I love being a grandparent. I have the fun of watching my grandchildren grow up, and the job of passing on to them the lessons I've learned through hard experience. It's also very interesting to watch them learn about the world around them ... which is, in countless ways, a very different world than the one in which I grew up. I'm amazed at how easily they've picked up on modern technology - at age 3, my granddaughter Elise understands and uses Agnes's iPad better than Agnes does. Or I do, for that matter.
I found this marvelous video on Miss Cellania's website this morning, and just had to share it with you. Warning up front: if you are a superannuated old coot like Mike and I, this is guaranteed to make you feel really old. Dear Readers, I give you the spectacle of modern children trying to figure out how to use a rotary phone ...
Bilbo
7 comments:
Rotary phones are now a retro item.
Oh my this made me feel so old.
The old rotary phones were better-constructed and had fewer needs for repairs.
Meredith - very true. I think the modern versions that look like dial phones, but just have the buttons arranged in a circle, are tacky. I'd like to see the old candlestick phone make a comeback.
Peggy - You? Old? Nah.
King - Those old black desktop rotary phones were made of bakelite and solid steel, weighed 50 pounds, and were virtually indestructible. If you dropped one of them, it would crack your floor. If you drop a modern cordless phone, it'll shatter into a million pieces.
I was sure I'd kept a rotary phone. But I just did a quick search and couldn't find one. I may have to start hitting the garage sales so I can relive my youth.
Maybe I'm a wee cynical, but the old rotary phones were owned by AT&T. The cordless phones or the cellular phones were made to be bought by others, and made less durable so as to increase the likelihood of it being replaced.
Bilbo, the old candlestick phone would look attractive on a desk.
A tiny model of one was included on the original Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale as an item for young children to identify. When they re-standardized the test in 1960, they had to substitute a more modern-looking tiny phone.
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