This weekend my husband and I were looking around Prime Video and found A Family Affair television show from the 60’s. It is about a bachelor who gets his 6 year old niece dropped off at this door. He has a butler Mr. French, played by a Sebastian Cabot in all his English finest. Soon the bachelor, Uncle Bill Davis learns that Buffy’s twin brother Jody has come to stay with them as well as teenager Sissy Davis. The bachelor uncle and butler re-arrange their lifestyles and make rooms in their homes for these children who have already moved into their hearts.
We watched several episodes of the first season and it brought us both to tears a few times. It always was very apparent that this was set it a different time. The children went to the park and played. Big sister Sissy gets a new phone; a rotary dial, pink princess phone (I wanted one once upon a time) and young Buffy is upset because she misses her sister who is now always on the phone. It made me think about today’s world.
We have a policy at our Center – no cell phones at work. Pretty simple but we often have to tell parents, hey no cell phones at the Center. They talk on the phone while their children are desperate for their attention. Sometimes those children are having temper tantrums while the parent still talks on the phone. Teachers may have important information to share, but still they talk on the phone.
Phone conversations have gotten totally out of hand out in public. I do not need to know who is fighting with who, or what someone wants to do with or to someone else. Way too much information is out there and there is no such things as privacy any more.
As far as telephones go. My telephone number was PE6-5832 or 736-5823 – Pensacola was the telephone exchange and this was before we had to add the 3 digit prefixes. I wish that I could remember my grandma’s telephone number, but I cannot. Most of my friends had the Mulberry exchange or the MU5 at the beginning of their number. No such things as speed dialing – and yes ma’am rotary phones. My Gramma Treacy had this old phone that was really heavy, She had it on a cork coaster in the kitchen, and it had a cloth covered cord. My phone had a coiled cord, like the ones today but it was short. Long cords came later. There was a single phone in our home in the kitchen for the longest time. Not a great thing when you needed to have some privacy. There was no call-waiting so if someone needed you and the phone was busy you kept manually redialing. In the case of an emergency you could call the operator and ask them to break in a line. I can only recall that happening maybe once or twice and admittedly it was pretty exciting.
Later on Ma Bell as we affectionately called the Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio etc. Bell companies, started making lots of changes. Button dial phones, new styles, multiple colors, longer cords, the ability to add extensions all over the house. The ability for one house to have multiple phone lines, which came in real handy when my younger brother, Johnny had started dating. Soon came cordless phones. They were huge and heavy and you had to be near the charger station. You could use them as an intercom system. You could hit a button on the base and the phone would chirp so that you could find it. Pretty cool functions!
Our phone number on Barry Ave. was 773-794-8764. So the extra three numbers deal was because we were running out of phone numbers. The City of Chicago would be 773 prefix, the north suburbs would be 847 and the south suburbs 630. The prefix would tell you where they were calling from. Of course now, in 2019 the whole zip code premise is out the window. People have all different prefixes. When you move you take your number with you now. We had phones on all floors and in multiple places. Basement in center room and by bathroom/furnace room. Main floor, bedrooms, den, kitchen and dining room. Attic one in both rooms upstairs.
We used the phone line for many years but later just so that we could have a security system. We cut the cord about three years ago and have no home number. The only people who were calling us on that number anyway were the telemarketers.
I got my first cell phone in the 90’s. I was doing Girl Scouts and they had a deal. In 1995 I wore a pager for work – hated that thing and Mike was on call 24/7 when her worked for US Robotics with his pager.
Modems and the internet came along, although not sure of the year. AOL was the thing everyone had – YOU’VE GOT MAIL it would announce after a series of electronic squelches. Ooops I forgot to mention that caller ID and call waiting were introduced. So you did not have to answer when you saw the caller ID, and while talking on the phone a beep signified that someone else was waiting – no more drama of the operator breaking in. All these features cost more and had to be selected.
While on the internet checking emails and doing research you had to suspend call waiting and so once again your phone would be tied up. Then people started with dedicated lines. This post is however about phones so let’s stick to that.
Technology kept moving forward. Big clunky care phones gave way to smaller flip phones, replaced by sliders with tiny keyboards to the flat screen iPhones.
Today I have an iPhone 6 Plus, Mike has an 8. When you get them you have to pay them off in installments as they cost between $800 – $1200. They have cameras in them that are better than most digital cameras on the market right now. They can stream video and music faster and they are wifi enabled. They are a mini computer in your hand.
When I saw the Pink Princess phone on the television, it made me smile. It brought me back to a memory from my childhood – a simpler time. I also feel pretty excited to be a technological pioneer. I feel that my generation can appreciate phones and understand their existence and worth a little better. I am able to unplug and have quiet. I am not sure that the upcoming generation can do that.
Reasons for Gladness 