You know you’re getting old when…

Those are good memories when the family got our first telephone. I must have been 10 to 12 years old. The colored phones were more expensive than the black models. I remember the first phone call I made.

Anyone have a gossip bench. They came in all shapes and styles. Here's one that let a person talk and keep stuff to "drink" in the little cabinet. One of my aunts had one that I really liked.


Another aunt had a built in wall shelf similar the one below with a second phone (always) in the kitchen.

Note the shelf just outside the bathroom in a hallway.
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However my favorite telephone memory is:

Our house had a phone in my room and one in the kitchen. About a year after having the new phone, I learned that my mom's Aunt Ida always called almost every morning about 8:00 AM. That was 15-20 minutes before the school bus arrived which I watched for looking out a window in my room at the other end of the house.

I had learned to mimic Aunt Ida's voice so occasionally I would dial our number put the phone on the base. Our telephone would ring; mom would pick up the phone and talk to me thinking I was her aunt.

FUN! The fun ended on a day when the bus was early. I said to my mom "The bus is early. I have to hang up."

_____________________OMG I'm really getting OLD ___________________________________

I posted the above ^^^ in July 2022 about the old TV pictured and referenced our family's first TV in the 1950's. I said I remembered the first TV show I saw was the "Andy Divine Show" when the TV was turned on for the first time. It came from Roy Otwell's Funiture Store in Temple GA. It's the same place where my American Flyer Train set was brought by Santa Claus, and later my bedroom set came from the store.

Now the old furniture store building built in 1887 with 6744 sq ft is for sale as as a combination business and home. Temple GA had a line of 15-20 stores that the family (mainly my dad and me at the hardware stores) frequented. Temple is about 50 miles west of Atlanta. It and was a "nothing town" (from Jimmy Buffett song Ringling, Ringling) when I was a kid. The family lived about 6 miles north of Temple on a dirt road until I was about 8 years old. We, family, still own the 50 acres of land and home where I grew up.

In 1939, the REA (Rural Electrification Act of 1936) provided electricity to the area. My father decided to become an "electrician" in addition to farming, and he wired the 10-20 houses along the road that led to our house from Temple and north to Draketown GA. I was not born at this time. I did not know this fact until about 15 years ago when I was replacing the old wire in the family house after a broken pipe caused extension water damage. My uncle came by and told me how my father helped every family along the road. I felt proud of him that day and again today. My father retired from Lockheed-GA after working there for 20+ years involved in the wiring of C-130's and the C-5. He was on the rollout team of the C-5.

Sorry for writing so much but HISTORY is amazing!

The one thing that Temple GA is noted for that I am aware:




The Facebook Marketplace ad I saw this morning re Roy Otwell's Furniture Store