"Man talking on the phone" (Rob's Favourite Things Friday)

It's Friday night, and I'm not following the Monday Theme that Karen does. I finally got my birthday present 2 1/2 months late today! Yay!



I was looking at an old phone while in the server room at EFS Listowel one day, which was exactly like the one above, and it sparked my interest as to how much phones have changed, and how the old ones feel so solid and real. This phone said "Made in Canada" on the bottom. I like traditional and basic telephones. They're simple. They work. And, anyone can setup and operate one. They're, in effect, completely "plug and play", unlike most technology. As long as you have a basic phone that you don't have to plug into a DC adapter and perhaps use a rechargable battery, such as a portable, they work forever until they're dropped on the floor too may times.



My family will tell you, and rightly so, how they've annoyingly heard me say it before, that when the power's out, like during the Northeast Blackout on August 14, 2003, your simple cord phone will work. Everything else is out. All internet based talk, such as Skype and VoIP, and all cellular (cell-site tower are powered by the grid), and, also your portable home phone.



"Keep at least one simple corded phone in the house." I remember telling this story 10,000 times to customers while working post-grad at RadioShack.



With my interest in the old fashoned phone, including the old rotary one from the 80s my parents had on 505 Erie, which apparently you have to rent or pay for if you still have one, I decided to start looking back into the 1910s, and the first phones, homing in my interest in the upright or candlestick phone.

Looking at pictures on the internet of candlestick phones, I came across statements, like, "Woman using a telephone", or "Man talking on phone", which during the first years of the telephone, were new, incredible, and expensive!



The boring caption to a picture "Man talking on phone" would have at the time been not a boring statument during the 1910s. The telephone was more rare at first. Perhaps you may remember the schene in the "Anne of Green of Gables" sequel, when Catherine Brooks proudly educates Anne that Kingsport Ladies College was one of the only few to have been equiped with a telephone. This was before WWI.

This is me with my new phone:



Today, it's hard to buy any original candlesticks, let alone ones that work, and since I'm saving my money for music and other hobbies, I decided to settle for a brand new "retro-looking" one above, that still gives me the feel of the old fashoned upright or candlestick telephone. But it was still hard to find! You can only buy them online. It not like you can stop in at the mall to pick one up. The Crosley CR64 Black, below, which is the one I have now, was not available in Canada all summer near my birthday.



I tried to buy it from the States directly in August, but they ended up refunding it and told me to try again in October -- now I've got it, when it finally became available on Sears.ca, and available via catalog purchase.

Oh, by the way. I finally understand where we get the expression, "the phone is off the hook".