[Vella Gonzaga]

Public phones​

Credits: Australia Remember When FB page
​

Remember when public phones were a staple on every street corner? Before the age of smartphones, making a call meant finding a payphone and inserting coins. The sound of the coins dropping and the anticipation of hearing the dial tone was a sound of a different era. It’s amazing to think about how far technology has come and how it has changed how we communicate. Who here remembers the good old days of public phones?

 

[Dougal]

Seeing a phone box reminds me when as a kid whenever I was in a
playful mood and was approaching a phone box I would enter the
phone box to play the “Mary had a little lamb” jape.

One of my friend’s father was in the telecommunications industry
and once told me that the “Mary had a little lamb” nursery rhyme
is used to test phone lines because it has the full range of nuances
and inflections.

That was the rhyme, he said, that Thomas Edison used in testing
his revolutionary tinfoil phonograph in 1878.

When in the phone box I would open the telephone directory at
random and stab my pen on the page to select a phone number
which I then dialled.

Putting on a deep voice, I then said “Good afternoon Mr XXXXX,
my name is Fred, I’m calling from the exchange in response to
your complaint about your faulty phone line”.

He said that he hadn’t made a complaint, but maybe it was his son.

I heard him call out “Betty, would you know if Wayne has made a
complaint about the phone line?” and I heard her say she didn’t
know.

He then asked me what’s wrong with the line.

I said that we need to test the line but to do so, please recite the
Mary had a little lamb nursery rhyme which we use to see if the
line is working properly.

“Oh” he said, “Righto ….. Mary had a little lamb…er …. um ….
Betty what’s next?”

His wife wanted to know what’s going on, which he explained
and I then heard her say “Gimme the phone”

She then recited the entire nursery rhyme with me trying not
to laugh!

 

[Devildog]

Public phones

View attachment 13109
Credits: Australia Remember When FB page
​

Remember when public phones were a staple on every street corner? Before the age of smartphones, making a call meant finding a payphone and inserting coins. The sound of the coins dropping and the anticipation of hearing the dial tone was a sound of a different era. It’s amazing to think about how far technology has come and how it has changed how we communicate. Who here remembers the good old days of public phones?

Like it was yesterday

 

[SmilingNana]

 

[Grumpypa]

You would not have even got dial tone on a phone in the picture. You give the handle a good crank and a manual operator would have connected your call and instructed your when to insert coins.
I started work with PMG in 1973 as a technician in training, and have actually fixed phones like this in rural Queensland.

 

[nifty8753]

Public phones

View attachment 13109
Credits: Australia Remember When FB page
​

Remember when public phones were a staple on every street corner? Before the age of smartphones, making a call meant finding a payphone and inserting coins. The sound of the coins dropping and the anticipation of hearing the dial tone was a sound of a different era. It’s amazing to think about how far technology has come and how it has changed how we communicate. Who here remembers the good old days of public phones?

 

[nifty8753]

Yep was also the best way to get the time, it did not cost a penny

 

[JayKay]

My older brother knew how to make phone calls without rolling a penny in the slot.
I think we reversed the handset after dialling the number...I can't quite remember much these days,
but it was fun.
The penny calls went up to three pennies, then to sixpence.
When we passed a public phone box, one of us would always go in to see if any coins were left in the slot or in the little box unused coins dropped into.

 

[Gsr]

I always took some sort of cleaning stuff every time I needed to use a public phone as they were always grotty. Sometimes if you were lucky when you hung up your money and occasionally a bit more money fell out the bottom, the coin box was obviously full. Lucky day.

 

[Wandiwa]

In our family, to save using money in phone boxes, we had a system, 3 rings and hang up, meant I'm at Golden Fleece on Canning Hwy, come and get me.

 

[JayKay]

In our family, to save using money in phone boxes, we had a system, 3 rings and hang up, meant I'm at Golden Fleece on Canning Hwy, come and get me.

Many people did this. We couldn't, as we didn't have a phone at home. Didnt get a phone on until 1970!

 

[Lesadelaide]

You would not have even got dial tone on a phone in the picture. You give the handle a good crank and a manual operator would have connected your call and instructed your when to insert coins.
I started work with PMG in 1973 as a technician in training, and have actually fixed phones like this in rural Queensland.

I was a technician in Manchester in 1963 and regularly serviced these phones.
Most common fault was "Button B no refund" usually caused by some tyke stuffing folded cardboard up the chute and returning later to remove cardboard and let money refunded drop. BTW this phone did not give dial tone only a "Number please from the operator.