-=> JIM WELLER wrote to MICHAEL LOO <=-

 ML> When was the last time you saw a
 ML> crank phone? I've seen some, over 50 years ago, but
 ML> I don't recall having used one.

 JW> I've used them. Our very first phone was the crank style. It was
 JW> replaced by a rotary phone when the local phone company was
 JW> swallowed up by Bell in the 1950s while I was in public school. I
 JW> still remember the old number: two long rings and two shorts. My
 JW> buddy who was on the same party line was 5 shorts. Because there
 JW> were over a dozen parties on our line, my calls were very infrequent
 JW> and restricted to one minute by my parents.

My grandparents had one on the kitchen wall of their Sears/Craftsman
house. It was replaced in the late 1940s with a black "standard" sized
tabletop telephone w/no dial. My grandfather kept the old crank phone
and disassembled it to salvage the magneto that drove the ringer. Then
he showed my dad and me how it could be used for fishing so long as Mr.
Game Warden didn't see you at it.  Bv)=

My aunts/uncles/cousins in Southern Illinois all had the hand cranked
wall phones - even after their TelCo installed more current equipment.
Since they all lived within a mile or so of each other they used the
obsoleted crank phones to form their own family telephone system. Pretty
neat, really. My cousin Robert Blair, Jr. came up with both the idea
and the execution of it.

The first phone I can remember at my house was a dial-less unit which
required you to lift the hand-piece and wait for an operator to intone
"Number puleeeeze?" and then connect you to the requested number. When
we moved to the big city in 1954 we had phones with rotary dials. Quite
a step up. And the numbers were five-digit. In '58 seven digit numbers 
were introduced. But you still had to go through the long-distance
operator to place an out-of-town call.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Deep Fried Catfish
 Categories: Seafood, Udd
      Yield: 1 Serving
 
    1/2 c  Flour
    1/2 c  Yellow cornmeal
      1 ts Salt
    1/2 ts Pepper
    1/2 c  Milk or buttermilk
      1 lb Whole catfish; skinned,
           - gutted, beheaded
           Oil (for deep frying)
 
  Mix dry ingredients.
  
  Heat oil to 365┬░F/185┬░C.
  
  Dip fish in milk, then in flour mixture.
  
  Deep Fry, about 4 minutes
  
  Drain on paper towels.
  
  Recipe by Dave Drum
  
  MM Format by Dave Drum - 04 February 2000
  
  Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen
 
MMMMM

... I may be weird, but around here, it's barely noticeable.
--- MultiMail/Win32
 * Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)