Having a phone with a rotary dial.

Took a minute to dial the numbers in, and getting mad when you dialed the wrong numbers and had to start over.

You risked an injured finger trying to 'speed dial' one of those phones for a radio contest.

I do remember them quite well.

I remember phones without dials. When you picked up the reciever, a nice lady asked, "Number please?" and if you didn't know it she'd connect you anyway as long as you knew your party's name and address.

Believe it or not, at BoldOldPhones.com we sell almost a thousand of them a year! Lots of people want them because they remember the one in their parents' or grandparent's house. Others want them because they want a phone that will work in an emergency (power outages play havoc with modern phones). Others want a rotary dial phone because they have a room full of antiques and a space-age silver phone just looks out of place. Despite the fact that they were produced in many colors, Black is the favorite color (by far) for modern buyers. The one thing I get a kick out of is people having to teach their kids how to "dial a number."

I'd love to go back to one- no gadets, no silly rings, no hold/pause/caller id/way to leave a message unless a person answers and has a pen and paper on the other side of the phone.

I remember when Bell Telephone first demonstrated push button phones in my area, at the New York World's Fair, in 1964.  They started coming into common usage a few years later, but I remember still having rotary phones in our house until the early 1970s.

I'm still pretty bad. My current phone isn't even cordless.

Yes, And it wasn't too long ago that we still had a rotary dial phone, maybe the 90's.

Yeah, and you could really wear your finger out calling those 1-900 sex lines then too.

We had rotary dial phones my whole childhood. they were slow to dial. we also had a party line most of that time too. Man it was odd to pick up the phone and someone was already on the phone. lucky for us the other person was not a phone hog. they probably thought our family of four were the hogs. Glad we do not have those anymore.  I especially remember the frustration when I was listening to those radio contests and they would announce if you are caller number six you could win........ well with those blasted rotary dials you could forget getting through for that. do not really miss them.

I remember having one cause my mother insisted on using things until it wouldn't work at all.

My friends dad worked for the phone company in the late seventies and he had a phone in his car!  It even had a rotary dial.

Of course I do! They didn't seem bad at the time.  Now it would seem that the best thing about them was that you had enough time while dialing to decide if you really wanted to place the call or not.

The big yellow bastard on my kitchen wall, about 1984 or so. Round and round we go!

I remember using one of those, it belonged to my grandmother.

i not only remember phones with rotary dials, i also remember my mom putting a lock on the phone to prevent me from making prank phone calls. i miss the days before caller i.d.

Not really that big of a deal. My parents had one through the late 90's, and so did my grandparents.

And an 8 party line!

They were more common than touch tone phones when I was growing up and I remember when you wanted to call someone quickly, like if you calling in in response to a radio contest, it was painful waiting for the dial return to the starting position between each number.  Today, that wait would drive people over the edge.  The funny thing is that I still refer to calling people as "dialing them up" or "dialing their number", and use the term "dial tone".

Phone numbers were also all of five digits, and the phone...usually a heavy duty black ugly thing...were only available in desktop styles. You could very easily lynch yourself using the cord also(usually available in dark brown...take it or leave it)...almost pull a house over! There were no phone jacks, and the junction boxes were also big and quite ugly. The wires inside were substantial and thick copper, as were the other components, so if you can find one that a kid some place has not dissected out of curiosity...it would likely still work. Most resided in toy boxes for years as a curiosity. Virtually any older house, likely has one stashed some place...usually providing the users outlived their phones!

A lot more fun, but more time-consuming than modern 'calculator-face' phones...

I remember having a party line when I was a kid! Lots of phones in the late 40's were the old crank and operator. As consumer products increased during the late 40's, the dial telephone came to the fore as Western Electric got cranked up and stopped doing what it did during the war.  The consumer products really started to roll when the factories quit making tanks, and other weapons of war.   I had relatives, folks, who didn't get electricity until 1947 (REA in the country.)

Yes...and I also remember the days when you didn't have to wait half an hour to get to a live person at a business, school, or hell, just about anything.  Or put on hold with muzak for another 20 minutes. Seriously, if offered a choice between touch tone phones and interminable waits OR rotaries and short waits, I'd pick the latter.

They seemed to be much better made than todays phones,and there was no confusing hidden charges,either.

I do remember growing up and I dialed the number like that.

Yes, I remember rotary dial phones and party lines which were annoying; you had to wait until the other person finished before you could make your call. Of course as a kid it was kind of fun listening in on someones conversation back then, it made you feel like a spy.

Get this one, my dad was a doctor so we had two rotery phones in each room. A house line and his office line! Pretty cool.

They weren't as convenient as touchtone phones, but pretty cool nonetheless.

I remeber my parents having one of these.

It seems like we pretty much stayed behind the times and I was already out of high school before my family broke down and got a touch tone phone. It's funny now to think how long it would take (compared to today) to dial a simple local number if it had a lot of nines.

Rotary phones are the only way to go.

Not only did the rotary phone have a loud ring, as others have noted, but the dial also made an audible sound as it returned back to its original position. I think it was Jonathan Winters (you know, the comedian) who used to do a routine mimicking using a rotary phone, complete with the sound of the dial clicking back to position. When push-button phones first came out, I thought they were a bit dumb, but gee, I guess they're here to stay after all.

My family had a rotary dial until like 1995. My dad owned an antique shop and he thought it was cool. It was aggravating, a waste of 3 seconds.

Sure. I used to get hit because I would play with the rotary dial and wind up calling. . .Egypt or something.

Not only a rotary dial, but a real ring, that I could hear.

Here's what I can remember: OK, little Eschew, pick up the phone. Number please? Me: 1 5 7 5 W Hello? Hello, Grandma? c. 1957. Shortly thereafter, we got a rotary phone.

I may be young, but I do remember rotary phones. My grandmother had one in her old house before she moved into a home. I could never quite get the hang of using it, but it was fun to see around. At the time I took it for granted- that is, it didn't seem old-fashioned or odd, it was just there, period. It's a funny thing- I was never that fazed by cell phones either- Telephones seem to have an extremely low level of shock value for me.

I remember those phones, but we did not have one when i was growing up. I bought a rotary wall phone at a rummage sale 5 years ago for 3 dollars. We use it as our power outage phone during emergancies. The ringer is so loud i can hear it from a closed room upstairs.