Lorain Telephone Ad – October 20, 1962

Like Ohio Edison, the Lorain Telephone Company seemed to run ads in the Journal almost every day in the 1960s. Why? Because it was a time in which new services and products were being launched.

But unlike Ohio Edison – with its steady parade of Reddy Kilowatt ads – the telephone company had no regular mascot to tie all of its advertising together. (There was the nameless character at the right, but he was only featured intermittently.)

Thus the Lorain Telephone Company's newspaper advertising, with its liberal use of clip art and illustrations, often had a cobbled-together look to it.

It could also be somewhat amusing, viewed through the vantage point of sixty years later. The ad below, which ran in the Journal on October 20, 1962, depicts the benefit of a phone in the bedroom – namely, it provides a way for a woman in the middle of vacuuming a way to take a break.

It's not a whole lot different from this ad (below), which ran a year later in 1963. Yessir, put phones all over the house – as long as she keeps on working!

Sixty years later, good or bad, it's a whole different world than what's depicted in these ads.

Today, land lines are largely extinct. With the likelihood of both parents working to make ends meet, who's home to answer it anyway? (I still have a land line but I'm not sure why.)

Today, roughly 47% of the workforce in the United States is female. For quite some time now, in many households (and I'm not talking just the affluent ones), it's necessary to bring in a cleaning person once a week to help out. (It will be interesting to see how the current lack of participation in the work force affects this particular profession.)

Anyway, the lifestyle that we self-absorbed Baby Boomers enjoyed while growing up – with a stay-at-home mother who cooked and cleaned – is pretty much gone forever.