You Know You Are Old When

[goeduck]

Remember asking the pay phone operator to place a collect call to somebody, and getting your dime back?

Some families would say no to the operator when receiving a collect call from someone in the family. The calling family member would then blurt out the message quickly before the operator cut them off. I recall being at a neighbor's and the mother answered the phone, told the operator that she could not take the collect call, then hanging up and saying something like "Joey will be home on Tuesday". It took me a while to figure out what they were doing.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Some families would say no to the operator when receiving a collect call from someone in the family. The calling family member would then blurt out the message quickly before the operator cut them off. I recall being at a neighbor's and the mother answered the phone, told the operator that she could not take the collect call, then hanging up and saying something like "Joey will be home on Tuesday". It took me a while to figure out what they were doing.

You called collect when traveling to let the folks know you were there safe. The operator would say the name of the caller, and where they were calling from. If you needed to talk to them, you used a different name.

 

[Jstpssng]

A coworker would make a collect, person to person call for Bonnie. The person on the other end would say she wasn't there, then call back. After 9, if they wanted to save more money.

Bonnie was their dog.

 

[MoKelly]

You know you are old when you remember tobacco ads on TV.

You know you are old when you remember waiting for monthly magazines to show up in the mail (Time, Life, Newsweek).

 

[Eagle1]

You know you are old when you remember tobacco ads on TV.

You know you are old when you remember waiting for monthly magazines to show up in the mail (Time, Life, Newsweek).

Playboy, Penthouse, CycleWorld......

 

[sixdogs]

My sister was an operator in a small town back in the '50's. Operators were highly competent and often handled or directed emergency actions. A lot of people would call the operator first and the operator would instantly connect to the police or fire or whatever. I believe this was all over the country. AT&T was really a good neighbor.

My sister handled a number of such calls and the newspapers often had stories praising an operator for their fast actions or quick thinking. In an emergency, trying to find the police or fire under duress was a lot harder than dialing "0". Little kids knew to dial the operator if they were lost or needed help.

This wasn't something you did willy-nilly but rather in an emergency and you could get in big trouble for fooling around.

 

[DK35vince]

You know you are old when you remember waiting for monthly magazines to show up in the mail (Time, Life, Newsweek).

I still get my monthly Dirt Wheels and UTV Action magazines.

 

[Oaktree]

I believe it was the mid 70’s when touch tone dialing became available here. It cost $1 extra per month which my dad refused to pay. One supplier for his store required a touch tone phone for ordering, so he gets a Radio Shack phone that could be switched between tone & pulse (rotary style) dialing. Take that Ma Bell

I got one of those in the 80s when the alternate long distance companies came along with much lower rates than Ma Bell (MCI I think was one). As I recall, you had to call a local #, then enter a code and the number you were trying to call. Local # had to be pulse since we didn't yet have tone dialing, but once you got in you needed touchtones.
Kind of a PITA, but it was cheaper. Wasn't long before you could choose your own default long distance provider and go back to just calling the #.

 

[Oaktree]

You know you are old when:

your wife goes away for a week and you have no idea what to do

2 of my wife's kids live about 1000 miles away, once or twice a year she'll go down for a week or so. Kinda enjoy having the house to myself, at least for the first couple days though it feels a bit empty without her after that. No trouble finding things to do though. Actually, I'll often use those times to do messy/disruptive home projects.
Does that mean I'm not old?

 

[scootr]

You know you are old if your Mom ever told you to go outside and play and don't come back until it gets dark or the street lights come on.