Central Calling

A small thing accomplished over break was to hang a new phone in the upstairs sitting room. We've had an old princess style phone up there. Does anyone under 45 even know what a princess phone is? Boy that makes me feel old. This one had been Lisa's that she brought when we were married. I'd never seen a BROWN princess phone, but I digress.

While cleaning in the basement I found an old phone that had been in my childhood home. My parents had bought it in the early '70's or so and had a digital keypad added to it.

The phone's original bells still ring when the crank (not visible on the right side of the picture) is turned, but for incoming calls a second set of bells installed inside the box are what you actually hear.

When my folks moved in 1988 they took the phone with them, but never found a good place to install it. When they moved into their apartment in 2005 the phone came to Foxcroft, and since that was right when we were moving in, it went into a pile in the basement.

Wiring it back up wasn't too hard, but a little more complex than I had originally thought it would be, since apparently my father CUT the line out of the phone, so I had to splice it together. Perhaps I need to do a little more work on it, as it won't dial out, but will take incoming calls.

Here is a shot of it in the sitting room, next to my great-great grandfather's cupboard:


I really like sitting in the chair below the phone and talking. The heft of the receiver surprises the girls, but feels very comfortable to me.

My next great plan is to put a candlestick back into the phone niche in the dining room, then we'd really be set!