Yesterday we saw Ohio Edison's suggestions for an appropriate gift for Mother's Day 1955. Let's fast forward ten years and see what another utility company – Lorain Telephone – was thinking along those lines.
Above is the Lorain Telephone Co. ad that ran in the Journal back on May 1, 1965.
As you can see, the telephone company was at a disadvantage gift-wise compared to Ohio Edison. It could only offer phones.
Now if this was 2025, a new iPhone would make a pretty nice gift. But an extension telephone as a gift in 1965? I'm not sure.
But the ad says otherwise. The little girl is presenting her mother with the phone (which appears to be encased in lucite) and Mom is so overjoyed that she needs to be supported by Dad.
In our house on Skyline Drive, the extension phone was down in the basement, next to the dryer. With six people in the house, Mom was always doing laundry. So it made sense to have a phone down there.
Since Mom and Dad were busy after dinner (reading the Journal), the extension phone was the one my brothers and I used when we were in high school if we wanted to call a girl, or plan some escapade with our friends. Unfortunately, Mom caught on pretty quick and would end up coming downstairs to throw a load of wash in and eavesdrop.
Back then, parents knew what their kids were doing all the time.
Memories of the Lorain Telephone Company:
ReplyDeleteInformation: 112
Repair: 113
Time: 119
Then, there was this...
"Sorry, the number you have reached is not in service at this time; if you need assistance, please hang up, and dial your Information operator.
This is a recording."
JOOC, was anyone besides me frightened by the phone ringing at night? Thanks to Rod Serling, I was.
A late phone call always stirs fears of something gone wrong: Accident, death, sudden illness, or some such calamity. I've tried to explain this to my children, but like me, they don't seem to listen.
ReplyDeleteOur phone was on the kitchen side of the wall dividing it from the living room, so everyone heard everything. And if you talked too much, after a warning, Dad would walk by (stepping over you sitting in the doorway), say, "Too long," and push down on the receiver to end the call!
We never had an extension, not that it would've matter much in our tiny house. We did eventually get a longer curly-cord so you could sit toward the back of the kitchen instead of the doorway. Still didn't render you immune from forced endings due to too much blabbing.
As an aside, my dad *hated* the phone, having spent much of his childhood without one. He considered it "An Invasion of Privacy."
Dan B. (at work, so I'm Anonymous Google-wise) sez: Don, at some point you need to write a "A Christmas Story"-like autobiography about growing up in Pennsyltucky in which you put all your funny reminisces about your father in there!
ReplyDeleteIf you read my mysteries, almost all the best smart aleck remarks are from my dad!
DeleteI’m sure she was hoping for an Erica phone. Todd
ReplyDeleteI don't know that an extension phone is all that great a Mother's Day gift, but it sure beats the Hand-Vac and Cook-N-Fryer in yesterday's post.
ReplyDeleteWe always had more than one extension phone in our house.We had one in the kitchen,basement,living room,one in each bedroom and one out in the garage.Then we also had a patio that dad had an extension ready to plug in for those summer time calls while we were lounging around outside.So we never lacked for phones.
ReplyDeleteDad eventually added a landline out in the garage for his own convenience, and after he passed away Mom had a few more landline jacks installed around the house. Then the cordless handsets came in and she had phones everywhere in her house.
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