How old are you?

[lopta@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone When I first moved to America I refused to pay the phone company extra for tone dialling, so my push button phone was set to pulse dial.

[catsalad@infosec.exchange]

@galacticstone I am both much older and way younger than one might think.

[pe4kh@mastodon.radio]

@InkySchwartz @galacticstone yes.

[w_b@mastodon.world]

@mweiss @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone

I thought party line ringing was generated at the Central office.

[mweiss@infosec.exchange]

@w_b @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone it is. The ringer was designed to respond only to a particular pattern so it wouldn't ring at all if the call was intended for someone else on the line.

[wollman@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone I've used a phone-company-issued calling card from a Touch-Tone payphone, but I think the rotary ones were all phased out by the time I ever made a sent-paid coin call that didn't involve the operator.

I'm old enough that I was taught how to use a phone in school, including operator-assisted calls. We still had five-digit local dialing when I was in second grade. (Then we moved to a rural area remoted on a digital exchange so seven-digit dialing was mandatory.)

[mweiss@infosec.exchange]

@shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone I discovered it when I brought the phone home and it didn't ring. I had to do some research online to learn about this one.

[sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online]

@galacticstone
One of my first tasks as a technical editor was to assist the senior editor in taking apart and putting together the pay part of a payphone, to test the documentation.
It didn't go according to the instructions but we fixed them.

I remember button A and button B!

[eaterofsnacks@tilde.zone]

@galacticstone Can't call yourself old school unless you've tipped a street urchin a farthing to run a message from Kensington to Whitechapel, preferably in mid-winter.

[w_b@mastodon.world]

@mweiss @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone

Thank you for clarifying that. I should see a phone geek friend tomorrow. I'll have to ask about it.

[ljrk@todon.eu]

@galacticstone rotary, 28yo

[graand@thecanadian.social]

@galacticstone @Wyatt_H_Knott Ah yes, the infamous butt set! I have one of those in my toolkit from way back in my early networking days. Telco services were a thing and confirming dial tone was important.

[stinerman@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone ope! I didn't read carefully. I've used a rotary phone but not a rotary payphone. I have used a touch tone payphone. 1-800-COLLECT.

[chinmay@social.treehouse.systems]

@galacticstone I've used coin-operated, button-keypad payphones a single digit number of times, I don't know what a touch-tone is

[mikeimback@disabled.social]

@galacticstone I once found a gram of weed in the change slot of a payphone, and a group of young boys down the sidewalk a little, nervously watching me (ie: old enough that payphones were used to score weed)

[virtulis@loud.computer]

@galacticstone I've used a touch tone payphone to dictate a shopping list for dad's pager, is that anything.

And many years later to make a recipient-paid call when my prepaid sim ran out.

Other than those few occurrences, I'm really close to never having used any kind of payphone.

I might have been the last generation where it was normal and expected to not have a comms device on you at all times for most of my childhood. Good times.

[zigi_now9@autistics.life]

@galacticstone I don't know what a payphone is, and I don't know if it's because I'm a young chachŏr or a non-native English speaker, or both. :3

[karen5lund@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone I have used rotary phones, but I can't remember a rotary payphone. But I didn't much use payphones until college.

[fgbjr@indieweb.social]

@galacticstone I *think* the first time I used a rotary payphone was when I came to Japan, in 1981. It's rare to find them in service today but they still exist here.
https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/C5122AQFIt_iizcLnMA/feedshare-shrink_800/feedshare-shrink_800/0/1581402043648?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=rRySyEDuW6IeaJDBBzVZSSnVLURYZW6EvzRrrKWeUFA

[hustvedt@hachyderm.io]

@galacticstone I built a red box on my Newton to make free calls on touch tone pay phones.