Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Two 17 year olds try to figure out a rotary telephone
YouTube ^ | 12-26-2018 | Kevin Bumstead

Posted on 01/19/2019 9:36:36 AM PST by NRx

My first thought was that this was staged. Nobody is that clueless. But on consideration, I think this is legit.


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: rotaryphone; telephone
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last
To: NRx

Reminded me of the scene in “Zoolander” when those two geniuses tried to figure out how to get the computer to give them the information they wanted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uHBhKTSe0


41 posted on 01/19/2019 11:02:03 AM PST by Stosh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Political Junkie Too
To me, the real message is that these teens don't care to watch old movies or TV shows. If they did, they'd have seen the characters use these phones many, many times.

They do watch old movies. They watch The Breakfast Club. They watch Scarface and Full Metal Jacket.

42 posted on 01/19/2019 11:04:11 AM PST by Drew68 (Eating hamberders, drinking covfefe. MAGA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Like some old Route 66 or The Naked City episode.


43 posted on 01/19/2019 11:07:13 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Drew68

I actually saw a working rotary phone in a guys house last Friday! I still see them periodically.


44 posted on 01/19/2019 11:08:20 AM PST by Clay Moore (He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Drew68
It's like that scene from Star Trek when Edith Keeler asks Dr. McCoy if he wants to see a Clark Gable movie. He says "What?" She says "You don't know?" He says "I know what a movie is..."

-PJ

45 posted on 01/19/2019 11:09:43 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: carriage_hill

The “Good Ol’ Days”...

...after the Trimline Phones came thru,

I had a company-owned Motorola “Brick” Phone, for a year, when I worked in Midtown Manhattan,

And I had a Motorola “Bag” Phone, for a couple years, until the clamshell cellphones arrived.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My first car phone was a trunked radio system. 1988 maybe. You had a different phone number for every tower you passed if I recall correctly. A buck a minute if you were away from home. Maybe fifty cents a minute at home.


46 posted on 01/19/2019 11:10:38 AM PST by shelterguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

I have restored 2 of them. The blue Bell Telephone glass panels weren’t easy to find.


47 posted on 01/19/2019 11:16:45 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego

With technology changes, there are lots of things young people don’t know about.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 5 or 6 years ago my son was buying a house and needed to fax some stuff to the bank. I told him to go to my office and use my fax machine. Later that day he called to say it didn’t go through. I figured out why. He needed to dial a 1 before the area code and number.

He is a senior software analyst and I rely on him to help me through all this new computer stuff. But the yutes don’t know how some things work because they never used them.


48 posted on 01/19/2019 11:17:40 AM PST by shelterguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: carriage_hill

It would have been the mid 80’s. West side. Heading toward the Hudson.


49 posted on 01/19/2019 11:22:29 AM PST by yesthatjallen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Political Junkie Too

Huge difference between watching one or two movies a year and seeing your mother use the telephone several times a day.


50 posted on 01/19/2019 11:23:04 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Schumer delenda est.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: NRx

They already can’t read or write cursive. How long until kids won’t be able to read an analog clock, or know which way is clock-wise?


51 posted on 01/19/2019 11:36:00 AM PST by Paal Gulli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRx

If I’d never seen a rotary phone before, I doubt I’d do much better.


52 posted on 01/19/2019 11:44:11 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Da Coyote

There was a 1930s Betty Boop cartoon where Betty used a pay phone. Then she hung up and left the scene. A few seconds later, she rushed back in and checked the coin return slot.

This was funny if you grew up in that era, but would be baffling today.


53 posted on 01/19/2019 11:49:56 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Laugh at your peril, because the joke is on us. The young are the future, and they know almost nothing about the past, as this video so perfectly demonstrates. The rotary dial telephone is merely one example of something we take for granted but is hopelessly out of place in the present. Sadly, it is a symbol for so many other things, including past standards of behavior, self-evident truths, and assumptions, which are likewise now hardly recognized and out of place in the present, and which will be completely unknown in the near future.


54 posted on 01/19/2019 11:52:00 AM PST by PUGACHEV
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen

I worked at Rock Center and on Madison Ave during those years, in the advertising agency world, so I can’t say for sure it was me. Most of my clients - BMW, Ingersoll-Rand, P&G, BFGoodrich etc - were all over the world, so I was traveling 250-75 days a year in North America, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Like I said, there were a few of us that had those brick phones, which had to go back in the massive charger, every 30mins. The batteries socked back then.


55 posted on 01/19/2019 11:52:07 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Any older technology rapidly becomes obsolete.

For centuries colonists and then Americans, made fire with flint & steel. How many of us have even the vaguest clue how that might work?

Who among us can plow a field with a horse or mule? In fact, how many of us even know the difference between a horse and a mule? Or even better, could pick out the best deal from 12 offered for sale?


56 posted on 01/19/2019 11:53:24 AM PST by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I missed out on the TI computers. As a matter of fact,
I am posting this from a slide rule.


57 posted on 01/19/2019 11:53:32 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Vaduz

They’ve stopped teaching kids how to read a clock face.


58 posted on 01/19/2019 11:54:58 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Would a rotary phone work on a touch tone system?


59 posted on 01/19/2019 11:55:44 AM PST by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moovova

Remember it? I thought I invented it. There was a beer joint (that’s a tavern for you yankees) that had a phone for incoming calls only, as it had no dial. Tapping out the numbers to make a free call was high subversion back then.


60 posted on 01/19/2019 11:59:25 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson