Sometime in the 1950s (I haven’t been able to locate an exact date, but I’d like to. Hint, hint) New York City converted from operated assisted dialing to direct dial. (FYI: Party lines in New York City had been eliminated in the 1930s, although they existed for a long time afterwards in the rest of the country)
Today with everybody scrambling to learn the latest computerized, digitalized something it seems hard to believe that people actually had to be taught to dial a phone. Watch this very cool You Tube video and learn how to dial a telephone.
What I find particularly interesting is the Spanish subtitles. I thought our generation was the first to consider the needs of our Hispanic citizens. How arrogant!
I love this! The whole thing, book, blog and all.
I remember about 10 years ago at our Unitarian Universalist Church a young kid came up to me asked “how do you use that phone in there?”. It was a “dial” phone, of course.
xoxo
Glory, Thanks so much for commenting on my blog. It is funny. I think we’re making a complete circle. Soon people will need instructions on using a dial phone again.