We thought it would be interesting to review the evolution of telephone service as two old folks have experienced it. So here goes.
In a little town in the South where one half of the duo lived there were no dial telephones and push buttons hadn't been invented, but we were pretty advanced because we no longer had to go to a box on the wall and turn a crank. Generally, the phone consisted of a pedestal with a mouthpiece on top and a hook holding a receiver on the side. Both were wired into the wall. When you wanted to make a call you lifted the receiver and waited for a pleasant feminine voice (the voice with a smile) to say "number please." You would give her the number and she would connect you. Sometimes there were party lines shared by two or four families, which created all kinds of chaos with people trying to make calls on a line that was already in use, or listening to what other families on the party line were saying.
Long distance was somewhat more complicated. When asked for the number you said "long distance" and you would be connected to a long distance operator who would ask you for the city, state and number (incidentally there were no area codes). She would then connect you to another long distance operator at the destination and she in turn would connect you to the number. You had the option of telling the operator to reverse charges, in which case the amount would show on the receiving party's bill. I think it cost anywhere from $5.00-$8.00 a minute depending on the destination.
The other half of the duo lived in a large city with a sophisticated dialing system, so they could dial anywhere in their calling area, but if they had to call long distance you did so by using the dial to access the long distance operator. This happened fairly frequently because long distance could be between a city and its suburbs or even between areas in the city. In fact, sometimes long distance would be no more than five miles away from the caller's home. This was also very expensive.
If you were away from home and had an emergency you headed for a telephone booth and dialed the operator. These booths were scattered around the city, and usually you had to put a nickel in the slot to get the telephone to work (as an aside, the feminine half of the duo used to give the masculine half a nickel to carry in his pocket in case he had to make a call). This is the probably the origin of the expression "it's your nickel."
And so we progressed over the years to direct distance dialing, area codes, 911, push buttons, cordless phones, and cell phones. Quite an evolution.
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