It was fifty years ago today -- Northwestern Bell came to play (sing to Beatles Sgt. pepper...)
>>18 Feb 1962<< Lead-Deadwood caught up with the times - our new DIAL telephones were activated. Technological change came at a much slower pace in those times. Dial phones began being installed in metropolitan areas in 1919, the massive switching apparatus was expensive and usually required new buildings to be constructed.
The phone that became ubiquitous to a generation was the Dreyfuss Model 302. Manufactured from 1937 to 1955 and used well beyond that time, it is what I remember being 'switched' over. Ma Bell actually owned the phones and would confiscate the old ones as newer models were introduced.
There is always a price to pay with modernization. 'Central', as the telephone operator centers were often called, were phased out by 'the machine'! My father, Ben R Stone, Jr; knew the operators voice's. When I was a little guy I would always say "2132 please Gwen" whether it was Gwen or not.
I gave myself a very nostalgic Christmas present and purchased a restored 302 Dreyfuss. A true 'time' machine that works perfectly, sounds wonderful and man is it heavy. The fact that it was manufactured in a very good year, 1949, might have urged me to hit Buy It Now!
Another interesting note - I still use the fifty year old Home Phone number that was assigned the family home fifty years ago!!
Sharing my extensive collection of POSTCARDS, HISTORIC PHOTOS and PERSONAL PHOTOS. I have a broad knowlege of local history stored away in the dusty reachs of my mind, my library and file cabinets. Also included will be some scribble about my collections that have been somewhat an obsession over the years
18 February 2012
Dial phones come to Lead - Deadwood; 18 Feb 1962
Labels:
1962,
Deadwood,
Lead,
technology,
telephones
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We still have our old phone # that my Grandma had since her phone was first put in. When my dad died, my sister had it transferred to her shop on Lead Main, so we wouldn't lose it. I think we were one of the last to still have a party line in Lead. When I was a teenager I had to deal with the neighbors picking up the phone on my super secret adolescent conversations -- horrors!
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