As I drove to school to volunteer today, the DJ on the radio was playing “telephone songs”–songs that referred to telephones and/or calling on the phone in some way.  He was also taking calls about telephones from listeners.  Some of the things that came up in the “remember when” category included:

• The operator saying “Number, please,” and then connecting you to that number.  (Think Lily Tomlin on the Laugh In.)

• Party lines.  (We had one.)

• Ringtones made up of long and short rings.  (Ours was five short–you turned the crank to make the ring tone.  Everyone on the party line heard it and could identify who was being called.)

• Waiting to make a long-distance call until the rates went down.  (Been there, done that.)

• Pay phones for 10¢.  (Yup!  In high school, when we needed our parents to pick us up after an event, we’d call from the pay phone.  We could hear our parents say “Hello,” but they couldn’t hear us unless we put the dime in.  To save the dime, we’d just hang up, and that was the signal for Dad to get in the car.)

The best called-in story on the radio, however, was this one.  When the caller (we’ll call him Ed) was in college, he’d set a time to call his brother (he can be Joe) at another college.  At the appointed time, Ed and Joe would each go to a pay phone booth.  Ed then dialed the operator and requested a person-to-person collect call to the number at Joe’s pay phone.  Joe would answer, agree to accept the charges, and the two would have a nice talk.  The lingering question, according to Ed, is “Which pay phone got charged for the calls?”

Note:  Unless you understand person-to-person and collect, you probably won’t think this is funny.  If you do understand, you’re probably admiring Ed’s and Joe’s ingenuity.