10 on the 10th: Telephone edition
Marsha always comes up with some fun and unusual themes and questions for our 10 on the 10th. This month we're taking a look at phones! You know this is one topic I would NEVER have thought to blog about but I think the questions are a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy.
1. When I was a kid we had 1 house land line and that was it until my sister and I were both in high school and we could afford our own monthly telephone bill and we had a second line put in that went to both our rooms. I went out and bought myself one of these super cool (at the time!) clear phones with all the bright colors.
 |
| Image taken from Ebay |
2. I do not remember party lines but I do remember older relatives telling me stories about them. I do remember calling and calling and calling and getting a busy signal and at least once or twice asking the operator to make an emergency call interruption--- for the life of me I can not think of any emergencies though and think we probably overused that definition.
 |
| Image taken from Ebay |
4. We got rid of our landline just a couple of years ago; once our youngest two had a cell phone (to share that stayed in the house) it seemed silly to keep our landline since we really only used it in case of an emergency. Now everyone has their own cell phone and I'm pretty much the only one that's home anyway.
5. I definitely screen my phone calls... but when any one of the boys is away from home, I will answer an unknown number just in case. If everyone is home, I might not even hear my phone or have it on me to answer.
6. My longest phone calls are probably with my sister or my mother-- we can often talk for an hour or two catching up. Since my sister lives so far away we probably only talk one or twice a year and we have a lot to catch up on!
 |
| A photo of me, my sister, and my mother from a trip in 2018 where my mom and I surprised my sister with a visit on her birthday. |
7. Is it awful that I had to take the case off my phone to look? I had no idea what my current phone was. Turns out it's a Galaxy S8; my husband and family keep encouraging me to get a new one since it doesn't hold a charge very long and every now and then the person on the other end can't hear me... but I hate going to the phone store, I hate learning a new phone, and I hate the idea of upgrading. LOL.
 |
| Here's a photo of it (along with everything else from my purse) that was taken in 2020-- I still have the same case even! |
8. I use my smartphone for nearly everything now-- it's my phone, it's my go to camera 75% of the time, I use it for checking emails, for tracking food on my WW app, for playing games like Words with Friends and Homescapes, I browse Pinterest on it while watching TV, I use my AllTrails app for hiking, I use googlemmaps for getting around, I use the Libby app for listening to audiobooks from our library, it's my calculator, it's my timer, it's how I check the weather.
9. We absolutely played "telephone" and I can distinctly remember purposely switching what I heard to be something sillier by the time it got the end. I also found it hard to play and listen since the whispering always tickled my ears. I was so incredibly ticklish everywhere as a kid.
10. Funny enough I'm not sure if my husband has a special ringtone but I know my oldest son does! LOL. I think at one time I was trying to make sure my husband and all 3 boys had their own ringtone but I don't know if I ever finished setting them up. The younger two never call me anyway; if they're going to communicate it's usually through text.
Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,
Those are really good prompts!! I am with you on many of them. I feel the same way about my phone. I could use an upgrade but I don't want to deal with it, lol. It's amazing all that we do/ rely on with our cell phones. The picture with you, your mom and sister is such a good one ;).
ReplyDeleteI've actually never picked out a phone! I used to send either my husband or my step-father to the store and told them to just pick out whatever. I hate going to the Verizon store.
DeleteI had a frog phone in my bedroom as a teen. The eyes lit up when it rang and you opened his mouth to talk. It was not practical, but I loved it. It was a big deal when I got that for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteOh I don't think anyone I knew had a frog phone! I do remember a hamburger phone though.
DeleteThis was AWESOME to read! Guess what? I had that SAME PHONE in the first picture- and I loved it- made me feel so independent- ha! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel like everyone teenage girl had one of those at some point! LOL. That and the Caboodles case for makeup!
DeleteWhat awesome prompts! They sure made me take a trip down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteWeren't they fun?! I love nostalgic posts like these that get me reminiscing.
DeleteIt is so crazy how phones have evolved. I had that clear phone too!
ReplyDeleteIt really is!
DeleteI had one of those clear phones too! What a fun subject to blog about! I am going to bookmark this for when I am all out of ideas! :)
ReplyDeleteWhoops! I didn't mean to comment as anonymous. Its Gabrielle from WonderGraceJoy. :)
DeleteI thought this was a lot of fun to write about too.
DeleteI loved those clear phones! I had one, too! As long as I have all my people safely at home with me, then I turn off my phone and walk away from it. Many of my answers are similar to yours. This was a fun topic and I enjoyed reading your responses. Have a lovely weekend, my friend.
ReplyDeleteShelbee
Thank you!!
DeleteWhat a fun link up. I had a landline growing up and I remember getting caller id and that was a huge development. Now we have everything at our finger tips. I am pretty sure I had that light up phone.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we ever had caller ID! But I definitely remember trying to record outgoing messages on our answering machine and rewinding/erasing that tiny tape.
DeleteMy girls can't get their head around just having a landline phone before mobile phones were a thing. We still have the landline only because it's part of out TV and broadband package, I don't even think the phone is plugged in. lol
ReplyDeleteI was always in trouble for using our landline too much and I remember my parents even instituted a timer rule where we had to set a timer if we were on the phone so we didn't tie up the line too long.
