I feel OLD!

Oh so very old! Recently the children found a couple of rotary dial phones in a box of phones. A box of normal punch button, beep as you "dial", phones. I was filling in paper work, quietly minding my own business when I was suddenly surrounded by my children who plunked down not just any ordinary rotary dial phone, but the kind that one would find on a military ship. Heavy, metal and with an extra hook to keep the receiver from falling off.

Now I could have feigned ignorance. This military version truely handed me an out from having to admit to my antiquity. The children looked at me expectantly.

Finally one of them broke the silence and asked; "Umm - so how the heck did you call anyone on this?"

Apparently they felt almost as embarrased of their ignorance as I did of my knowledge. "Well," I said superioraly, shamelessly taking advantage of their embarrasment. "You stick your finger in the hole beside the number like this." And I inserted my finger in the hole beside the zero.
Then I dialed zero, or for those of you younger than 20, pulled the dial with my finger all the way around. The dial whispered a swooshing, burrring sound as it rolled back to zero when I released it.

"Cool!" one of them exclaimed and they pushed in closer.

"Show us how to dial, ummm, hey show us how to dial 911!", another one asked excitedly!

I happily acquiesced with a demonstration.
9 SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH
1 Swish
1 Swish

"Wow! Cool, Hey let's go practice calling people! Let's pretend to call Jenny first. " They snatched the phone off the counter and were gone chattering happily over their great find. "I think there's another one out there."
" Awesome - let's go get it!"

Now - just because I happen to know how to dial a rotary phone, no one had better ask me if we had T.V. when I was a kid - because we did, thank you very much.