Back in the mid-1970s I had a couple of illegal extension phones hooked up (you had to pay extra for extension phones back in the day). One time my mother was talking to my aunt in South Dakota and I was also on the line, and she happened to mention the illegal extension phones. I then told my mother not to say anything as there might be an operator tapped in. Sure enough, there WAS one as she revealed herself by bursting out laughing!! In case anyone was wondering how they detected unauthorized extension phones in the dark ages, they used to measure the amount of ringing current drawn when the phone rang. If you disconnected the ringers on the extensions, they couldn't find out.
When phones started to be sold to customers there were enough phones out there with electronic ringers that had weird or fractional ringer equivalences and this made it difficult to count. 5200 sets had equivalence of 1. Electronic ringers can be one tenth to one half of that... so it was impossible to count. In our house we had 7 growing up. My dad was a military phone man. I even got some stromberg & carlson sets from a western union friend and put together his box of spare parts into phones without ringers as a kid 😎👍
My first job after HS graduation was as a Pacific NW Bell telephone operator, from 1966-1975, and was in the Business Office for a short time. This is a real treat to look back at my working 🌎. Watching this on my iPad with my iPhone (AT&T service ) by my side. I remember the Engineers in our Switching room telling us that there would come a day (soon) where there would be no more telephone operators, no cord boards, and we couldn’t even imagine the changes coming. Now, here we are!
I had a red and also an operators pad with a MF generator and reader that I could connect directly to a phone box out on a pole or underground box or business connection on a building. It was good for calling my buddy in UK for christmas each year back in high school and subsequent years LOL
in the 60s had what was called a party line. One could actually pick up one's phone and someone would be talking. Kids today don't know what a landline is and how a voice passes through a copper wire.
I still come across people who don't want to cancel their landline and give up the phone number they've had for decades. Ok, go ahead and pay for overpriced, underused service. Continue giving scammers and telemarketers a means to bother you 😆
To be honest with you I’ve never had a cell phone and I don’t like the way they work either my first ever phone was a landline telephone that was made in 1971 it still works and I use it every single day
One unsatisfied customer thumbed this video down. Wasn't me.
Great little video. Thanks!
Glad you liked it! Thanks. ~ VK
So many funny incidents. Great. But that kid taking things out of the engineers tool belt. Priceless. Thank you for this.
Franko, thank you. Glad you enjoyed it! ~ Victor
"Now look what I got..." Lol
"Yes, I'd like to place a person-to-RUclips comment, please..."
Pound the quarters in your iphone wiith a hammer and every subsequent 3 min to continue typing or viewing. Thank you for using AT&Turd.
Back in the mid-1970s I had a couple of illegal extension phones hooked up (you had to pay extra for extension phones back in the day). One time my mother was talking to my aunt in South Dakota and I was also on the line, and she happened to mention the illegal extension phones. I then told my mother not to say anything as there might be an operator tapped in. Sure enough, there WAS one as she revealed herself by bursting out laughing!!
In case anyone was wondering how they detected unauthorized extension phones in the dark ages, they used to measure the amount of ringing current drawn when the phone rang. If you disconnected the ringers on the extensions, they couldn't find out.
That was the way. Open up the telephone and unscrew one of the wires leading to the bell and you're good to go. :)
When phones started to be sold to customers there were enough phones out there with electronic ringers that had weird or fractional ringer equivalences and this made it difficult to count. 5200 sets had equivalence of 1. Electronic ringers can be one tenth to one half of that... so it was impossible to count. In our house we had 7 growing up. My dad was a military phone man. I even got some stromberg & carlson sets from a western union friend and put together his box of spare parts into phones without ringers as a kid 😎👍
No wonder it was better times. All the personal interactions and steamy conversations with the operators. Hoooh.
Yeah back in those 70s days they were something else lol
My first job after HS graduation was as a Pacific NW Bell telephone operator, from 1966-1975, and was in the Business Office for a short time. This is a real treat to look back at my working 🌎. Watching this on my iPad with my iPhone (AT&T service ) by my side. I remember the Engineers in our Switching room telling us that there would come a day (soon) where there would be no more telephone operators, no cord boards, and we couldn’t even imagine the changes coming. Now, here we are!
Hi C A B, yes, it is amazing what changes we have seen. Even "land lines" are a rarity. Thanks very much for your great feedback! ~ Victor, CHAP
Did the operators use the phonetic alphabet? It seems like they didn’t in this historical record.
About 11:50: "I have an unpublished phone number...I wanted to call home, and I forgot the number..." ROFL!!!!
Yeah and she aint falling for it.
I remember having fun with my bluebox back in the days.
I had a red and also an operators pad with a MF generator and reader that I could connect directly to a phone box out on a pole or underground box or business connection on a building. It was good for calling my buddy in UK for christmas each year back in high school and subsequent years LOL
in the 60s had what was called a party line. One could actually pick up one's phone and someone would be talking. Kids today don't know what a landline is and how a voice passes through a copper wire.
And nothing has changed, we sill have cranky stupid yelling customers except now they call centers. These were the call centers of that era.
I was all of 1 year old in 1972.
Surely the phone operators used the phonetic alphabet!?
I still come across people who don't want to cancel their landline and give up the phone number they've had for decades. Ok, go ahead and pay for overpriced, underused service. Continue giving scammers and telemarketers a means to bother you 😆
To be honest with you I’ve never had a cell phone and I don’t like the way they work either my first ever phone was a landline telephone that was made in 1971 it still works and I use it every single day
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd you were the last person on a horse and buggy, leaving manure in the streets, while the rest of the country was in a car.
@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd Luckily we are mostly telemarketing via b2b aka the CEO and directors of a business instead of random people.