I adopted a
similar dialing technique when making an appointment today that
I used to use when phoning 'Going Live!' in the late 1980s.
Back then, the redial button was your invaluable companion. No sooner had you heard the stuttered beep of the engaged tone than you’d pressed one finger on the hook to hang up and another on redial to call again. This saved valuable handset-in-the-cradle / number-punching time and upped your chances of being connected. You were a step ahead of any kids whose houses still had rotary-dial phones. With one of those, you had no hope: you may as well have sent a letter to TVC.
(...though I wasn’t aware of this abbreviation back then.)
It’s only on looking back that I realise how much of my childhood was spent knelt next to the telephone table by the stairs. It’s probably why I have bad knees as an adult; I may sue Sarah Greene for personal injury. With the rise of mobile phones today, it’s so much easier. To paraphrase the ex-Tory PM Harold Macmillan out of context: children today have never had it so good.
Despite being hindered by primitive technology, in 1987, my dialling technique nearly paid off. I got through to the 'Going Live!' switchboard with a question for Roald Dahl and was waiting on the line while he was interviewed in the studio, ready to ask him direct. Unfortunately, Phillip and Sarah ran out of time before they got to me, and that put paid to the chance to speak to my favourite author. I’d have to use a ouija board now and I’m not prepared to do this.
Back then, the redial button was your invaluable companion. No sooner had you heard the stuttered beep of the engaged tone than you’d pressed one finger on the hook to hang up and another on redial to call again. This saved valuable handset-in-the-cradle / number-punching time and upped your chances of being connected. You were a step ahead of any kids whose houses still had rotary-dial phones. With one of those, you had no hope: you may as well have sent a letter to TVC.
(...though I wasn’t aware of this abbreviation back then.)
It’s only on looking back that I realise how much of my childhood was spent knelt next to the telephone table by the stairs. It’s probably why I have bad knees as an adult; I may sue Sarah Greene for personal injury. With the rise of mobile phones today, it’s so much easier. To paraphrase the ex-Tory PM Harold Macmillan out of context: children today have never had it so good.
Despite being hindered by primitive technology, in 1987, my dialling technique nearly paid off. I got through to the 'Going Live!' switchboard with a question for Roald Dahl and was waiting on the line while he was interviewed in the studio, ready to ask him direct. Unfortunately, Phillip and Sarah ran out of time before they got to me, and that put paid to the chance to speak to my favourite author. I’d have to use a ouija board now and I’m not prepared to do this.