DeleteOh my goodness - busy signals! Those are a thing of the past now, aren't they?! As I read your answer about the special ringtones, I realized that's probably why I haven't bothered putting special ones for anyone on my phone - the people who'd warrant a special ringtone hardly ever call me!
ReplyDeleteYep, I do not miss that busy signal sound (or the sound of dial up internet either!).
DeleteToo funny, I posted a picture of that phone too. I remember emergency break throughs too - call waiting was an important investment!
ReplyDeleteYes! I was so excited when some of my friends finally got call waiting. I'm assuming we did too at some point but I don't really remember it.
DeleteI feel we missed out in the UK on this mysterious telephone game! The clear phone was a fun design
ReplyDeleteLOL! It wasn't all that mysterious; a group of friends would sit in a circle and one person whispers a secret to the person next to them and then it is whispered from person to person but you can only whisper it once and they have to retell it to the best of their ability to the next person. The last person then says out loud what they heard and the first person shares what they first said and rarely were the two even remotely similar.
DeleteI wouldn't know what my phone is unless I took off the cover either, haha. That's not the important part of it, right? As long as it works, although it would bug me that it doesn't hold a charge,
ReplyDeleteXOXO
Jodie
www.jtouchofstyle.com
Luckily I have a built in charger in my car and I've gotten pretty good at remembering to use it.. it's still a better alternative then spending hours at the phone store getting everything switched over.
DeleteOh my gosh, this is so much fun! I remember being in high school and if I was past curfew I have to find a payphone at a gas station to call my parents. You your sister and mom are so precious, I wish I had a sister!
ReplyDeleteYes! I definitely remember searching for pay phones and change to make calls home.
DeleteOh, that clear phone is so much fun! We had lots of phones in our house because Dad worked for the phone company. But, I used the one in the basement the most because no one could listen to me! I had that same phone (#3) only in red. Thanks for playing along, Joanne!
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
We had lots of phones but only the 1 shared line and I know my sister used to pick up the other phone in the upstairs hallway and listen in on my calls-- usually because I could hear that click and then I'd rat her out to my mom.
DeleteThis was so fun to read!
ReplyDeleteWe still have a landline that came free with the internet service provider we signed up for but nobody uses it. Whenever it rings, it's a wrong number call!
Hugs and blessings, Joanne.
Ours was not free but when I called to cancel it the lady tried to explain that it would cost more to get rid of it... in the end it did only save me like $5 a month but somehow it showed up as a $20 charge on the bill! I'm still scratching my head over that one.
DeleteThis is such a fun post! I remember in the 6th grade, we got a cordless phone, and I thought that was so cool. I definitely screen my calls as well.
ReplyDeleteYes! I remember getting our first cordless phone too and thinking it was the neatest thing.
DeleteMy sister had a clear phone in her room that she bought and I remember being so jealous. I think I had the rotary dial. Such a fun post!
ReplyDeleteJill - Doused in Pink
It was so fun taking this walk down memory lane!
DeleteWhat a fun read and a great trip down memory lane. I always wished we would get a fancy clear phone or those really nice chunky white ones that I would see on TV. But we just had the regular beige coloured one. We still have a landline because my mum used to use it. It rang for the first time in about a year a couple of weeks ago and it gave me such a fright!
ReplyDeleteRuth@playworkeatrepeat
Yeah, I wouldn't get rid of ours while my grandmother was still alive since that was the only number she would call.
DeleteI never seen such a clear phone, lol. And never heard of party lines. Fun post.
ReplyDeleteThat clear phone is absolutely awesome! I’ve never even seen one, but now I wish I’d had one. LOL! And I never had a slider phone but was a bit envious about how much easier it would be to text.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot easier to text with-- in fact I jokingly asked my husband if I could go back to one of those. I miss having real keys to push.
DeleteI had one of those clear phones as well as a teen. I didn't have my own line and if someone called for my parents while I was on the phone I had to get off. We got rid of our land line years ago, so my kids will never remember using a house phone!
ReplyDeleteWe never had call waiting or caller ID so we never knew when someone was trying to call while we were on the phone (until after they did get through and they'd tell my mom they had been trying to call for soo long!)
DeleteCute post...1. a landline..a cute turquiose princess phone as it was called then 2.No, I do not remember party lines 3.flip phone 4.yes, we still have a landline 5.yes, I screen my calls 6. An hour or so 7. A smart phone 8. yes, I only use it as a phone and nothing else 9. no 10 no
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by!!
Hugs,
Deb
Thanks for joining in!
DeleteThat clear phone is SO FUN. I would have loved that. I feel like DJ on Full House had something like that! I'm pretty sure we had both a "regular" phone and a rotary phone when I was little (do kids today even know what a rotary phone is??), and I remember what a big deal it was when my dad got an answering machine!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I bet DJ Tanner did and that might have been why it was popular. We had a few rotary phones lying about as well and I did try to explain them to my kids once and they rolled their eyes at me saying they did know what they were (maybe from TV or YouTube?).
DeleteI swear, everyone I know had that clear phone! Lol. I always wanted one but I never got one! I did have a see-through purple cordless one, though. Haha. It's amazing how we went from talking on the phone so much to rarely talking at all these days. I have a select few who I actually talk to on the phone and that's it.
ReplyDelete