A few weeks ago I put a query in the Concord Monitor asking if anybody in the area still used a rotary phone. I expected few, if any, responses, because I had gotten nothing from various online attempts.
Instead I was overwhelmed – in a few days more than 60 strangers contacted me to let me know that dial phones are alive and well. This anecdotal collection is kind of useful, actually, because as I note in the story: “If you’re wondering how many people still use a rotary phone, the answer is – nobody knows. No data exists about how many dial phones are still hooked into networks in New Hampshire or, so far as I know, anywhere else.”
You can my whole story, including some tidbits about phone tech history courtesy of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum – right here.
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I still have a rotary WE302 from 1948 hooked up in my house. The only landline I ever use.
The phone in the bedroom is as rotary-dial phone, as is the phone in the back room of the house. The phone in the kitchen is a Touch Tone though, but a Western Electric one, not a Japanese one.
I have five in my house. Four are hooked up. A 1941 WE 302, 1972 WE, 1962 WE, 1960 WE & a candy red 1962 Princess in mint condition by the bed. Sort of a collector. Old radios as well.
I am so longing to use a rotary phone – personal, private – true conversation w/o big tech listening. Although a helpful tool @ times, I detest smart phones. – They are intrusive, and open up to the w private medical & financial information & on & on. Legislators should have been watch dogs protecting our privacy.