I’m on the road this morning, sitting in a McDonald’s actually, drinking unsweetened ice tea and taking advantage of free WiFi. I wouldn’t want the place to close down just because I took a little time over the Fourth. I’ll be back at my desk tomorrow!
160 responses to “ArachniVac”
We have a replica candlestick phone we have had for over 30 years. The grandkids are fascinated by it when they visit and have a hard time figuring it out. Trouble is it won’t work with Magic Jack, and Magic Jack is only $35.00 a year for phone service. *sigh* progress.
Here’s the link from Wikipedia. They were called upright, stick or desk phones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlestick_telephone
I had seldom seen a phone until 1952 when my mom moved me to Venezuela with her. There the oil companies provided American small town life in an idyllic fantasy oil camp with phones and American lifestyle.
Moved back with my grandparents to rural Louisiana farm and I was about 15 when we finally got phone service in 1960, party line style. Until then the sheriff drove out and told you there had been a death in your family and call your sister, aunt, dad, mother. This went on well into 1980s.
My mom never learned to use anything more complicated than a rotary dial and insisted on doing so.
Physical therapy is going well but painfully. I haven’t kicked therapist yet but cussed quite a bit.
Ghost is in pharmacy picking up my pain medication for me. I am going home and take a pain pill and crawling in bed, no later than 8 p.m. or sooner.
My range of motion has reached 134 but today hurt so bad I almost threw up and cried at same time. They stretch and break down the scar tissue that forms inside the knee where they cut and reattach muscles. Very painful.
Here’s grandmother’s phone: https://therotaryshoppe.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/45465.jpg
Take your pick: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A172746%2Ck%3Areproduction+telephones&keywords=reproduction+telephones&ie=UTF8&qid=1499303017&rnid=493964
Jimmy:
Sorry, but you can’t call yourself a real Southerner if you drink unsweetened ice tea.
It has to be swee’tea or nothing. Unless it’s Coke, of course.
At least you called it “ice tea,” not “iced tea,” as some Northerners do.
So, you’re still pretty much a Southerner.
Speaking of phones:
I find it easy to forget just how far we’ve come and how much richer our country is than it was only a few decades ago.
In 1965, even though Shermantown was better off than most small towns, many people here did not have a phone.
Now, it seems almost too hard to believe that that was true back then.
Got rejected will try-
Mark
Ours is red
2nd link does not work
One time we had a princess phone.
When in CT went to neighbor’s across the road.
The 20’s “D” style was phone co. mascot for awhile IIR.
Niece & Nephew had never seen a dial phone till they came to farm last year.
(They are in late teens)
http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?key=10-2-13pole
also:
Calling a telephone number or a cell phone number in London from the United States, using a cell phone, takes only a few seconds to connect and costs anywhere from 8 cents per minute to $1.69 per minute in 2013.
The same call to a telephone in 1929, using state-of-the-art short-wave radio transmissions, would have cost $45 for three minutes and required about 30 minutes to make the connection between London and the United States.
Used to call Operator to call long Distance, Also reverse charges, Person to Person,
or get rates an just completed call. Cross country Long Distance or Over Seas you called
operator and she would call back when call went through. (Saw a video clip of Queen Elizabeth
making first direct dial call from London to Scotland)
Last goes between first two
In 60’s neighbor worked for AT&T he took me to Netcong to the receiving station.
http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?key=10-2-13pole
also:
Calling a telephone number or a cell phone number in London from the United States, using a cell phone, takes only a few seconds to connect and costs anywhere from 8 cents per minute to $1.69 per minute in 2013.
The same call to a telephone in 1929, using state-of-the-art short-wave radio transmissions, would have cost $45 for three minutes and required about 30 minutes to make the connection between London and the United States.
OK 🙂
For you runners
Article on NEWS tonight – man is running from MN to Gulf pushing his 11 YO
son (That has MS) in a “Running Wheel Chair” raising awareness about the chairs.
He runs 60 miles a day (2 Marathons +) He said he will finish by end of July.
Two YA he ran NY to LA.
At many eateries in OK, they do not serve “sweettea”. (It is one word, you know.) Some places will bring it to the table, but it was apparently made using the same technique as for making a super-dry martini. They just whisper the word “sugar” over the top of the glass rather than “vermouth”.
Jackie, Old Bear, and Mark: Thank you for the phone info., good to know. In the late thirties and early forties, our cousins with the dairy farm, where I spent lots of time on and off, had the old fashioned phone on the dining room mantel. There is a nice photo of family and friends around the Thanksgiving table, two views, and the phone is in the picture, over the heads of 8 year old me and two younger cousins (standing behind seated grownups). The pictures are in the computer, and I wish I could send them to the Village, but don’t know how.
Jackie, I hope you don’t have to endure the pain much longer! You are doing splendidly and Ghost is such a help to you. What an amazing two people.
Charlotte, post them to FB and let me know which you want to appear here. I will put the links here for you.
GM Debbe & Mizz Charlotte
Jackie just woke up from that pain pill. Hi hi, hi hi, off to bathroom I go. It is at end of bed, not far. Bathroom and bedroom same exact size!
Jimmy, you made me laugh! I am awake at 2.45 a.m. and wondering same thing.
Good morning Villagers….
GM and B’hugs OB, and so good to see Miss Charlotte’s post.
Making this a quick one, Dad has dr appt at 9:18, there’s bathing, dressing, and feeding to be done….then it’s my turn….hear him stirring now.
ya’ll have a blessed day…..
Jackie, you have my prayers….but you have a great caretaker there for you.
Debbe et all, the pain isn’t constant, thank goodness. Those adorable little girl therapists are manipulating my knee to stretch and break internal scar tissue. That hurts.
As I was watching those “adorable little girl therapists” at work on Jackie yesterday, it occurred to me that with their strength, training, and knowledge of physiology, they would be perfectly capable of disabling an assailant with like one finger. They know where everything you have is, and how to hurt it, really badly.
There’s another one of those bedside water glasses I find so strange. As I have mentioned before, I’ve never know anyone who kept one there*. I suppose having a water glass to fill gives one something else to do when one gets up in the middle of the night to pee…as well as giving one the need to get up in the middle of the night to pee.
*Having to get Jackie a glass of tea (with lime), when she wakes me up in the middle of the night to get her one, is not the same thing.