esrosedotblog

WE STILL SAY "DIAL"

When I was a kid, we had a telephone, at first, with no dial.

There was an operator. You told her (always a her) the name of "the party" you wanted.

Then, my god! A dial.

This is how it worked.

At first there was a party line, shared with others. But that didn't last long. It drove my Dad nuts to wait.

I wasn't old enough to enjoy listening in but later, a few cousins were on party lines and I got to eavesdrop.

There is no mystery to using a dial phone but it apparently flummoxed some people enough this had to be prepared.

In the old days, where I lived, there were just four numbers. I can still remember my cousin Phil's number: 3431.

In larger locations, they added prefixes that had a name. Like "Columbus". When I went to MIT, I lived in "University". Then in other cities, my memory fades. I think, maybe not, when I lived in Plymouth MA, the prefix was PILgrim. I don't know. It is fading.

Now, we live in an area that has two or three area codes and we have to dial the three digit prefix. My phone "dials" the one. For international I have to put in 01.

And so it goes.

Thanks to I Love Charts

Labels: technology