Phones i have known....

I was thinking today about how glad I am to have a good phone during this ongoing time of isolation.  It's good to have so many options for staying in touch.  That led me to remember other phones I have known.  When I was very young I had a story book that showed a picture of a tall skinny phone (I think they called them candlestick phones) and I always thought it would be so elegant to have a phone like that.  Alas, that never happened.  When I was eight my family moved to an old house in the country near Woodburn.  My parents had read a book called "Five Acres and Independence" and, while I don't think they ever achieved real independence it was a good place to grow up.  The phone on the wall when we moved in was a big box with a crank handle on the right, a receiver hooked on the left, and a speaker sticking out the front.  We were on a party line which meant anyone on the line could pick up when the phone rang.  But we knew when it was actually for us.  Our ring was two longs and a short.  Within a couple of years those old phones were phased out and we had a sleek black phone on the kitchen wall with a dial.  It was still a party line and if friends all picked up at once we could talk for quite some time, til some adult got on the line and made us all hang up so they could make a call.  The receiver did have a good long cord so if a person got a call from, for instance, a boyfriend they could walk out on the enclosed porch for some privacy.  The first time I had a phone in my bedroom was in college.  In 1962 I was housed in a brand new dorm with a phone in each room.  Such luxury. Of course no one could afford many long distance phone calls so communication to home was mostly by letters.  After graduation I spent one of my teaching years in Monticello, New York.  I rented a cute little third floor apartment and I had to have my own phone installed.  I bought a baby blue, slimline, push button Princess Phone.  In 1967 that was the height of elegance, at least in my eyes.  I loved that phone.  To be continued.....