Candlestick Telephones
 

I was just watching an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" from around 1965 and they still have a candlestick telephone in the office. It seems kind of anachronistic to still have one of these in the 60's but then I probably got lucky with a Western Electric dial phone when I started making phone calls back in those days.

When did you finally get rid of your candlestick phone?

Never had one. I thought they were only in old movies

Never had one either. Although I do remember having a party line.

We had a party line until I was about 6; then my mom got tired of sharing the phone line. And for a family of 5 we had one rotary dial telephone in the kitchen until I went away to college in the late 1970's. There was no call waiting, no caller ID, no answering machine and no voice mail. God bless the person who invented caller ID; I won't have a phone without it.

The party line was a great way to keep up on what was going on in the neighborhood.

Rural areas and small towns were the last to get improvements and made do with original equipment plus most of the rural telephone exchanges were privately owned and wouldn't spend the money to stay up to date.

We never had this type of phone but I used one in New Mexico in 1970.

we had a party line until i was 16 in the south..thats how our parents knew everything we did

I'm guessing that it was just part of the shows small town ambiance!

sold it in 2010
 

Belonged to a family member and when downsizing to move to The Villages, I sold it on ebay for $150. It was solid brass and made in 1909. I really hated to part with it.