long coiled cord between the receiver and the base. Being alone was a function of who else might be in the room. And our phones had a loud, grating ring that would wake almost anyone whose body temperature was above ambient.

Our service was pretty expensive, too. The hardware had to be rented from the phone company. Some opted for a party line to reduce the cost of monthly service. For most of us, long distance calls were special events and even then their duration was kept to a minimum due to the per minute cost. Ma Bell had a government sanctioned monopoly and they used it to their greatest financial advantage.

Over all, I prefer our current land-line phones. The equipment isn't as well made nor is the sound quality nearly as good as the Bell phones, and they don't work when the internet goes down They do, however, have some advantages. I own the equipment and it's relatively inexpensive so I jusr figure on replacing it every seven years. I'm able to have cordless handsets scattered liberally around the house yet only need one phone jack in the wall. The handsets have a range of up to 100 yards, maybe more. I can select the nature and volume of the ring tone.

My system screens my calls so I don't even have to leave my chair to ignore a call I don't care to answer. It takes messages for me. It stores the phone numbers for me so I don't have to remember them. It functions as an intercom so I can call other handsets within the house.

Because it's an adjunct to my internet service, the monthly costs are reasonable and there's no additional charge for long distance calling. And, if service goes down, there's always the (rarely used) cell phone.

No, I don't lament the passing of Ma Bell.
Click to expand...
Wow Tommy, Your experience was quite different. No, I remember this from Montana, not here.
Sure didn't mean to bring all that back for you.
To me it was all sweet and nostalgic. For you, It was an ordeal. I'm sorry about that!
 
Gaer said:
What do you miss or remember about the solid, dependable old telephones?

Remember the operators? You could ask if Sherry had her baby yet or if a storm was coming in today?

You could ask the time. "When you hear the tone the time will be"

You could rush in the house; "Did he call? Did he call?"

You didn't have to carry it around or feel like an old horse tethered or tied down. If you wanted to be alone, you're alone.

The ring of it was comforting ,nostalgic, like the soft glow of an incandescent light bulb.

The phone bill was nice and easy.

With a cell phone, you're always checking. With Ma Bell, You could answer or not answer, as your mood dictates.

If you wanted to hang up on someone, you could SLAM the reciever down HARD! With cell phones,it's more, "Hello? Are you here?"
Click to expand...
LOVE this started thread, and hugs to you, Gaer, for starting it! šŸ¤—šŸ„°šŸ˜˜

I miss the simplicity. No batteries, no nonsense.

I miss the soothing sound when dialing...

I miss the party lines, where one call could quickly lead to and turn into a party. LOL!

 
My dad worked for Southwestern Bell his whole life. Started as a lineman and then moved into the computer part of it.

The landline bills are outrageous anymore and I don't even know where the phone line is in this apt. It's been covered over somewhere cuz it's disintegrated.
 
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I miss working for Ma Bell. I worked at Northwestern Bell for several years. Until the big lawsuit in the 80s changed everything. I'm not sure now what the local landline phone company even is.

We had one phone in the house. In the living room. Right where my mom sat. Could NOT have a private conversation in that house. Which my boyfriends learned really quickly. "Yes", "No", "Uh-huh", "I don't know", "Maybe", "I guess". :)
 
Uptosnuff said:
I miss working for Ma Bell. I worked at Northwestern Bell for several years. Until the big lawsuit in the 80s changed everything. I'm not sure now what the local landline phone company even is.

We had one phone in the house. In the living room. Right where my mom sat. Could NOT have a private conversation in that house. Which my boyfriends learned really quickly. "Yes", "No", "Uh-huh", "I don't know", "Maybe", "I guess". :)
Click to expand...
Oh... I remember those days! ROFLMAO!

We had one phone in our house, too, right smack-dab in the middle of the hallway that separated the living room and bedroom portion of the house with the kitchen and dining area, so no matter where my folks were sitting, they were within earshot of me and my siblings conversations on the telephone.
 
Yeah, I remember that woman's voice for the time:

"At the tone, the time will be.....8.....47......and 50 seconds." Beep.

"At the tone, the time will be.....8.....48......EXACTLY." Beep.
 
I grew up in rural NJ with a party line with several neighbors.
I then worked for NJ Bell Telephone and AT&T for 27 years. While ma bell certainly wasn't perfect it did care about
customers and providing good service. The break up (divesititure) in the 80's and the technology innovations
that came after, marked a fundamental change in how we communicate, some good and some not so good.
 
I also remember the difference when dialing "Information" before & after budget cuts.
Before: A live person comes on the line & gives you the number personally.
After: A recording: "If you need help finding a number that isn't in your phone book, please stay on the line. An operator will be with you shortly." In other words, "Look it up yourself, you lazy slob." šŸ˜‚
 
Interesting that you posted this. In the last week I was remembering that Ma Bell owned all of the phones and we just paid to rent them as part of our telephone service. If and when the service ended the phone was removed or returned. I remember what a big deal it was when people could actually choose to purchase their own phones.

I have no fond memories of Ma Bell but I also don't really have any specific negative ones.
 
You can put that old ring tone your cell phone. You can also have different rings for different people.

I donā€™t miss the days without call display.
 
asp3 said:
Interesting that you posted this. In the last week I was remembering that Ma Bell owned all of the phones and we just paid to rent them as part of our telephone service. If and when the service ended the phone was removed or returned. I remember what a big deal it was when people could actually choose to purchase their own phones.
I have no fond memories of Ma Bell but I also don't really have any specific negative ones.
Click to expand...
I seem to remember an aunt and uncle of mine having on of those old phones, (as we all did), but they had one that could only receive incoming calls only(?). ;)
 
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It hasn't been "[that"] long ago that I had a rotary phone.....15 years maybe ? When I was forced too, I traded it for a large-button land-line. Still have that in the bedroom.

I remember as a kid, living in Michigan, we had a wall mounted 'generator'/crank phone , but I really do not remember ever making a call from it......too young.
 
My wife worked for AT&T/Southwestern Bell for a total of 18 years starting as an operator. Even though her wages were pretty low, she participated in their retirement program and their stock option program.

The stocks have done reasonably well and pay out a reasonable dividend, but their regular retirement is pathetic.

"rgp,I remember as a kid, living in Michigan, we had a wall mounted 'generator'/crank phone , but I really do not remember ever making a call from it......too young." My grandparents had one of those, and even in the early 60's, we regarded it as an interesting relic.
 

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