In search of a rotary phone

When I was a kid, we had the same white phone hanging on the wall in our kitchen. I vaguely remember that we had a traditional black rotary dial phone early in my childhood, but for the most of my youth, we had the small rotary one with a long cord that always seemed to get tangled.

We later had a white cordless one, but it was still pretty simple. The phone had a receiver and you answered calls when the phone rang and you called other people, that was it. You didn’t do anything else with it.

Oh, how times have changed in the intervening years.

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The games we play

The Apples, Samsungs, and the other media conglomerates have somehow managed to change the game on us. We’ve all known this for years. They use their magic to convince us to buy a new phone every few years whether we need one or not.

Of course, Apple was the latest. Apple earlier this month held its special event, “Wonderlust,” where it introduced the iPhone 15, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra, and some new accessories. Before Apple, Samsung in July rolled out four new Galaxy products displaying Samsung’s latest innovations that redefine the mobile device experience.

From a few hundred to more than $1,000 a pop, new phones are not cheap. As a kid, if I had gone to my dad and asked for a new $800 phone, I’m pretty sure he would have had to have gone to the hospital. He would have laughed so hard at my request, he would have needed to see the doctor for a broken rib.

Image by Pexels.

What matters

Oh, how times have changed.

When I think about smartphones, I find myself always questioning, “Do I really need a new one? Do I need the new bells and whistles.” Yes, I know phones have come a long way. They’ve changed the way we get through society, but they’re still a big investment.

I try to remind myself now that smartphones are more than just phones. They’re a phone, camera, watch, mail and email carrier, newspaper, radio and stereo system, GPS and map, video game console, people finder, and wallet in one.

And to think not than many years ago, we didn’t even have smartphones. I don’t want to go back to landlines and rotary phones permanently, but I have to admit, I wouldn’t mind going back for part of a day. Yea, I’m fooling myself, but it is amazing to look back to see how far we’ve come.

Here’s a few other things that are now obsolete.

Obsolete Technology Replacement
Land LinesSmartPhones
Paper MapsGPS-aided map software
Phone bookSearch engine and online databases
PagerCell Phones
Analog watchesSmart Watches
CDsStreaming Music (Spotify, Apple Music)

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55 thoughts on “In search of a rotary phone”

  4. It’s really scary how time has changed our lives. I remember going to grandma’s house and using a wall mounted wooden box with a speaker and listening device that you held up to your ear. We used to listen in on the party lines. We had to amuse ourselves somehow. For us old fogies, all this new technology is mind boggling. I often what it’s all doing to our ability to think.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I remember party lines. I remember my parents worrying about others listening. Now we have tik tok and other apps and people not really worrrying about what they put out into the world! Ha ha. Saying all that, I tend to think tech and advancement is good. People just need to be careful, but who knows. Ha ha

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      1. It’s something we need to adapt to. Just like they did at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Time changes the way we look at things. but sometimes our eyes develop cataracts.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. OMG Brian, you have me rolling on the floor from your parables as you always do. 🤣 I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. I still have a landline. One reason why I keep it (and yeah I know that people look at me like I have a third and fourth eye) is because we ran into an outage in our area several years ago that left us without mobile service and electricity for a while. Thankfully I was able to connect to various utility services because of that phone. Now, quite honestly, I don’t used my Smartphone for everything, except for the basic necessities. I don’t do my banking or anything like that which stores more sensitive information than I care to share. But I still use my Timex watch. Yes, I have a Fitbit, but after having several models and after my having heat sensations with a lot of discoloration around my wrist, I said, “Nah!” ⌚

    Had I asked my parents for the latest and greatest Smartphone with the hefty price tag it comes with, let alone all the peripherals that go with it, they would have simply looked at me and said, “Have you lost your damn mind?” Then there would be a scary moment of silence and they would go back to reading the newspaper or watching TV. 😱 While I may have many replacemets on your list, I still use my old manual standbys, even if not as often, just in case. (like my college dictionary and thesaurus for example) 👍🏼😍🙏🏼

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I think we grew up in the same house. I would’ve never heard the end of it if I asked for a phone. Even my mom who might have been a little more sympathetic to a teen’s wants would’ve asked me what the heck was going through my mind. 🤣🤣🤣 I get still having a landline. We’ve had some similar issues. I have a mix. I worry like you about giving away too much sensitive $$$ info. And yes, I still have my basic timex. Sometimes basic is just better! And yes, I swear I hear my father rolling in his grave just for even thinking about asking for something silly like a phone!!!! Ha ha ha

