telephones

When I about 4 I didn't realize that pressing that little button on the phone would hang it up (on those older phones with cords). My mom was talking to my dad who was away with the Navy and I pressed that button. My mom just looked at my and said "You just hung you dad up." I immediately had this image of my dad in his Navy uniform with him hanging on a coat hanger at the shoulders. I was totally fascinated by how in the world I could have done that!

Bobbi Jo

When I was small, just learning to use the phone, I used to believe that the person on the other side had to hold the phone upside down so they could hear me because I was talking on the bottom and it would automatically come out the bottom on their phone too...

Holly

i used to think that whenever someone called someone else on a telephone that only the reciever needed a telephone and the caller just talked into the air.

Anon

I used to believe I could call God on the old telephone my mom put in my bedroom for me to play with. The number was 1-800-GOD. I'd call and leave messages for my dead Great-Grandma Clara. Come to think of it, it was more God's answering service than God himself.

Dina

when i was little (elementary school) my friend would always call the operator for fun. she would say random things or hang up or try to start a conversation with them. i asked how she knew how to call the operator and she told me it was a long series of secret numbers only she knew. i was really upset and got mad at her for not telling me. i just found out this isnt true and im 15

operator, operator

When I was little there would be a recording on the telephone if you held it to your ear without dialing, saying "please hang up and try your call again..." etc. I used to think that was a real woman but she wasn't allowed to say anything else. So I would often hold our house phone to my ear until she would "answer", then I would joke around, yell things at her and make weird noises, trying to make her mess up her lines or get angry at me.

x

when I was little, I thought that the phone was a gigantic series of tuubes that went everywhere to each house, like really long straws. So then, I believed that you could send stuff through the tubes. I remember telling my best friend over the phone, that I was going to send spagghetti through the phone to my brother in college:P

Anon

when i was about 11 or 12 years old, i tried to call a friend but accidentally dialled the wrong number. and instead got a very strange tone i've never heard before. i figured i've stumbled onto some kind of alternate dimension or secret military line, and would periodically call that number to see if the tones change... but it was always the same. it wasn't till much later that i learnt it was a fax line.

darryl

When I was young, I used to think that if I picked up the phone while it was ringing then I would get electrocuted. I thought this because everyone that would answer the phone would wait until after the ring.

Rebecca

wen i was rilly little i knew that u couldnt shove food through the phone, but i thought that because spegetti was shaped like the little holes in the phone i could send spegetti throught the phone to the person i was talking to. im not sure how i ever found out the truth because i dont remember ever trying it.....

anon

Once my sister [three years younger] picked up the phone and left it off the hook for a couple minutes. We weren't really allowed to use the phone at the time [I was about 5 or 6]. The lady that comes on when you leave it off the hook long enough started talking, and saying "If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again." I didn't know it was a recording, and I got really upset and thought she was really mad at us, and that she was going to contact our parents and get us in big trouble.

Anon

I used to believe that telephone operators were surgeons who had to answer a few telephones that were stationed around the OR, while simultaneously performing surgery.

Anon

When an attempt to make a telephone call was met with a busy signal -- when the "line was busy" -- I believed that the telephone operating Lion who was in charge of connecting the calls was otherwise engaged.

Joanna

I used to think that everyone had a little person just like them that all lived in the telephone.

Jenni

When I was little, I had went to call my grandma on the phone in my mom's bedroom, but had forgot the number. I left the phone off the hook to go ask my mom for the number. When I came back, the recording was on the phone that says "If you would like to make a call, please hang up and dial again". I picked up the phone, hearing the voice, and thought someone was actually on the other end of the phone talking to me. I sat there for hours talking to the recording, finally my mom came into the room and asked if I was talking to grandma. Excitedly I looked at my mom and said "Nope! I've been talking to the dial lady, she's been saying the same thing for a long time... I think her memory isn't very good, but she is a good listener! She even plays music that sounds like beeping noises when she doesn't talk!"

Ooper

I used to think that to call my nana, you just had to pick the phone up, and wait (my nana's special like that!). I used to have very long conversations with the recording saying 'please replace the handset, and try again'. I remember i got really upset one time, when the siren noise (to let you know that you've left the phone off the hook) at the other end started, i thought she was mad at me!

James

I used to believe that if you dialed "0" and didn't press another button on the phone REALLY fast then the you would call the police. I would get very nervous anytime I had to call my friend at 868-0791. Sometimes I just couldn't handle the pressure and I'd walk to his house instead.

Anon

When I was young I learned all about Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell and how they invented the telephone and talking machines. I knew they had lived close to my house and obviously spoke English. It was my impression then that these devices only could be used while speaking English. How lucky was I to be able to use these wonderful devices. It perplexed me to no end then, how a French speaking person was able to talk on the telephone and get it to work!

Anon

When I was about 4, my mother was in the Hospital because her lungs had collapsed (abusive relationship with my father). Well, I hadn't seen her for at least two days, and she called me on the phone to talk. Well, I put the two together, and like any other logical toddler, I ran away screaming that "The Phone Ate Mommy." I cried for days.

Moony

One Christmas day when I was very young, I decided to play with the telephone and got through to a woman. My mum heard me talking and came to see what was going on, took the phone away from me and apologised to the woman. For some reason I was convinced that I was in trouble because the woman was the Queen and I was disturbing her Christmas Day lunch.

G.B.