i’m trying to make a dial tone…i can’t do it by myself
One more thing before the weekend…
Reading this post on Gin and Tacos led me to this video on AT&T’s archives.My grandparents still have their rotary phone, which I regarded with disdain when I was young. If I was spending the night there as a kid, I had to think long and hard about how badly I wanted to call my parents, because our phone number had 8s and 7s and even A ZERO AND DEAR GOD LIFE IS TOO SHORT. Now, it’s kind of cool to use it. The whirring zip of the dial gives me the tiniest thrill and the action of moving it around with my finger makes me feel like I possess some mysterious old skill.
The husband and I were watching Adaptation the other night, which we love and I was struck by this scene in which Meryl Streep’s character, deep in an experiment with mind-expanding orchid powder and finally fascinated by something, has a winding phone conversation with her article subject and soon-to-be lover.
I remarked to the husband, somewhat sadly, “People soon won’t remember what dial tones sound like. Cell phones don’t have them.” I never noticed it before, but it really is quite a beautiful sound.
June 12th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
You’re right! I can’t even remember the last time I heard a dial tone!
June 13th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
As a kid, I remember being bewildered by “party lines” in old television shows and movies. I hadn’t even thought of the dial tone, though. Another sound that I haven’t heard in ages: the busy signal.
June 17th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
The busy signal doesn’t strike the same nostalgic nerve for me. Makes me want to slam something down and ineffectually yell, “GET OFF THE PHONE ALREADY GAWD!”