Remember When

I only remember getting two LD calls when
I was a kid, both about grand parents dying.
Both lasted less than a minute. I grew up
thinking LD calls cost hundreds of dollars.
The first LD call I ever made was when I
was in my mid 20's. People communicated
with post cards and letters. My grandma
would send us a 2 cent postcard once a
week. In the late 50's a long distance call
from Cleveland to Minneapolis was $1.30
for the first 3 minutes. The minimum wage
in 1959 was $1 an hour. My dad made $4500
a year, a 5min call would have cost an hour
of work time. No wonder nobody used LD.

One of the weirdest things back in the day was in the DC area, area code 703 was a local call - except around the Manassass area. If you called that, you had to dial 1 first and the phone company had some loophole where they could charge whatever they wanted. You'd get your phone bill and a call to Los Angeles was a hell of a lot cheaper than that call to Manassass VA.

In the early 60's we teens had something
called the 'beep line'. You dialed your
own number and instead of hanging
up, you could talk to other kids who
had done the same thing. You talked
in between beeps. Somebody recorded
some of it in the 60's, hard to believe
we spent hours doing this nonsense.

http://vintagerotaryphones.com/images/jamline.mp3

Quote: odiousgambit

One of the weirdest things back in the day was in the DC area, area code 703 was a local call - except around the Manassass area. If you called that, you had to dial 1 first and the phone company had some loophole where they could charge whatever they wanted. You'd get your phone bill and a call to Los Angeles was a hell of a lot cheaper than that call to Manassass VA.

Some places used to have "independent" telephone companies. I run into one north of Pittsburgh in my research often. They were not part of the Bell System and usually in some kind of rural area. How they got the concession I do not know, but they charged their own fees. Might be the loophole you mention.

Quote: AZDuffman

Some places used to have "independent" telephone companies. I run into one north of Pittsburgh in my research often. They were not part of the Bell System and usually in some kind of rural area. How they got the concession I do not know, but they charged their own fees. Might be the loophole you mention.

Independent phone companies were just that. Had an FAA site out and called independent to get it fixed. Lady said hold on. A few minutes later I hear a very loud whistle 3 times. She came back from the end of the pier and said the owner would be in about 30 minutes from now. Unless the fish
were biting.

Also had a trouble within an Indian reservation. Indian Telco tech answered at 2 am and said call back in morning after 9. When I asked to speak to someone as planes were flying over that area, he said, F*** You, white man . And hung up.

Did you build models as a kid? I would get them, but never really have the discipline to do more than a small one, or I would lose parts. And a good paint job? No chance. Those paints would dry up or spill before I used them.

I remember some of my friends had several cars, and some even had those light weight balsa airplanes with tissue paper fuselage.

like below: (more like what I would dream of doing but never did)

Quote: rxwine

Did you build models as a kid? I would get them, but never really have the discipline to do more than a small one, or I would lose parts. And a good paint job? No chance. Those paints would dry up or spill before I used them.

About the same.

I once got as a present a rubber band plane, already assembled, built of wire and thin plastic. It actually flew, though there was no way at all to control it. Too late I thought "Why not tie some thread to the tail in case it gets lost? Oh, I'll do that tomorrow." That day it got irretrievably lost, though I forget the circumstances.

Oh, I also recall putting together a few model rockets, with working engines. Some just required a little glue, others were more complicated. But I didn't care what they looked like, just that they fly. A shuttle I assembled I painted all white with spray paint. It flew rather well.

I'd love to get one again (Is Estees even still in business??) and strap a camera on it.

It's still around. I sent up a few different models. My rocket program financing was low and haphazard, much like the real programs! : )

Quote: rxwine

It's still around. I sent up a few different models. My rocket program financing was low and haphazard, much like the real programs! : )

Mine ran out of engines, mostly. the shuttle's parachute failed to deploy once, and it broke up on impact.

I'd like to get a two-stage rocket and see how high it can get.