Notices..what have you spotted?

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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by white exec »

That was it!
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Old Telephone Codes................from the days when it was impossible to communicate without a pocket full of coins, an alphanumeric aptitude, very specific phone codes for very specific areas, good co-ordination of the senses, hand, eye, hearing, touch and even smell for stale cigarettes and urine, large books with numbers in them.

Heres a nostagic notice from a phone box as a reminder....

http://www.1900s.org.uk/1940s-images/te ... hanges.jpg

and a memory for numbers which no doubt those of us pre-mobile, public phone box users still carry around with us today.

Regards Neil
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by CitroJim »

I well remember the lists of STD codes in telephone kiosks Neil and the little book of STD codes we had with our home 'phones...

I also remember when it was impossible to direct-dial my parents down in Somerset from Milton Keynes! To call them I had to go through the operator...

Happy days :) I also well remember my very first home phone - a very snazzy blue Trimphone with a glow-in-the-dark dial.

I remember my first phone number too...
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by Peter.N. »

Well within my lifetime. When we moved here the number was 'Charmouth 556', our old number was Borough Green 3333 and that was still a manual exchange which was quite useful really, if you didn't know someone's number they would put you through. My school friends number was 'Orpington 939' and the place in London where I had my first job was 'City1124'.

Car registrations? :wink:

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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by CitroJim »

Peter.N. wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 13:03 Car registrations? :wink:

Peter


I can remember a lot of them Peter :)

First moped - NSU Quickly 798 JYC

First car - Mini - EPL 605B

First French Car, an R4 - OSN 559G

First Xantia - L229 CPE

:)

I can even recall a lot of Dad's cars too...
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

When we "got the phone in" we had one of those convoluted arrangements that you just couldn't sell today....

A party line with the neighbour across the road :-D

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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

..Oh yes and it was in a nice avocado with a proper dial.....

So if you were asked the question "What are coloured telephones?" Would you use these adjectives...

http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/BTsHistor ... banner.jpg

Of course in the old days, through your GPO telephone you could access fun services like....

Dial-a-disc.....

https://retroscoop.files.wordpress.com/ ... isting.jpg

The advert is a tremendous "Notice" in itself....love the language...what an offer! My sarcastic comments are in blue!
Want to hear hit music? (of course we do!) Call Dial-a-Disc. Two different hit records (really a whole 2 records wow! and they are not the same record either) are played each night from 6 pm to 8 am Monday to Friday. Five different records are played on Saturday an Sunday (except during Test Matches and certain other cricket matches when records are restricted to 7pm to 8am) (party on....except during a cricket match of course)



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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by CitroJim »

I well remember Dial-a-disc :)

We kids would cram into a telephone kiosk and all try to share the disc that was playing with varying degrees of success :lol:

Quality was pretty dire in retrospect but to we kids it was OK as our normal listening was via a cheap and tinny tranny wirelesses with a very small speakers anyway...

It was years before I finally deciphered some of the lyrics on my favourite tracks when I could finally listen to them on a reasonable audio system.

This all reminds me of illicit listening to Radio Luxembourg at night with the earpiece plugged in the wireless and hidden under the sheets...
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by myglaren »

CitroJim wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 13:21
Peter.N. wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 13:03 Car registrations? :wink:

Peter


I can remember a lot of them Peter :)

First moped - NSU Quickly 798 JYC

First car - Mini - EPL 605B

First French Car, an R4 - OSN 559G

First Xantia - L229 CPE

:)

I can even recall a lot of Dad's cars too...


I can't remember any of mine and often struggle with the current one.
The only one I do remember is my dad's awful Minor 1000 - 4567UP :)
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by CitroJim »

myglaren wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 16:25 The only one I do remember is my dad's awful Minor 1000 - 4567UP :)


That plate would be worth a fortune now Steve!

I once had a fairly valuable plate on an Austin 1300 I owned...

SYD 516G

That car was a shocker.... She looked gorgeous in bright red but was as rotten as a pear :(

Bought from a near-neighbour of my parents who worked in a garage - he sure knew how to cover up rust :evil:

Got rid quick and got my first Frenchie - my first R4.

So it was not all bad :)
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by Peter.N. »

My first was a '51, 125 Vespa 'NKT20', '39 Prefect 'KMK330' and a string of others that I can't remember except a Minor1000 van ex Rentokil 'PFN14' Canterbury reg. Remembered a couple: '51 Hilman Minx LJJ356, '55 LHD Velox 'PLP522' '56 Cresta 'JAN907' some years later a Cortina estate 'JTC9P' my mothers 1000 traveller that she bought new in '63, for about £600 '5695 KO' and quite a few more.

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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by white exec »

With the old public call box (button A and button B) coin phones, there always was a way of making phone calls 'for free'.

Because many 'service' calls required no money (192 directory enquiry, 100 operator, 999 emergency...) a good few of the dial's numbers - and their accompanying letters - did not require coins to be inserted to connect.

A girlfriend of mine in Greenford had the phone number WAXlow 4100. W, A, X, 1, 0, 0 could be dialed gratis. All that was needed to generate the pulses for the remaining characters was to tap the receiver rest the requisite number of times. Result was a free call, of unlimited duration. Teenagers needed that sort of thing in those days!
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Very creative Chris.

Apparently the BT archive of telephone directories 1880 to 1984 is made available through Ancestry.co.uk.

The search facilities need a Surname, and if you want to view the pages records they charge you for it, according to comments. Not that I plan to take up reading telephone directories in my spare time, More sad than that I was wondering what places used the old codes 194 207 or 211 and thought the front bit of an old telephone directory on line would tell me :-D

Regards Neil
Last edited by NewcastleFalcon on 18 Aug 2017, 19:52, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

And this notice announced the first telephone directory

Less than 300 names, no numbers, just ask the operator for the name.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/ ... width=1240

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Re: Notices..what have you spotted?

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 19:08 All that was needed to generate the pulses for the remaining characters was to tap the receiver rest the requisite number of times. Result was a free call, of unlimited duration. Teenagers needed that sort of thing in those days!


Those of us with morse code sending skills found that trick quite easy when faced with a telephone kiosk and no money or a 'phone with a little padlock on the dial to stop outgoing calls...

It was OK as long as the owner of said 'phone did not receive an itemised bill - such things had to be specially requested in those days...

Thank goodness...

:)
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