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Thread: Any Idea?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Default Any Idea?

    Found this in the master bedroom. Nothing on it to identify it. Home was built in '64. No plumbing or wires found on the exterior wall, attic or crawlspace. Home buyer didn't seem to care, but my inquiring mind wants to know. Any thoughts?

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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Maybe some kind of retainer that would hold the door open? Imagine a pin on the door that would engage in the hole. Just a guess.


  3. #3
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    Snowbird (this means I'm retired and migrate between locations), FL/MI
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    75 ohm coax someone ran through wall with a coax gasket (often seen outdoors imbedded in a caulk ring) in a telephone jack ring; instead of proper mounted termination box with plate containing female/female coax connector.


  4. #4
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Todd Belverstone View Post
    Found this in the master bedroom. Nothing on it to identify it. Home was built in '64. No plumbing or wires found on the exterior wall, attic or crawlspace. Home buyer didn't seem to care, but my inquiring mind wants to know. Any thoughts?
    This is from back in the old "Bell System Days". It is a wall outlet for a telephone station cable that went through the hole. Inside, had you been able to take it off, you would have seen the screw terminals and a separate screw to hold the cable strain relief clip.


  5. #5
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    In the day, before 1970 +/-, Bell South, Indiana Bell, Northen Bell and all the other Bell companies owned the phones, we only rented them from Bell. A Bell service man came to your home to wire each phone to one of these boxes. The old cable that ran from the wall to the phone was about 1/4" dia, thus the large hole. Pop off the outer ring and the old phone lines are probable still there. I do not remember when the 4-pin plug-ins started in use.They allowed you to move the phone (only the well-to-do had more than one phone) to other rooms.


  6. #6
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Horn View Post
    In the day, before 1970 +/-, Bell South, Indiana Bell, Northen Bell and all the other Bell companies owned the phones, we only rented them from Bell. A Bell service man came to your home to wire each phone to one of these boxes. The old cable that ran from the wall to the phone was about 1/4" dia, thus the large hole. Pop off the outer ring and the old phone lines are probable still there. I do not remember when the 4-pin plug-ins started in use.They allowed you to move the phone (only the well-to-do had more than one phone) to other rooms.
    Back then, in the old days, I started out by working in the local telephone Central Office. We did all the work in the central office to establish a new telephone number and connect it to the cable going by the house. Most people had black phones, those on welfare all had colors.


  7. #7
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    We always had a black phone until the mid 60's. I had a good job while in high school and purchased (signed a rental agreement with Northern Bell) to have a blue "touch tone" phone installed at our home. I think I got it as an anniversary gift. Cost me $5.00 a month.
    I lived in St. Paul, MN -- Was it Northern Bell or Northwest Bell? Been too many years.


  8. #8
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    Smile Re: Any Idea?

    I wonder with all the technology available if the pups of today will still remember useless stuff? First phone number TI8 6834 (Tilden). Probably not. I remember when the touch tone phone was the huge technology because you could dial the radio station (WCAO AM Baltimore) faster than your friends with rotaries. Don't post any more pictures like this. I'll start thinking I'm getting old.

    The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
    - Paul Fix

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Thom Walker View Post
    I remember when the touch tone phone was the huge technology because you could dial the radio station (WCAO AM Baltimore) faster than your friends with rotaries. .
    .
    Not if I pre dialed all but the last # and had the dial twirled up on the last digit ready to let her lose.

    Last edited by Billy Stephens; 07-06-2012 at 04:59 PM. Reason: spelling
    It Might have Choked Artie But it ain't gone'a choke Stymie! Our Gang " The Pooch " (1932)
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  10. #10
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Billy Stephens View Post
    .
    Not if I pre dialed all but the last # and had the dial twirled up on the last digit ready to let her loss.
    Only if that last digit was a "1" did you have a fighting chance. Anything else and Touchtone (TT) was faster. If it was "0"---
    "Fuhgeddaboudit".



  11. #11
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Remember when you could dial "TIME" ? " At the tone the time will be....." Or how about "Dial a Prayer"? And then there was that annoying fluctuating sound when you left the phone off the hook too long - sounded like a malfunctioning police siren !


  12. #12
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    In the 50's our number was 624, same number as our street address. There were three families on the same "party line". Each had a different ring, one, two or three rings. You could tell if some one else was on the line and listening in on your call. Now days, "Big Brother" records everything that you say or post. Maybe the good old days were better?

    Just my 2 cents.


  13. #13
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Hintz View Post
    Remember when you could dial "TIME" ? " At the tone the time will be....." Or how about "Dial a Prayer"? And then there was that annoying fluctuating sound when you left the phone off the hook too long - sounded like a malfunctioning police siren !
    We had "Time", and "Receiver Off Hook" (ROH) tone, but I guess we didn't need help as you West Coast folks must have---didn't have "DAP ".

    What was really neat was when you picked up the phone someone asked "Number Please". Got to know a few of the Operators just by their voice. It was sad, and lost the personal touch of a friendly voice, when got modern with Dial Tone. Oh well......


  14. #14
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Goeken View Post
    We had "Time", and "Receiver Off Hook" (ROH) tone, but I guess we didn't need help as you West Coast folks must have---didn't have "DAP ".

    What was really neat was when you picked up the phone someone asked "Number Please". Got to know a few of the Operators just by their voice. It was sad, and lost the personal touch of a friendly voice, when got modern with Dial Tone. Oh well......
    I'm about an inch from remembering her name. I can almost here my mother saying "........., give me Thelma") I have a different recollection of the color phones. It was a symbol that my Dad was moving up. We got a private line first. Then we got a color phone AND an extension line, then a touch phone. Status was easier then, or at least cheaper.

    But, the two phones I remember best are the black "desk model" phone my grandmother still had at the time she died and the first 3 watt cell phone I got. Either could have doubled for a murder weapon and both worked really well for their intended purposes.

    Waxing nostalgic is the bee's knees. Just don't make me go back and live that way. I like my stuff!

    The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
    - Paul Fix

  15. #15
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Goeken View Post
    We had "Time", and "Receiver Off Hook" (ROH) tone, but I guess we didn't need help as you West Coast folks must have---didn't have "DAP ".

    What was really neat was when you picked up the phone someone asked "Number Please". Got to know a few of the Operators just by their voice. It was sad, and lost the personal touch of a friendly voice, when got modern with Dial Tone. Oh well......
    My Mom was a telephone operator in Aberdeen when she met my Dad in 1950. Everytime I think of it, Lily Tomlin comes to mind !


  16. #16
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Hintz View Post
    My Mom was a telephone operator in Aberdeen when she met my Dad in 1950. Everytime I think of it, Lily Tomlin comes to mind !

    Gracious, is this the party to whom I am speaking?
    I often say that when I call someone.
    If they know what I'm saying, it gives away their age.

    ' correct a wise man and you gain a friend... correct a fool and he'll bloody your nose'.

  17. #17
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    Central Arkansas
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Thanks for all the info... and memories. I can relate to almost all the stories (I didn't know any operators). I grew up with a rented phone, but I guess we were modernized by the the 70's. One of my first solo driving adventures was turning the phone back into the Bell store.


  18. #18
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    Washington State
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    Default Re: Any Idea?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Cantrell View Post
    Gracious, is this the party to whom I am speaking?
    I often say that when I call someone.
    If they know what I'm saying, it gives away their age.
    We're "OLD !"


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