It's Little, It's Lovely, It Lights!

December 5, 2002 7:20 AM

It's Little, It's Lovely, It Lights! "I made my debut in the tail end of the fifties; just long enough to say I was there. I was this pink oval thing with a cord and yet I wasn't alone. For just a few months prior another pink oval thing made its debut. Actually its gestation period was a little longer than mine but in the end we found ourselves in the world together."
posted by quonsar (22 comments total)

Ah, the good old "eccentric gong." They just don't make them like that any longer.
posted by anathema at 7:29 AM on December 5, 2002

I was this pink oval thing with a cord and yet I wasn't alone...

must....get mind....out of gutter..........
posted by dhoyt at 8:05 AM on December 5, 2002

Our local Center of Science and Industry has a glass case with a few princess phones in them. I had never seen one but my wife knew all about them, her parents having had one when she was a child.
I wonder when there will be a similar site for the original Motorola flip-phone?
posted by putzface_dickman at 8:08 AM on December 5, 2002

Coupling with the princess.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:08 AM on December 5, 2002

now that's just disgusting, ebk! i like it!
posted by quonsar at 9:29 AM on December 5, 2002

Loads of info and memories. Like leasing your phone.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:51 AM on December 5, 2002

Much more than I ever thought there was to know about a Princess Phone. Telephonetribute.com?
posted by Fabulon7 at 10:53 AM on December 5, 2002

I had never seen one but my wife knew all about them, her parents having had one when she was a child.

I feel old all of a sudden.
posted by timeistight at 10:58 AM on December 5, 2002

Somehow the ungodly mating of the Touch-Tone keypad with the Princess Phone configuration in the early 70's spoiled the whole aesthetic.
posted by alumshubby at 11:14 AM on December 5, 2002

timeistight, don't feel too old. I'm a polygamist ephebophile.
posted by putzface_dickman at 12:02 PM on December 5, 2002

I seem to remember a Princess phone prominently displayed in the slumber party scene in Grease. They're cute l'il things, better than the novelty candlestick phone my mom thought was so cute, but that was impossible to use to do homework over the phone. You've got to keep your mouth up to one piece, hold the other to your ear, and somehow be flexible enough to scribble notes at the same time.

Does the phone company still charge extra for touch-tone dialing, even though the service has been around for decades? I remember always seeing that little charge on the bill and thinking: you bastages.
posted by GaelFC at 12:09 PM on December 5, 2002

I had a friend whose parents refused to pay the touch-tone fee. I always remembering having to use ATDP instead of ATDT to dial the modem when I was at his house.
posted by zsazsa at 12:56 PM on December 5, 2002

phone company has been bass ackwards from day one. still charging more for touch tone, still charging to keep you OUT of the phone book, still charging to LIMIT your ability to make calls (976, etc).
posted by quonsar at 3:30 PM on December 5, 2002

Man, I thought that Telstra was backward - they have nothing on your telco quonsar!
posted by dg at 4:13 PM on December 5, 2002

decisions, decisions, what's a girl to do?
posted by madamjujujive at 4:25 PM on December 5, 2002

SBC AmeriSuck!
posted by quonsar at 4:37 PM on December 5, 2002

phone company has been bass ackwards from day one

What I hate about the phone company the nickle and dime you for services you don't use, agreed quonsar. I thought I had them beat with the use of a FCC licensed radio and a repeater service. Yet now that is the new must have feature, walkietalkie with the newer cell phones. The one thing they kept adding to my phone service was caller ID for call waiting, yet I didn't have call waiting. And they would only take the charges off for the month that I called on, not prior one's again a service I couldn't use if I wanted too. Also exception on toll charges in the Dallas-FortWorth area another unless service since I live in Dallas I never call FortWorth but in a blue moon.

I had too many annoying calls so when the bill came due 4 months back, I threw it away. I have a pay phone right out my front door(pool's emergency phone) and it works great for me, no calls and no more nickeling and diming me except for the one's I insert.

PS how did you feel about MaBell and it being broken up in 84(?)?
posted by thomcatspike at 4:38 PM on December 5, 2002

So are these pulse phones still usable now? I was thinking of trying to find one, an old 40's style desk phone, you know, the kind you could use as a murder weapon if you wanted (try that with modern phones. Sheesh.) I'd thought that they didn't work any more, though.
posted by Poagao at 6:09 PM on December 5, 2002

Man, I thought that Telstra was backward

Their phone service isn't that bad, but I reckon Telstra still rules in ISP suckage, dg.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:07 PM on December 5, 2002

Yeah, stavrosthewonderchicken - unfortunately, I have just signed a 12 month contract for ASDL with Telstra, because they are the only ones who can supply broadband where our offices are (unless we use satellite, which sucks even more than Telstra) As far as phone service goes, it's Optus all the way for me.
posted by dg at 10:54 PM on December 5, 2002

Oops - ADSL :-)
posted by dg at 3:55 AM on December 6, 2002

pulse still works, as far as i know, in most of the USA.
posted by quonsar at 4:16 AM on December 6, 2002