I wish....

[skeptic 992]

Rotary on double party line and letter prefixes; now we are really dating ourselves.

[packsaddle 753]

We're a bit off track but I'll also return now to those exciting days of yesteryear...

We had an 8-party line. The telephone number started with two letters from a word rather than numbers. Our first three digits were EX9 as in 'EXpress 9'. Other exchanges were EDison or FRanklin...you get the idea. In my shop, I still have an old rotary wall phone (and a few spares for parts just in case)....and a computer on DSL....nice juxtaposition...the phone number written on the phone is still EX9-3701. It will probably be one of the last memories to go as my brain turns to jello with age.

But I figure the rotary will prevent any children from being able to use the phone without my permission (instruction). That, and having it mounted 5 feet off the floor, heh, heh.

And if they can get past the 16 digit password on the computer, they're welcome to it.

 

Brent, it sounds like your children are getting a really great start in life. We had to put ours in a private pre-school and elementary school to get that kind of start but it paid off. Gold Winger's comment really hit home, though. One day I was driving my son and a bunch of his buddies somewhere and I posed a practical math problem to them - I may have bribed them with ice cream or something. All the boys were in first or second grade and except for those from my son's school, they complained that they didn't have their calculators. My son and his school mate proceeded to explain to the others how you figure out the problem and do it in your head. Guess who the leaders were in the car THAT day? They were the two guys who solved the problem and got the ice cream for the ones on welfare.

This kind of early introduction to real understanding, not just going through the motions, is (I think) critical to long-term excellence. But we, the public, are the ones who ultimately set the standards through our demands. And we pretty much get what we pay for.

 

[SWScouter 34]

If you really want to make it difficult for them to dial, remove the rotary, or the buttons. Make them dial by flashing the hookswitch.

 

Awhile ago I called home and my son answered. I asked to talk to Mother. Son said he couldn't get her because he was on the cord phone! When did we make the transition from cordless phones to cord phones?

 

SWScouter

[acco40 95]

I remember staying at my great aunts house in the early 60s in rural Michigan. Her phone rang and she didn't answer it. I was confused, and asked her why she didn't answer it. It wasn't for me she stated? Huh? And so began my education about party lines.

 

I read an interesting research paper many years ago. SAT scores (I think, it was some sort of stardardized test) were showing that test scores were slowly but steadily improving up until around the mid 60s and then started slowly reversing in a slow downward direction. After quite some time, they started increasing again. Low and behold, they then found out an interesting fact. Test scores started going down exactly 18 years after the first nuclear bombs starting going off in 1945! They steadily declined until about 18 years after all above ground nuclear testing was banned. Noting that the kids who take the SAT are usually conceived around 18 years earlier the implications were quite obvious.

 

Now, this doesn't "jive" with those who state that SAT scores are normalized but that is what I remember.

 

Politicians are like medical doctors. They use "data" and then draw conclusions with no "cause and effect" proof - i.e. Haitians have a higher incidence of AIDS so therefore being Haitian is a risk factor for AIDS. Typical logic that was backed up by data but obviously flawed.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[packsaddle 753]

Ours was one long and two short. If I want, I can think and remember the sound as if it was yesterday.