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Brian, yep, it sounds like we were raised in the same house my friend. 😂 Like you, sometimes the simplicity of the basics (and also, I still write checks occasionally) somehow helps to keep my mind more focused and sharper. I don’t like a device doing all of my thinking for me! 😜 At this age, I need to preserve all of the brain cells I can, no matter what lobe it is in. 😝

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Says the camera guy. Ha, ha, I’m just kidding John. I actually agree. The Apples and Androids keep trying to tell you they’re better and that they have some differentiator, but the end of the day, I find most are the same, the difference is the camera.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. In my simple world Brian, there is a place for technology and it is helpful. There will never be a place for a phone that costs more than my monthly rent, or even a monthly cable bill! You can probably guess that I do not upgrade/replace my phone until it literally does not work anymore. Even if I could financially, I would not.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. As someone who fell into a technology well last week because I got a new phone…I can attest to how much those darn, indispensable things do. It’s taken me the better part of the following week to make sure all the essential functions are working…and I’m overwhelmed by the ‘bells and whistles’ (pun/irony intended) that I may never need or use. I think I needed decompression therapy to come down from the chaos! 😜

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh, it’s okay Vicki, help is on the way, just follow the light, follow the light. 🤣🤣🤣 It really is amazing how tech can shake us. Even old tech. I had to help a coworker with an Excel spreadsheet this week. I’m the last person you want in Excel. Word, sure, no problem. Excel, forget it. I felt like such a dunce. Ugh, but we’ll get it eventually, right Vicki!!!!!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Amen to that…look for the light…ANY light! And have you read the latest about AI ChatGPT and Excel????? Just hand over your data and the charts and graphs arrive – voila! No fuss, no pivot tables. OMG. Thanks for the encouragement, though. Just don’t reach out to me for spreadsheet help, okey dokey? 😜

        Liked by 1 person

  10. When I worked in the PR department of a real estate developer, my desk top fancy office phone’s cord would get tangled. One VP would stop and untangle my cord frequently. It really bothered him. One day, he had the cord mounted in a boxed frame with a plate “Tanglecord” with my name as the artist. I kept it until we moved to Arizona.

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  11. Phones these days may feel very fancy and souped up with tech but there is something lost with the rotary phones. Like hours of conversation with friends rather than more informal texts and messages.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. My mom took me shopping for clothes, but my parents didn’t give me money. Starting in 7th grade, I walked to my dad’s office after school and emptied ashtrays and trashes and picked up the mail at the post office nearby. I think minimum wage was $3.15 an hour. That was all back in the day of rotary phones.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Wow, I’d LOVE to have one of those phones! I see them from time to time in antique stores and they are a bit over-priced (at least what I’m seeing here in NJ). We still use landlines in our home. We have 4 of them. I prefer talking on landlines to cells because they sound better.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I get liking those old phones over today’s smartphones and cell phones. I find I often have to put on speaker . . . because the sound is not the best. I’m surprised to hear that they tend to be pricey, but I guess I’m not surprised. Everything old is now new. Ha, ha.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I guess $145 is dirt cheap if you want it as your main phone, but I’d be dolling that out for my “Going Going Gone” presentation (which I don’t like to write about on other people’s blogs because I’m no a me-me-me person).
        But since, now pricing is on topic, I guess I could get one and use it as a tax-write off since it would be used for business.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. I have been using my Huawei phone for a long time and have a hard time wanting a change because it gives me just what I need. I have been tempted a time or two but I’ve not been bold enough to move.
    I had a short period where I had to make do with another one while I had the Huawei fixed, I felt stripped naked. I love the old things. Especially the ones that serve me well.

    I love this post Brian…the comments are most entertaining

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I’ve noticed over time my tastes growing increasingly obsolete…. I study paper maps to find places when I’m lost, I’ve got a land line, and I wear an analog watch, lol. I also wear a fanny pack instead of a backpack a lot of times (I just read a different essay you wrote, your remark about fanny packs and your son’s thoughts about a possible……comeback. I think they came back about four or five years ago and now they’re making…..another comeback 🙂

    It’s hilarious to think of the extra long cords on the rotary phones……I had a sister who’d literally pull the phone into the bathroom (the closest private area to the phone) and shut the door, the cord would be under the crack of the door, haha!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I knew better than to ask my parents for anything and I couldn’t imagine asking for something with this price tag. I worked from 14 on up.
    It’s crazy how much these things cost, yet every kid in middle school has one.

    Like

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