Dial
I had a really hard time deciding what I was going to photograph for D. (This being the last day and all. Okay. So Margene pointed out to me that I’ve screwed this up – it’s not twice a month, it’s every other week. Look for an E coming soon so I can get back on track.) This weekend G and I went up to Boston and stayed at the house his mother grew up in. As soon as I went up the stairs I knew what D would be! In an alcove at the top of the stairs was the phone, with it’s own bench and pad and pen and shelves for phone books. Completely and totally intact – with a rotary phone that still works! I was OVERJOYED! Mainly because this totally reminded me of my own grandmother’s house (this house being G’s grandmother’s old house) and her phone station with a black rotary. It’s just so classic. That’s the only phone on the second floor of the house, which is in stark contrast to the cordless phones I have in every room of my apartment. Often I can’t find one and that’s because there are three in one room – always the room I’m NOT in. The phone rang only a couple times this weekend, but each time I was thrilled to lift that heavy receiver and listen to the lovely, lovely ring. I include the key pad to our newest cordless for comparison.
I have to say how much I’m enjoying this ABC challenge. This was my favorite shoot by far. Sorry for the ton of pictures but I love them all! Thank you!
(There’s another D in the extended entry. Check it out if you like – it’s not my official D, but it was a fun photo shoot.)
My in-laws’ house is full of artifacts. Some are typical, like antique lamps and vases and valences. And some are just odd. I’m not sure what this says about my husband’s family, but on one of the shelves there was a topless Barbie doll with a tutu skirt, standing in a glass bowl. A couple shelves down was a headless bird in another glass bowl. I broke the lid to the bird bowl trying to get a better look.
D is for…
Doll
I hope I haven’t given anyone nightmares. L, C
I’ll never forget the black rotery phone at my grandmother’s, also with its own alcove and bench. It was ridiculously loud, too.
Love your photography.
I’ll never forget the black rotary phone at my grandmother’s, also with its own alcove and bench. It was ridiculously loud, too.
Love your photography.
I love it!!
Yep, reminds me of my childhood…
you know, i saw the topless barbie and tried to cover her up. she didn’t seem like someone who normally would parade around topless. this topless thing was clearly a mistake. i felt bad for her. should have asked you for some yarn and needles to at least knit her a little tube top.
girlfriend – great pictures and all that ….. but how is D for phone? duh.
okay, okay, I take that back …… D is for dial …..
Stunning photos! I’m enjoying the ABC-Along, too – really gets me thinking outside my usual way of looking at the world.
I’m a little shocked as you equate the rotary dial phone with your grandmother. That’s the phone I grew up with. I remember party lines and having to ask for the operator. I remember when Princess phones were a big deal and then the touch pad…WOW! Now I can talk on the phone no matter where I am in the world! Technology is amazing. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Margene, I guess we’re showing our age when we admit to growing up with a rotary phone. We were even on a party line! And only had to dial 5 digits to make our call! No answering machines, so the etiquette was to let it ring 10 times to give someone time to get to the phone.
I like the phone bench — it really gives “honor” to making or receiving a phone call. In contrast to now when we are blabbing non-stop on our cells 🙂
I love the heft of those old receivers, too, and how nice they are to cradle. I don’t remember a party line, but I do remember dialing only 5 digits… and Princess phones… and Trimlines!
When I moved into my first apartment and needed a phone, I went to the Phone Store (operated by AT&T, I think, right on the main drag of town) and ended up with an unbelievable (collectible, I’m sure) TouchTone Mickey Mouse phone that cost over $100 — that was around 1980!
My grandparents had a telephone table near the niche in the wall that held the phone! Geez, I’m remembering all kinds of phones — thanks, Cara!
We had a party line at our house in Maine – and that was weird! And I remember when we got touch tone at home and what a big deal it was. The technology sure has changed fast. And, Cara, only you can take such fabulous photos of the dial on a telephone.
It’s the topless Barbie!
Ack! The topless barbie AND the disembodied bird! All I could think was that the barbie had been taken from a child some years ago and placed out of reach..and just stayed there. And the bird..in the glass jar was just…odd.
Though it seemed so in place with that flocked wall paper. I’m in love with that house, it was just so visually interesting!!!
I too grew up with rotary phones. My parents resisted getting touch tone phones for years because in the early days you paid extra for the service.
The last rotary phone in my mother’s apartment was on the wall of the kitchen and in working order — until about a year ago. It interfered with the DSL line and was forcibly retired. I still feel sad at its passing from our lives–I think was the only rotary phone my girls have ever seen.
Fortunately for me, my rotary phone causes no problems for the DSL. (Maybe it’s that little adaptor thingy they sent.) For a while, I had one rotary phone and one cell phone, but now I also have an additional phone for my landline: one of the touch-tone phones that’s the same shape as a dial phone. I like the way it’s so much easier to hold the handset with my shoulder. (And how they don’t run out of battery power.)
OMG I want that phone!! My sister has one of those pushpad phones like that and I keep asking her to give it to me … I love those old clunky recievers. They are/were so comfortable and the ring, whoa, the ring actually rang … none of this bleeping and buzzing there is nowadays. Memories!!
We still have a rotary phone that works. And we can’t get rid of it, because when the power goes out here, which isn’t as often as it was where I grew up, but still often ENOUGH, none of the electric phones work and we still need a regular, plain-old phone in order to make calls.
The doll…..now, that DOES give me nightmares.
How cool to see the real life thing and then look at the picture and see it through your eye!
So. cool.
Awesome photography! There’s just something peaceful about still life stuff (maybe because it’s STILL?) anyway, it’s just beautiful =)
That’s awesome. My grandmother had a black phone like that, and it sat in an alcove in the hallway. I’ll never forget the first time she gave me a phone number to call in their small town. It was a letter, followed by four numbers. Made no sense to me at all!
oooh…cool. I was up in Boston this weekend too!
And…get this – my parents still have 3 (count em three) rotary phones in their house…and they all still work! Freaky, I know…
Oh wow…this has been my favorite of the series so far. I love rotary phones!
Just like my granny’s house, too! Same phone station and everything. Odd that the phone station has gone the way of the rotary phone. It’s still a sensible idea.
There’s a catalog–can’t remember which one–that sells repro rotary phones, only they actually have the tones (I have temporarily lost the term but you know what I mean) so they sound like a touch-tone. Don’t know if the handset is heavy, though. That is a critical element.
The phone photos are gorgeous. I wish I had a spot like that in my house.
I still have a working black rotary dial phone. I use it every day.
You are so funny. Love it.
The phones were loud in those days because you know, it was an important thing if the phone was ringing. A loud phone announced to visitors, ‘We Have a Telephone. An Important Call is Coming In.’
My grandma’s phone station (455-0279 was her number, she moved out in 1985)had this metal woven into a basketweave and I used to stick my fingers in it while writing notes on the note pad using the pencil which had been sharpened by Grandpa with his pocket knife. The phone stand had a little plastic-covered seat. Grandma would actually sit there while talking on the phone. On the wall above the stand was a framed picture of the American flag that had been cut out of a calendar.
OK that was fun (for me). Thanks. Gorgeous pictures as always; you should do this for a living. xox Kay