My Experience As A Telephone Installer

Jim Taylor
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Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 06:30 (1195 days ago)

Back in the Dark Ages we had telephones that were connected by wires. Yes. Actual wires! I know it is hard for the younger set to believe this but actual copper wires were strung all over the world, allowing people to talk to each other. No. I am not making this up. There were no such thing as cell phones then. Like I said, it was in the dark ages.

The only thing the telephone did was to make a call to someone or receive a call from someone. You could not play games on it. There was no internet to access. You could not send a text. You could call someone IF you knew their phone number. And you could receive calls from people. Period. Life was much simpler then.

My wife wanted a phone in our bedroom for some reason and it fell to me to install the phone. The bedroom was upstairs. I had to hook a phone line into the box on the outside of the house where the connection to world came in. Then I had to run the line up the side of the house, stapling it in place, and then put it through the wall of the bedroom.

I got the line on the outside up to the bedroom wall and then went inside to see where I could run the line in. Our house was built in the 1880's and was made of oak. After almost 100 years the oak was hard as rock. And the walls were quite thick. While I was pondering on how to drill the hole in the wall I noticed my Marlin leveraction rifle in .32-20 caliber setting in the corner. The .32 caliber was about the right size for the hole so I picked it up, levered a shell into the chamber and shot a hole through the bedroom wall. Perfect.

Well .. nearly perfect. There were a few issues.

1. Always. ALWAYS warn the people in the house that you are gonna shoot BEFORE you fire the shot! Seriously.
2. Back away from the wall you are shooting into. Otherwise you have to paint. Trust me.
3. Always shoot from the inside out. (I got that one right)
4. Do not use hollowpoint bullets. They are really hard on the siding. You end up with a much larger hole outside than you wanted.
5. Shoot at a slightly downward angle. It keeps the rain from coming in. (I got that one right)
6. Check the yard before you shoot. You don't want to hit one of your chickens or the mailman. (I got that one right)
7. ALWAYS warn your wife before you shoot.

Nowdays with cell phones we don't have those issues.
Life was tougher back then.

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That was a good idea

john ammeter
[subject]
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 07:03 (1195 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

I did much the same thing once. We needed to drill a hole in the pump house wall for a wire... we used a shotgun... needed a bigger hole than one for a phone wire.

John Linebaugh told me once ...

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 07:12 (1195 days ago) @ john ammeter

that the firearm was simply a remote control hole punch. :-)

Back a hundred or so years ago while I was in radio as a DJ

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 11:54 (1195 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

I spent a lot of time with gullible young ladies. Radio DJs did that a lot. I had an Austin Healey 3000 sports car and to impress the young gullible ladies I put a standard black dial phone on the transmission hump in the car. Back then we did remote broadcasts from local businesses and used a dial up type phone with alligator clips clipped to the points in the mouthpiece of the phone and going back to our remote control board. Back then that was high tech, playing records and broadcasting live at a business and all it took was a phone with removable mouthpiece. So we had extra telephones there in the radio station. Anyway I figured every young stud needed a phone in his car so I put one on the transmission hump. I ran a loose wire back under the seat and after impressing the gullible young thing I would tell her I had to have some work done to the wiring before it would work. Back then as a 20 year old I did a lot of things to impress the gullible young things. Sometimes they worked.
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Would have enjoyed hearing what you

james
[subject]
Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 15:16 (1194 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

had to say to those gullible young ladies....;-)

Trade secret.....but it worked most of the time.

Gary Reeder
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 17:22 (1194 days ago) @ james

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That Austin Healey would be awesome to have!

Derek
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Thursday, April 27, 2023, 05:54 (1193 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

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It was a great car but hell on maintenance

Gary Reeder
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Thursday, April 27, 2023, 11:09 (1193 days ago) @ Derek

It was intended for the cool damp climate of England and didn't do really well in the humidity and heat in middle Tennessee. I finally got tired of having the points and plugs change every 2000 or 3000 miles and traded it in for one of the new 1964½ model Mustangs. If I still had it today it would be worth a lot of money.

I WOULD LIKE TO SHOOT A LOT OF CELL PHONES

JT
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Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 07:59 (1195 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

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I would love to help you!

Jim Taylor
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Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 08:17 (1195 days ago) @ JT

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You should see what goes on in schools today.

John W
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 16:37 (1194 days ago) @ JT

Every kid that I work with or run into has a smart phone. They are always on it.

I did an experiment. I wanted to see how long a modern student could give up a cell phone. Out of about 60, three could give it up for one 60-minute period.

A fellow that seemed to know what he was talking about said

Gary Reeder
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 17:59 (1194 days ago) @ John W

if our power grid were to go down for a couple of weeks, we would have kids committing suicide all over the country. He just might be right.

My late father said that years ago.

John W
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Thursday, April 27, 2023, 02:55 (1193 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

Just for the fun of it I was talking to a student while another was texting on her phone. I was near the window and flashed a beam of light into her face.

Gary. She did not flinch one bit from her phone. Talk about being completely unaware of the world around you.

One of the places I hunt in So. Massachusetts is the Brimfield area. Sadly, there has been five murders in the past 40 to 50 years that have gone unsolved. All were young women.

While driving I spotted a young girl walking alone on Rte 19 in a heavily wooded area with headphones on. Completely unaware.

It boggles my mind.

….and consider electrical or plumbing in said wall!

WB
[subject]
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 09:26 (1195 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

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