The phone...

[MartyNeilan]

The phone is ring-ing

[MartyNeilan]

wrong answer. next try, please.

[Mitchell Spray]

There's an animal in trouble...

[SRanney]

...and Hugh Jackman is PISSED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuT6_uvB_9Q" target="_blank" target="_blank

[MartyNeilan]

There's an animal in trouble...

[iiipopes]

A couple of years ago, I realized my son had never heard the sound of a real Bell Telephone desk telephone ring. There was an old one no longer used, in storage in the basement where I worked that had actually been converted from hard wiring to a modular plug, so I brought it home. I cued my wife in, but didn't tell my son or his friend who was over at the time. Then I go into the other room (this is the ironic part) plug in the old phone, use my cell phone to call the land line, then watched their faces as the telephone started ringing. After the usual, "What was that!" I pointed at the counter where the telephone was. One of them finally picked up the receiver and we talked on it. Then we talked about it. I taught them how to work an actual dial telephone. Then I showed them how if the dial malfunctioned and it was an emergency, how you could lift the receiver and click the cradle quickly to dial 9-1-1, or any other number for that matter (yes, for emergencies, the telephone company still has pulse dialing as part of the system). A great evening was had by all. Unfortunately, the coils and capacitors in the phone were starting to deteriorate, (After only 55 years!) and there was too much hum to use the phone on an ongoing basis any more, so I returned it.

[iiipopes]

Yes, there was a time when you could not own your own telephone. They all were rented, and it was a separate line item on the telephone bill. That is also one of the first things I had cancelled when my grandmother died in 1986 and I was put in charge of managing her estate.

On an old Rowan & Martin "Laugh-In" skit, there is a parody song about the telephone company, making fun of all these things, and the one line in the song that stood out was, "and you'll never own your own phone...."

[MartyNeilan]

The phone...
The phone is ring-ing

There's an animal in trouble...

There's an animal in trouble some-where.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

The phone...
The phone is ring-ing

There's an animal in trouble...

There's an animal in trouble some-where.

Wonder pets, wonder pets, we're on our way...

Isn't it great to have kids?

[SplatterTone]

I still have one of the wall type mechanical dial phones in the garage. A few months the coiled handset cable was gone. Not broken on one end and hanging from the other. Not broken off and laying on the floor. I Mean GONE.

Shortly thereafter, a rat unwisely made its presence known by walking across the floor, which prompted me to put out some rat poison. And shortly thereafter, a barely living rat was tossed out. Then about a month later, while looking through one of the low cabinets, the phone cord, along with a large assortment of other trash was found. Now, when the expression "like a rat's nest" is used, I know exactly what it means.

Given that this phone is about 5-feet off the floor, that rat must have really wanted that cord. It was bitten off clean at both ends right by the phone body and handset.