I'm So Old That I Remember...

[Linda0818]

View attachment 68400
this was our bedroom phone for years, think my ex still has it.
Was the only phone that worked during a power failure as all the newer phones had too many electrical parts. Was great.

Yep. During a storm, if the power went out, my cordless phone went kaput. But my mom's phone, which was a landline, was up and running. Although she'd still tell me not to make phone calls during a storm because I could become electrocuted if lightning would hit the house.

(same deal with taking showers, washing the dishes, etc)

 

[Linda0818]

I remember when those old telephones would ring during an electrical storm.

Also the frustration of being on a party line.
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I suppose the party line was an early form of social media.

I don't remember party lines, but I do remember when phones would not automatically hang themselves up once the call was finished. If the person you were talking to didn't hang their phone up right and put it 'on the hook', you were stuck not being able to make anymore phone calls until they realized the phone was off the hook and hung it back up.

I spent several minutes one time screaming into the phone at my friend Lisa when she didn't put her receiver on the hook properly and was hoping she'd hear me and come and hang it up so I could make another phone call. It was probably close to a half hour or more before someone at her house finally noticed it.

Then finally came the day when the phone company added the feature that phones would cut the connection after so long once one of the parties had hung up.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Yep. During a storm, if the power went out, my cordless phone went kaput. But my mom's phone, which was a landline, was up and running. Although she'd still tell me not to make phone calls during a storm because I could become electrocuted if lightning would hit the house.

(same deal with taking showers, washing the dishes, etc)

My grandmother was the same.

On the farm the barn had lightening rods and there was one lone dead elm tree in the field that had been left to draw the lightening.

 

[Andy M.]

We had no qualms about giving up our landline when we looked at the cost (high) and benefits (few). At than time we were using multi-station cordless phones. Hadn't used a phone company phone in a while.

 

[Linda0818]

We had no qualms about giving up our landline when we looked at the cost (high) and benefits (few). At than time we were using multi-station cordless phones. Hadn't used a phone company phone in a while.

I haven't had a landline for probably 15 years or more.

 

[taxlady]

Well, it is possible for lightning to pass through a phone. It's just incredibly unlikely.

 

[taxlady]

If they switch our landline to fibre, we will probably give it up. Old fashioned landlines have a very low power line attached. It's enough to run a phone that doesn't need a screen or other fancy stuff. If, as I expect, the fibre connection does not have that low power wire, then we will give up the landline when they switch us to fibre. The ONLY REASON we still have a landline is that it works when the power is out.

 

[dragnlaw]

Well, it is possible for lightning to pass through a phone. It's just incredibly unlikely.

Yes, that's very true taxy.
Friends of ours lived in a V between a couple of hills, during a storm lightening did hit a tree close to the house, maybe 200 ft away but up the hill. Which was scary enough but worse was watching a fireball run along the clothes line and into the house right beside their mom standing at the laundry tub.
No harm done but they were pretty shaken.

 

[taxlady]

Lightning is scary stuff. A friend had a cell phone damaged beyond repair. It was a melted mess. No one in the house was injured, just the phone. It was during a lightning storm. There had apparently been a very bright flash of light near a window.

 

[Meryl]

Yep. During a storm, if the power went out, my cordless phone went kaput. But my mom's phone, which was a landline, was up and running. Although she'd still tell me not to make phone calls during a storm because I could become electrocuted if lightning would hit the house.

(same deal with taking showers, washing the dishes, etc)

Yes, I remember being warned against being electrocuted on the phone during a storm, or using any other household electrical appliances .

 

[dragnlaw]

that used to be the first place I would head in the shoe store. It was great! Then you were limited to use only if mommy and the salesman agreed. I was thwarted! In the end they got rid of them all together when the real dangers became known.

 

[Aunt Bea]

The radium craze of the 50s and 60s, who knew!

I remember the little glow in the dark cross or pendant on pull chain lights to help you find them in the dark.

 

[dragnlaw]

Also remembered how I was trying to figure out how to put my hand down below and see thru the viewer at the same time on the X-Ray machines. Thwarted again!

 

[Linda0818]

Enjoyed this thread so much that I thought I'd bump it up and add a couple of things that I remember from my childhood - wax candies. I wasn't much into chewing on the wax. I'd occasionally chew on the lips and the bottles that contained the sweet liquid (pictured) but only for a minute or two before spitting it back out.

Did you chew on the wax? Perhaps eat it? I knew a few kids who would literally eat (and swallow) the wax after chewing on it for a while. Blech.

 

[blissful]

About 20 years ago, I had an electric alarm clock in the family room. My youngest was around 10. We had a lightning storm and lightning struck close to the house. Then we noticed the alarm clock second hand was going backwards. The clock ran backwards. From then until the next day, when we replugged it in, it would go forward, but then replugged it in and it would go backwards. That lasted about 24 hours. It was really never the same. My 10 year old really enjoyed that, it was so weird.

 

[Kathleen]

I love reading (and remember) these!

I remember playing with mercury on our desks in elementary school. So much fun. Little drops would linger for years.

 

[dragnlaw]

OMG! yes! Dad brought some home for us to play with!!

 

[Linda0818]

I love reading (and remember) these!

I remember playing with mercury on our desks in elementary school. So much fun. Little drops would linger for years.

We did that too. I remember letting the little mercury balls roll around in my hand.

 

[dragnlaw]

yeah, squishing them with your finger to separate into littler balls then pushing them all back into one ball, poof - like magic.

 

[Linda0818]

yeah, squishing them with your finger to separate into littler balls then pushing them all back into one ball, poof - like magic.

That was so cool.

There are still certain smells that instantly take me back to grade school. Like the smell of crayons, pencils, old books, that sort of thing.