How to Dial a Rotary Telephone

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

short video

[YuAndDan 153]

Yep, life before rotary dial!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I miss rotary dial phones...without speed dialing, life had to go a little slower...I miss that.

[Mephys 2]

Wow thats crazy to see how much the society has changed, now everybody has a cellphone with internet on it When i see teenagers with cell phones like this it makes me wonder the usefulness of it. I will turn 27 soon and I just got my first phoner with a camera on it.

Thanks for the video, I think young people should watch this and get a lesson from it. They take everything for granted like if it has always existed.

[almaty 19]

i also, liked the rotary phone...i do not miss the real old ones that weighted 10 lbs

[Emancipation 2]

OH man.. that made me miss the rotary phone..

I miss my party line too.. where your nosey neighbor listens in to your juicy calls

[YuAndDan 153]

We have a couple of rotaries still in the home, it is quite fun to watch people who have never seen one attempt to make calls on them.

Edited July 26, 2007 by YuAndDan

[mawilson 2,133]

The answer is:

Portable Rotary Cellular Phone

Yes, you read it right. Port-O-Rotary. We've gone and hacked into a rotary phone.

I find myself talking about nerd things with my friends and peers who could usually care less.

Every once and a while, someone who really doesn't have a clue, says something so crazy,

it makes you take a step back. I can't remember who had the idea of a rotary cell phone -

needless to say it had something to do with quite a few rum and cokes. They didn't have a clue

how to do it, they just thought it would be cool. So did I...

Why wouldn't it be cool to see a rotary phone, ringing, with no wires attached? It might mess

with your brain a bit.

Turns out I am very glad there is no such thing as a cellular rotary phone - the dialing takes

forever! And here in Colorado - on a 10-digit dialing system - you don't dare mess up the

number.

So here it is - a portable cellular rotary phone - in all it's random glory!

[Krikit 1,165]

I liked the fact that the rotary dial phones came without voicemail. A pre-voicemail story:

When I first began working at my former job, all calls had to be answered because there was no such thing as voicemail. One of my co-workers reported to a complete and utter moron. One day, the moron was standing in Sandra's office giving her heck for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Because this was a regular occurrence, and because no one in the department had the slightest bit of respect for the moron, two of our co-workers rang Sandra's office. Sandra picked up. Over the phone, the co-workers were joking and asking Sandra what she'd done this time. Then they started making fun of her boss. The entire time, Sandra had to keep a straight face and pretend it was a business call because the moron was standing over her waiting to continue her tirade. We were howling.

I miss my party line too.. where your nosey neighbor listens in to your juicy calls

I miss the party line prices.

[nane1104 146]

When I wanted to dial a number at our old rotary Phone, I always had to sqeeze the part you speak into between my cheek and shoulder while I was holding the phone down with one hand to keep it from falling while dialing with the other hand...I miss those times, even it was a pain in the butt!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The answer is:

Portable Rotary Cellular Phone

Yes, you read it right. Port-O-Rotary. We've gone and hacked into a rotary phone.

I find myself talking about nerd things with my friends and peers who could usually care less.

Every once and a while, someone who really doesn't have a clue, says something so crazy,

it makes you take a step back. I can't remember who had the idea of a rotary cell phone -

needless to say it had something to do with quite a few rum and cokes. They didn't have a clue

how to do it, they just thought it would be cool. So did I...

Why wouldn't it be cool to see a rotary phone, ringing, with no wires attached? It might mess

with your brain a bit.

Turns out I am very glad there is no such thing as a cellular rotary phone - the dialing takes

forever! And here in Colorado - on a 10-digit dialing system - you don't dare mess up the

number.

So here it is - a portable cellular rotary phone - in all it's random glory!

Holy Cow! $400 for one!

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_i...products_id=286

...and it doesn't look very portable.

[Krikit 1,165]

There were also a couple of "features" in the old phone system we used to take advantage of as kids:

- The Party Line. This is where you called a specific number which lead to a "chat room". It was actually just dead air but, if you yelled loud enough, you could be heard, and there was no limit to the number of people who could be in there. Everyone would yell their names and/or numbers (or whatever) into the dead air, and then you would call and/or meet each other. Great fun.

- Check-Your-Line. The old phones had a number you could call to verify whether your phoneline was working. You dialed the number and then hung up. After a small delay, the phone would ring and you would know it was still functional (or not, as the case may be). This worked well for removing unwelcome guests. Because we were kids we would say stuff like.... "That was your Mom. She wants you to go home."

[YuAndDan 153]

The answer is:

Portable Rotary Cellular Phone

Yes, you read it right. Port-O-Rotary. We've gone and hacked into a rotary phone.

I find myself talking about nerd things with my friends and peers who could usually care less.

Every once and a while, someone who really doesn't have a clue, says something so crazy,

it makes you take a step back. I can't remember who had the idea of a rotary cell phone -

needless to say it had something to do with quite a few rum and cokes. They didn't have a clue

how to do it, they just thought it would be cool. So did I...

Why wouldn't it be cool to see a rotary phone, ringing, with no wires attached? It might mess

with your brain a bit.

Turns out I am very glad there is no such thing as a cellular rotary phone - the dialing takes

forever! And here in Colorado - on a 10-digit dialing system - you don't dare mess up the

number.

So here it is - a portable cellular rotary phone - in all it's random glory!

Awesome!!!

[Mags 112]

My Nan had a big green one rotary phone on her wall. I used to love dialling home when I stayed with her, there were mostly 7s, 8s and 9s in our number so it always took AGES...lol