phones the way they were.

They were heavy enough to knock an intruder out and mounted on the wall.

 Had a twenty foot corded that seem to knot and braid itself

Ours had a rotary dial you stuck your fingers in and moved the dial to zero click click  click it would return...

When it rang four people would rush to it to find out who is calling. We didn't have caller id call screening simply rang and we answered.... It amazing any of  us made it.

Calling the next town was long distance, it costed 50 cents a minute for peak time 20 cents after 6 in the evening.... if you messed up a number you had to hang up and do it again.

The good old days....

Haha. Yessir.  Saw a video somewhere the other day with a lady having her sons try to figure out how to make a call using an old rotary phone.  Was hilarious. 

I'm not even that old but I remember running up the bill calling my cousins in Tahoe from Oakland. Never got in trouble though.

I get a kick out of seeing old pay phones that havent been taken out. Always will cherish how I stuck change in the coin drop at restaurants, rest stops or wherever they were when my kids werent looking and would tell my kids to check them for change and the joy they'd get pulling a few nickles or dimes out of it. Good memories.

@Mark_The_Narc

 Always change in the old pay phones, a kids dream! 

I grew up with a guy who worked for NY Bell & his job was to go around the Big Apple fixing all the broken/stuffed payphones.

The beauty of his gig was when the box was full of change, subsequent coins would get piled up within the phone casings & never enter the coinbox. By the end of the day he would have 50 to 60 bucks in loose change that went unaccounted by Bell because of course they had no clue how much didn't go into the box.

He used that money to buy a 1969 Dodge Charger.

But then he got greedy by taping the coin slot so nothing would enter the coinbox. Dumb shit got fired from one of the best gigs in the city. 

What an idiot. In those days? In a city like NY? Talk about job security. Pretty chill too. In your own world just plugging away at your own pace.

Or how about old school 311 to figure out the number of the last missed call you had? classic

* meant star 69 not 311 

How about when you went to make a call and the line was in use and who had to wait for them to get off the phone. I remember getting your own line we were tickled pink.

Remember when # was a pound sign when did it change to a hash tag?

I remember my parents made me sign a contract that I would pay for my own phone line....

Did good for 3 months and then met a girl from 3 hours away , rang up a $560 phone bill ...Phone went bye bye. 

Legend has it that they're still paying off that phone bill today.

I hope your parents are still with us or else that joke sucks.

Remember these little beauties  

@StumpTownStu

 Good one Brother 

Yes they're still alive...My dad still brings it up till this day ....

What I don’t miss is getting gigantic bills from MCI or ATT long distance plans. Would call out of state for two hours a month, and get $200-$300 bills in my early 20s. Try and contest it and MegaCorp would just shut off your service. Glad to see those dinosaurs lose their cash cow!!!