Yes, answering machines with two tapes, one for the outgoing message and another for incoming. My mom would be so pissed that I got on the phone as soon as I got home from school “You just saw them!! What could you possibly have to say already?” Do kids today even talk on the phone or is it all just texting?

Well there ya go!

I remember all my friends’ numbers from junior high. I have no idea what my wife’s cell number is.

When I lost my cellphone a few years ago (without a back-up phone list: lesson learned) Most of the numbers I knew from heart were grade school and high school friends I’d dialed on the rotary; you can’t help memorizing numbers you dial on a rotary. I managed to track down every far-flung friend by calling their…

How quaint to think of an entire household having only one line!

The good old days where you slammed the phone down and rattled the actual bell within. You are right, it was so satisfying, like a perfect manifestation of righteous anger.

I still remember my number too which is hilarious since I have to think in order to remember my husband’s cell number.

Remember that faint ring a phone would make when you hung up really hard?

I got my own line on 02/14/1984 at the age of 12. It was the greatest day of all time. The phone was a hand me down from an office or something but it did the job. Further, I had a 20 foot cord so I could drag it to other rooms. I still remember my phone number!

Try trying to win a radio dial in contest with one of those.

I had one. We were a poor family, but when my grandmother moved in with us, dealing with an old lady and a teenage girl who fought over one phone line was too much for my parents to deal with. So I got my own line with my own number. It was sooooo cool.

Gods, hanging up on someone used to be so cathartic.

I have actual nightmares about being trapped at my parents’ house, trying to dial out without that little finger catch device to make me dial the right number.

Ha, my Grandma had one of those till the mid 90s (incidentally replaced by a press-button with giganto-buttons and x-tra large) and I used to HATE calling from her house. She could catch the ring mid rotation back, it took me 5 min to make a call.

Image Google ANTIQUE phones. Tah-dah! Now go cry and drink.

That was for super rich kids ONLY. Right up there with having a TV in your room.

Then they all start flailing at each other with those little wafers the kids call “phones” nowadays and don’t even leave a bruise.

Yeah, it was almost a triumph of the will to dial it all the way through without a mistake.

I always wanted one like that! It’s like a feminine version of the ones we had- lighter and more curvilinear. I can’t find a picture of the style we had with the fancy fittings, but they were boxier and more squat, like this one:

My mom had one of those! I loved that phone!