Before the internet

[Tom]

I was talking with a nephew (in his mid 20's) in the UK today and, at one point, he said "I can't imagine how folks used to communicate globally before the internet". I explained that "we'd write on a piece of paper, attach the note to the leg of a homing pigeon before releasing it, and some weeks later the pigeon would come back on a train"  ;D

I then went on to explain how we communicated via "the (pre-internet) network(s)"; I'd be in Asia, hack into a network, hop over to another network, and continue to 'hack my way back' to the U.S. He was really fascinated by the stories of sticking needles into phone cords and attaching alligator clips to connect a modem, or the alternative of digging into the hotel room wall to find the junction box for the hard-wired phone.

He cracked up when I told him the story of me meeting up with Chris at a hotel near London (HRW) airport before our flight back to SFO and, at midnight, I was removing the headboard of the bed to get to the darned phone junction box hidden back there.

My toolbag from those days wouldn't make it through airport security nowadays    Today, most hotels provide free wifi. What's wifi  ???

 

[Wendy]

He probably couldn't imagine my parents full-timing all over the country with no cell phone, no internet, no ATMs. But they managed it somehow.

As for me, I'm sure that I used to do something with the time I now spend on the internet but I just can't remember what.

Wendy

 

[Ned]

Somehow the "good old days" don't seem quite so good now.

 

[Tom and Margi]

Or Fred and Daisy risking arrest or condemnation by using an acoustic coupler to download the RV Forum on Compuserve via 800 number on the only pay phone available for miles at Quartzsite.

Margi

 

[Jim Godward]

Let's see,how did it go: 1,,800,, etc. or something like that!!  Boy am I glad that is gone!!

 

[Tom]

LOL Jim, lots of those ",,,," delays.

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Tom and Margi].... using an acoustic coupler ... on the only pay phone available for miles[/quote]

Or John Wilson wiring our sites at the Plymouth rally with several (500?) hundred feet of phone cord, creating our own "network". Anyone wishing to use "the network" was required to raise a flag so others wouldn't get online and jam the network. See here.

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

My husband called a couple of times from Vietnam when he was there and from Taiwan when he was on R and R.  My phone number was R-36-D.  My husband said operators had never heard of such a number and had trouble with it. We had an old crank phone, ours was 3 longs.  Those were the days.  We still have the old phone on our family room wall from the old house.

What a revolution in electronics.  Now Tom and I or our son and I talk half way around the world.  Amazing.

 

[rjf7g]

Virginia's Public Education Network was started in 1991 and I had used BITNET in the Physics department at UVa prior to that...I have "fond" memories of dialing up from home.  20 years later, in the same house, the best "high speed" internet service I can get is a 3G router.  I have no option for wired internet or cable at my house.  About 1/8th of the kids in my school district (we surround the city of Charlottesville, home to Thomas Jefferson's UVa) are limited to dial-up for internet access.  We need to ensure all school age kids have access to the connectivity we deem so important for our own lives.

 

[Ray D]

Our crank phone # was 43F22. Funny how I can remember that far back. Our ring was 2 longs and 2 shorts.  8)

Primitive? You could get a lot done with it. 5 shorts rang everyone on the line. It would summon them for a fire, for example. (Everyone was a fireman, then.)

One long summond the Operator, in town. Tell her who you wanted, and she would ring for you. I could ask for Grandma, and she would ring the correct grandma. She knew! She could tell you the time, get a number for long distance, get the right person on the phone for the long distance call. Also, she always knew where the doctor was. If he was at our house, we might get a call for him. I could go on.

We make do with what we have. Sometimes I question "progress." I do like my cell phone and my computer, though.  : :

Ray D  ;D 

Oh, we didn't have TV back then. For entertainment, some folks listened in on the party line. Careful what you say. 

 

[Marc L]

Lots of things changed.  We had rotary dial phones.  Not at our house, but my grand parents had a party line.  I remember my grand mother having to tell her neighbour to hang up.

 

[Marc L]

My dad turned 66 this fall, he was telling me he was 7 yo when the first got electricity.  That was a big change too.

 

[Wendy]

When we were working in Death Valley in the 1980s, the only phones in the north end of the park were radio telephones. When we were outside the park and needed to call the housing area (Grapevine #2) or the ranger station (Grapevine #1), we would call the operator and give them a string of routing numbers. The first operator we got never knew what we were taking about and always tried to tell us that there was no such thing any more. We'd ask for them to get the oldest supervisor or operator they could find and that person would always be able to route out call through with no difficuties. It was kind of nice being that isoated.

Marc L, You really are young, aren't you? Growing up we had a party line. I remember how exciting it was getting our very own phone line  

Wendy

 

[1275gtsport]

Oh, we didn't have TV back then. For entertainment, some folks listened in on the party line. Careful what you say. 

isn't the forum sort of an advanced "party line"?

I remember the party line Phone there was only I think 3 houses left on the line when I was about 5 years old. we were the last houses to get switched to the "new" service. I also remember going to a "rich" friends house and he had a colour TV with a wired remote that was almost the size of the coffee table.

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Marc L]We had rotary dial phones.[/quote]

We made a killing on 'loop disconnect dialler' chips for the UK and European market. Their loop disconnect (aka rotary phone) aka Strouger exchanges couldn't be upgraded fast enough to accomodate the customers who demanded push-button dialing. So the LDD chips took the MF (multi-frequency) push-button input and converted it to a pulse (aka loop disconnect) output.

Reminds me of the day that kids would 'hack' the local phone booths by 'tapping out' the phone number.

 

[Marc L]

Marc L, You really are young, aren't you? Growing up we had a party line. I remember how exciting it was getting our very own phone line  

Wendy

42

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

My dad turned 66 this fall, he was telling me he was 7 yo when the first got electricity.  That was a big change too.

Oh my God,  you just made me realize I'm old!!  I will be 66 in March, and your dad is 66~~

 

[Molaker]

My bride-to-be lived next door to her grandparents.  Her grandparents had a phone, but Joyce's mother did not.  The number was 66F616.  I called collect from Subic Bay in the Philippines in '68.  The Filipino operator spoke fair English, but obviously not Southwest Missourian (hillbilly).  The operator made the call to Halltown, MO.  I was on the line and could hear.  Gladys was the operator at the Halltown phone office.  The Filipino operator said, "This is Manila in the Philippines calling number 66F616.  Is this Halltown, Missouri?"  There was a long silence then a loud, "Who?"  When Gladys finally figured out what was going on, she rang up Joyce's grandparents' number and brokered the call.  But, I'm sure there were several other ears on the line while I spoke to Joyce. That's been an amusing story in our family ever since.

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Molaker].... not Southwest Missourian (hillbilly).[/quote]

LOL Tom. Our daughter married a guy from the northern CA mountains. Every time they visit I remind our grandkids they're from "hillbilly country"  ;D

 

[Just Lou]

We made a killing on 'loop disconnect dialler' chips for the UK and European market. Their loop disconnect (aka rotary phone) aka Strouger exchanges couldn't be upgraded fast enough to accomodate the customers who demanded push-button dialing. So the LDD chips took the MF (multi-frequency) push-button input and converted it to a pulse (aka loop disconnect) output.

Reminds me of the day that kids would 'hack' the local phone booths by 'tapping out' the phone number.

LOL Tom, you might have lost a few folks with that technical description of the early push-button dialing technology, but maybe some can relate by remembering that when they pushed the buttons, that what they heard instead of a tone, was a ticky, ticky,  ticky sound equal to the numerical value of the key they pressed.  Sometimes as much money could be made by building bridges between technology advances as in the advances themselves.