Early Years 01/26/2008 - 01/26/2008

The telephone really came into full use by the time we moved to Glencoe. My cousins, the Siskels, who lived in Chicago had what was called a party line, which meant you shared your phone line with other people, whom you may or may not have known. They also had a system that when they made a call, they had to put a nickel in a slot to make the phone function. This was very common at the time.

We, on the other hand, when in Glencoe, had our own phone, but only one. Our phone number was Glencoe 718. The phone was in the main hall down stairs of the house. To make a call, we would pick up the phone handle and wait for an operator to come on the line and usually ask "number please".  We then would give her the number we wanted to call and she would connect us. My friend Tom  had the number Glencoe 738, so if I was calling him I had to give her the entire number and town. To call another village or Chicago, we would have to give the full name and number.

Long distance was another picture. We would flash(call) the operator and say that we wanted to make a long distance call. This was rare but we did it some times. We would give the city and the phone number. The operator would thank us and tellus she would call back when she reached that number. A few moments later the phone would ring and the operator would check to make sure she reached the proper party for us and then put the call thru.

Glencoe, like most areas, had its own phone office that the operators worked out of. We toured it as children and saw these large boards with every ones number and cords that would plug into each phone that was talking to one another. If the number you were calling was in use, the operator would tell you to try again in a little while. Some times you could get an operator to interrupt a call and tell the receiving party there was a call waiting, but that took a dire emergency.

The first big change came when the dial phone appeared.  We could now dial our own calls! Long distance, however, still had to be done with an operator. We all had to get new phones with new numbers. My dad got a 2 line phone, which allowed us to put a call on hold and press the button for the other line to take that call or make a second call with some one on the first line. Our new phone numbers were, Vernon5-2314 and 2315.  Vernon was the street the phone company was on.  With this change we could get additional phones, so we added one upstairs in my parents bed room and moved the downstairs phone to the den. Shortly after that the changes came quicker, with area codes and the ability to call long distance with out an operator.  International calls were still thru the operator and operators were available for directory information (looking up numbers) with out charge!

The only mobile phone we knew about in those days, was the one worn by Dick Tracey (a comic strip detective) who wore a phone on his wrist. What a change has taken place since the late 1980's.