Brooklynite Pat Cassidy Mollach remembers that “When I was young we used to call on the home phone to get the Time and Temperature Lady…”
A few years ago, AT&T put the kabosh on this service. The LA Times had a nice eulogy, which can be seen here.
As a little kid, I didn’t have a Gameboy. I was forced to entertain myself by honing my musical abilities. So, I learned to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the phone.
It went:
3212333
222,399
3212333
322321
I suppose you can still play songs when dialing a phone number, but so much “dialing” these days is done just by scrolling through an address book. Do people even know the sound of their own number any more?
My parents have each had the same phone number in their respective homes for at least four decades. The sound of the 11 numbers I have to dial (not so long ago, it was only 7) has become such a part of the experience of calling them that to do with out it always feels a little like cheating. My dad’s is dee, doo dee doo (that’s 1-212) then dum-dah-daah, dee-dum-dee-day. My mom’s is dee doo dee doo (1-212!) dah-dah-dum, dah-dum-dum, dah. Got it?
Here are some other good tunes that can be composed on a phone:
Happy Birthday
112163
112196
11#9632
969363
Auld Lang Syne
11113212
321139#
#9331212
321##91
Frere Jacques
12311231
369369
9#9631,9#9631
191,191
Louie, Louie
111-66-999-66
(Songs from this site, via the book Totally Useless Office Skills)
I love the wily vacuum in the back. You see, in the days when phones were new, Hoovers used to wait until you were deep in conversation before strangling you.
It sucked. Ha! At least I make myself laugh. Interestingly, the vacuums were never caught. They always made a clean getaway.
Okay, I’ll shut up now.
(via Carabaas)
This thing is really cool! Why didn’t it ever catch on? Maybe because it could only be used if you had the hand of a tyrannosaurus?
Retro Selectro: Card Callmaker Ad (1973)
(via BoingBoing)
![Remember when you actually WANTED the guy to call? I do. But does anyone under 25?
This is just one of the many to-the-point pre-penned missives offered up at the anti-text-stalking site thatsnotcool.com. [via iheartdaily.com]](http://www.thatsnotcool.com/img/calloutcards/AbilityToIgnore_Web_Hero.jpg)
Remember when you actually WANTED the guy to call? I do. But does anyone under 25?
This is just one of the many to-the-point pre-penned missives offered up at the anti-text-stalking site thatsnotcool.com. [via iheartdaily.com]
- Me: What's this?
- Dandara: You put it on the wrist.
- Me: Yup. But then what?
- Dandara: Well, it's a phone. You hold up to your ear.
- Me: Your right. It kind of looks like a phone. But actually, it's a watch.
- Dandara: No, it's a phone. I've seen these before.
1960’s Advertisement for Western Electric.
Also be sure to check out this amazing hi-res scan of a WE full page ad titled “There are 3,000 ‘bits’ of information on this page” over at PhoneBooth.org.
Me, circa 1981. Even then, I liked to surround myself with obsolete objects. “But,” you say, “landlines and newspapers were nowhere obsolete then!” Shush up. I was just prescient.
I found this while going some old photo albums last night. There were actually about 20 photos of me with this phone. Make of this what you will.
Gallery: Vintage Culture on the Line — Novelty Phones Recall the Past
A look at when phones had cords…and character.
- Jessica: i had to call 1 800 JET-BLUE and i went to my blackberry to call them but my BB doesn't have the ABC DEF GHI markings on each number key like most (and older) phone do so i couldn't make the call
- me: ha. how did you make the call?
- Jessica: i went to my landline -- which has an old princess phone
- me: My phone is the same. I've found myself, at times, trying to figure it out by saying the alphabet in bits of three while counting.Okay, 1 is nothing, 2 is ABC, 3 is DEF...but then a few of the numbers have more than three letters, so eventually it becomes a guessing game!
- Jessica: but do other people have them memorized?what does JETBLUE expect? can we not do 1800 - WHATEVER in the future?
- me: I doubt many people have it memorized. Many people don't even know their own number.
- Jessica: right
- me: the last numbers of my phone number spell COCK
- Jessica: ha!
- me: interestingly, they also spell ANAL
- Jessica: so funny -- you have option. but now no one will know
- me: well, maybe in the future, we just won't use phones at all. fingers crossed!
- Jessica: we will just mind meld. or not communicate at all
- me: Or we'll IM
MEET THE AUTHOR
Anna Grossman is writing this bio in the third person. She is a New York-based freelance writer specializing in lifestyle and entertainment features. She is 5'7" and has been described as "nice." Su esposo, Jesus, enseñandola Espanol. Email her if you feel like it: GrossmanAJ@Gmail.com
MEET THE ILLUSTRATOR
James Gulliver Hancock is an internationally acclaimed artist who crosses as many mediums as he does borders. James is constantly on the move, having been involved in artist projects and residencies in Indonesia, Austria, France, the U.K. and America. He is currently located in Los Angeles and works on projects in Europe, America and Australia. His work is as varied as his travels, encompassing editorial illustration for magazines, commissions for music group artwork and animations, work with disabled children on logo designs, creating gigantic set illustrations for performances and TV.
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CONTACT: ObsoleteTheBook@ Gmail.com. Because books love to check email.
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