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What was grandma and grandad's day like at school?

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What was grandma and grandad's day like at school?

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An education in the 1950's | Down the Lane

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A personal experience of starting of in life

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What sort of phone did our grandparents use?

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What sort of phone did our grandparents use?

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The 1950s were prosperous years for the United States and saw many technological and economic advances. One of these forward strides was the widespread adoption of the telephone in American homes and businesses. By the 1950s, roughly two-thirds of American households had at least one telephone, with the percentage growing every year. The core technology was already highly advanced, similar to landline technology in the 21st century, but none of the ancillary technologies like voicemail and text messaging existed yet. It was also a different time in that one company, AT&T, controlled nearly the entire industry.

credit: katclay/iStock/Getty Images

Physical Appearance

Telephones in the 1950s had a sleek, shiny appearance but were bulky by 2010s standards. They consisted of a freestanding base with a rotary dial on the front -- as keypads had not yet been introduced. The dial had 10 finger holes in it, corresponding to the digits 1 through 9 and zero. By winding the phone from the correct finger hole, callers could dial any number. Behind the dial was a holster for the receiver. The receiver resembled a horn, with a large earpiece and mouthpiece on either end and a comfortable handgrip in the middle. The base itself housed two bells for the ringer, a spring for the rotary dial, a governor to keep the spring from uncoiling too quickly and various electronic components.

A Regulated Monopoly

In the 1950s, people didn't own their telephones. They rented them from AT&T, which wanted to supply universal telephone service to the country and had consented to become a regulated monopoly in 1913, remaining so for most of the 20th century. During this time, AT&T allowed the Federal Communications Commission to approve its policies and prices. In return, AT&T and its subsidiaries became the sole providers of everything a person needed for telephone service. With only a few exceptions, AT&T owned the phones, the phone lines and the networks, and provided both local and long-distance telephone service to the majority of Americans. AT&T was ruthlessly restrictive about the use of its products and services and regularly sued other companies who manufactured their own devices to attach to AT&T phones or lines. For decades, AT&T won these battles, but in 1956, a court ruling went the other way. This eventually led to other companies being allowed to make products that would modify AT&T products and services, which, decades later, would help unravel AT&T's monopoly.

Aesthetic Stagnation

Telephone aesthetics didn't change much during the 1950s. Since it already controlled the market, AT&T had no reason to offer unnecessary choices and complexity. Consumers had their pick of several different models of freestanding and wall-mounted units, encased in shiny plastic that came in a variety of colors -- mostly black, white and brown, though brighter colors like red and teal were available as well. Otherwise, there was little variety available. This differed greatly from the conventions of the 2010s, where aesthetics are a major competitive selling point.

Technological Innovation

Unlike aesthetics, technological innovations continued apace throughout the 1950s. By the end of the decade, nearly all the remaining manual local telephone exchanges, which required a human operator to connect a local phone call, had been replaced by automatic exchanges although operators remained available for directory assistance. Direct distance dialing also came about in the 1950s, allowing callers to directly dial long-distance numbers without an operator intermediary. Another major change was the gradual phase-out of the named telephone exchange system. Until the 1950s, telephone numbers typically consisted of letters followed by numbers. These letters were mnemonics that mapped to words, making phone numbers easier to remember and served as names for the local telephone exchanges that handled those phone lines. As late as 1955, AT&T was still updating and streamlining this system, but in 1958 began to phase it out in favor of the all-number dialing used today.

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The 1950s were prosperous years for the United States and saw many technological and economic advances. One of these forward strides was the widespread adoption of the telephone in American homes and businesses. By the 1950s, roughly two-thirds of American households had at least one telephone, with the percentage growing every year.

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Beatles vs One Direction

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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Would my grandparents have gone to McDonalds for their birthday party?

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Would my grandparents have gone to McDonalds for their birthday party?

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Birthday Parties of My Youth | Retro Junk Article

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Great article. I remember GOING to many Birthday Parties but only have a memory of ONE of my own. I think I was between 8 and 12 years old. I don't recall what we were doing, I wanna say "voting" to play a game and my parents never asked me what I wanted to play, they actually excluded me from it and asked my friends.

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What television programmes would my grandparents have watched?

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The 60s Official Site - Television of the 60s

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Television of yester year was entertainment for the whole family. A typical Friday night may consist of watching our favorite show on the sofa with a large bowl of popcorn with our favorite beverage. Our popcorn was cooked on the stove in a large kettle, shaken as it popped or later we had Jiffy Pop® Popcorn.

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One Direction Songs with Lyrics One Direction All Songs One Direction Drag Me Down One Direction What Makes You Beautiful One Direction Songs YouTube One Direction Perfect One Direction Steal My Girl They Don't Know About Us One Direction One Direction Songs Story of My Life One Direction Best Song Ever One Direction You & I

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What style of clothes would your grandparents have worn when they were your age?

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fashion show clothes in the 60s - Bing video

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French Fashion Retro 60s Fashion for Women 60s Clothing for Women Life in the 60s Early 1960s Fashion Vintage Style Show 60s Style for Men Sewing Fashion Show Fashion Style Clothing for Age 50 YouTube 1960s Fashion Men Dress Like the 60s Asian Fashion Show 60s Movies Male Fashion Show Black Fashion Shows 60s Party Indian Fashion Show 60s TV

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What would have been on my grandparents' Christmas list?

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What would have been on my grandparents' Christmas list?

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10 most wanted Christmas toys of the 1960s

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All we wanted were small kitchen appliances and lifelike dolls.

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The Beatles Here Comes the Sun - Bing video

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YouTube Beatles Here Comes the Sun Here Comes the Sun Song Here Comes the Sun Beatles Lyrics The Beatles Come Together The Beatles the Fool On the Hill Here Comes the Sun Beatles Rock Band Hide Your Love Away Beatles The Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds The Beatles Hey Jude The Beatles Because Beatles Songs The Beatles Hello Goodbye