What do French palaces and garden railways have in common?
Well, …
as it happens …
garden railways.
Starting at the 7:19 point,
He built a model railroad to keep the Imperial Prince off his damn phone…
John Passaro said:
He built a model railroad to keep the Imperial Prince off his damn phone…
Poor servant that had to carry that one around!
Hi All;
The hefty phone made me think of my somewhat eccentric Uncle Carl. He lived in his grandfather’s house in the 1920s. At that time, Grandfather also took care of the local telephone exchange, and the switchboard was in the house. Grandfather slept at night and turned over the switchboard duties to Uncle Carl. Uncle Carl would doze until a request for a connection came to the switchboard. Then he would make the connection, stay on the line, and take notes. Uncle Carl (as a junior and senior in high school) also wrote the gossip column for the local newspaper! People were mystified as to where the news came from. He was a relative by marriage, but I did come by some other traits honestly.
Regards, David Meashey
Sneaky. And that brings to mind the couple years I worked for AT&T. Even in 1990s there remained places where the LEC was in someone’s home. Can remember a conversation with one and hearing where the kids banged the screen door on their way in and out. And I rather enjoyed that!
Eric Mueller said:
John Passaro said:
He built a model railroad to keep the Imperial Prince off his damn phone…
Poor servant that had to carry that one around!
Oldest Son did not know how you dialed that strange black thing on the table. He did, however, know it was not a farm animal! Both he and Kid-zilla found it “hilarious” and asked to watch it again.
- Eric
Eric Mueller said:
Oldest Son did not know how you dialed that strange black thing on the table. He did, however, know it was not a farm animal! Both he and Kid-zilla found it “hilarious” and asked to watch it again.
- Eric
This one might be too old for them, but it’s still funny:
Yep …back in the day in the hood when you could hookup a 9v to the red and green wires and make a train phone. Powered by battery with wires to the next connection. Only works if there is someone on the other end to answer the model RR train phone.
Edited for spelin
Just another aside about rotary dial phones. When our younger daughter was a toddler (To put this in perspective, she will be 44 on her next birthday - 11/29/20.), she called rotary dial phones “zickle phones.” To her ears, “zickle” was the noise the dial made as it returned to home. Our little family still refers to the rotary dial phones as “zickle phones.”
Yours, David Meashey
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Sneaky. And that brings to mind the couple years I worked for AT&T. Even in 1990s there remained places where the LEC was in someone’s home. Can remember a conversation with one and hearing where the kids banged the screen door on their way in and out. And I rather enjoyed that!
Back around 1982 I was having a rather intimate phone conversation with a girlfriend, when the operator suddenly came on the line and told us that the operators could be listening at any time. Yikes!
Ray Dunakin said:
Back around 1982 I was having a rather intimate phone conversation with a girlfriend, when the operator suddenly came on the line and told us that the operators could be listening at any time. Yikes!
When Dad was in naval weapons research at Dahlgren, and at other times, we knew our phones were bugged, so I refrained from discussing certain subjects.
One house we lived in in Virginia, after Mom & Dad sold it the buyers a couple months later reported having constant troubles with the phone lines and the phone company “Just had no idea what the trouble was or how to fix it”.
Yeah.
Right.
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Ray Dunakin said:
Back around 1982 I was having a rather intimate phone conversation with a girlfriend, when the operator suddenly came on the line and told us that the operators could be listening at any time. Yikes!