(TELE)PHONES

Recently, we needed to "upgrade" our cell phones and I got to thinking....(I know....can be dangerous.
When I was but a wee child, I can very clearly remember standing on a chair and talking into this thing hanging on the wall. The voice of the caller would come through a single piece hooked to the phone by a cord that you held to your ear. Who would think that in a few years, someone had the ingenuity to have the speaking end and listening end in one piece.
Phone numbers had 2 letters and 5 numbers. The letters were part of a word, for instance MU might stand for MUSEUM. In the days of the "piece" on the wall and the first ones that were "desk" phones, were dialed. One would stick their finger in a hole that had the letters and numbers in the various holes. After putting your finger in the hole, you would move it to the right until you couldn't move it any further...this was called "dialing".
The phone company owned the phone and "rented" it to the customer. Most were on a "party line"....which meant...you could pick up your phone and someone would be talking. You would have to wait until they were finished talking. It was also a way to pick up on the latest gossip in the neighborhood..but if you "listened in"...you had to be so quiet..so they didn't suspect.
I remember the phones that you had to "crank" to "ring up" the operator. You would tell her the number you wanted to call. Operators would be real busy at times and they always knew who called who. Lily Tomlin does such a great imitation of an "operator".
As phones were upgraded, they became more automated and human operators became extinct. You could dial a number and it would automatically ring the phone that you called. Busy signals and private lines became new "buzz" words.
Then lawsuits emerged and we were then required to purchase our phones..no more rental fees. The phone companies did a major restructuring. We purchased the two "princess" phones that we had plus the one hanging on the wall in the kitchen...they were all "dialers"...and then I was put on a yearbook committe for a church with a few hundred members and I had to call many to set up photo appointments. That job convinced me to purchase a pushbutton phone. No more sore dialing fingers. About this time the letters all turned into numbers and area codes became the norm.
Then call waiting and caller id surfaced. And then came the Bag Phones....lol......which now are about as big as a wallet....and aren't plugged into anything except a charger occasionally. Why who would believe they take pictures...lol....and even surf the Internet.........