Idiomatic relics of an earlier age

[BurtWorm]

Do young people "dial" phone numbers? Or wait for the "phone" to ring? Do they ever wonder where such weird words come from?

[Bucky]

1. I love it how on TV, people still tap the dial and shout "Hello operator?" when the line's dead

Operators haven't picked up tapping lines since phones were automated in the late 1940s, before most people today were alive. Yet this behavior persists on TV only. There's practically no one alive who doesn't know you won't get a live operator that way, except TV characters and possibly the idiots who still write these scenes. I think this may be proof that they're still recycling old TV scripts from the 1950s

[begin_within]

6. Plus, that phone ringing sound

It's a recording of a 1960s desk phone ringing, yet it's still used on TV shows and movies to indicate a phone is ringing and needs to be answered.

[AwakeAtLast]

20. Except for the shows that use MY phone's ring, sending me running for mine

x(

[Odin2005]

9. Yep, that BUGS me.

[old mark]

2. If it comes to that, how many "phones" today actually "ring" at all?

Mine goes deedle-deedle-deedle or some shit.

mark

[Odin2005]

8. I hate the old-fashioned ring, it's so jarring to my hyper-sensitive ears.

[JVS]

12. My friends made fun of my ringtone because it sounds like a real phone ringing.

[david13]

13. You have available a panoply of 'ring tones' which includes some

very old style ringing bell sounds. My neighbor uses one, with his hands free. Sounds like the old bell type from the 50's.
dc

[Posteritatis]

16. My dad's whipcracks when his boss calls. (nt)

[styersc]

3. I once asked my daughter to "turn the channel" (TV) and she was

completely stymied. I had to explain to her that at one time there were three, maybe four channels that you had to tune in with a knob on the TV set. Sometimes you had to adjust rabbit ear antennae to get the signal. She accused me of making it all up.

[latebloomer]

5. Once I told my kid she sounded like a broken record

She asked- "What's a record?"

[Bucky]

7. I need to remember both of these. I'm teaching the 1950s in class now.

I'll bet most of my kids don't know the origins of these phrases.

[SoxFan]

14. Your kid is a juvenile delinquint

[Odin2005]

10. LOL. I'm 23, but I grew up in a poor rural area and I remeber the old TVs and rabbit ears well.

[latebloomer]

4. Mostly they text

But the word "phone" is still alive.

[unpossibles]

11. well, it's still a phone, is it not?

a cellular telephone, or cell phone.

And I believe 'dial' was used even for push button, tone phones - obviously hearkening back to the rotary though. Speaking of which, I remember working at a restaurant that had rotary phones, and one day this kid came in to use the phone and stared at it completely dumbfounded until I showed him how to use it.

[baldguy]

15. A "cellular telephone" is actually a medium-range multi-channel two-way radio.

[unpossibles]

18. but isn't that like saying an analog television is a cathode ray tube receiver?

I mean, aren't we splitting hairs a bit?

[trof]

17. I used to 'type'. Now I 'keyboard'?

But I still get a 'dial tone' on my push button phone.
Should I call it a 'push tone'?

[rurallib]

19. "drop a dime" last heard that one about 5 years ago.

Was reading yesterday with my mentee and the kids in the book were going to a record hop. What the heck is that she asked?