Phrases that will surely die out in the next 50 years ?

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Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Can you "Xerox" this on the 'Kodak' for me please and then send it out via 'telex'

A normal everyday sentence when I started work in the late 1970's
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
"Operator, Long Distance can you connect me to St.Tudy 123 please"

My Mum in Cornwall was one of the last exchanges that you could not call long distance directly.
I think the GPO upgraded the exchange about 1980
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
I was at a National Trust property a couple years ago where a room was set up as it was back in the 1920s. There was a phone from the period where you could dial 1 to hear what the gardener's day was like, 2 for the chauffeur's day etc. The 8 year old children I was with understood they had to lift the receiver but were flummoxed by "dial 1". (You put your finger where? And do what?)

Iain Banks touched on this in "Whit", where there is much talk of buttoning numbers.

A telephone is a really complicated piece of equipment which requires a skilled user for best results.
bush-upside-down-phone.jpg
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
I swapped the connections to the handset on my phone at work, then watched people's reactions when they walked into the lab and saw me holding the phone like that.

The other good one on a shared desk is to swap the handsets between two phones when they are back to back
 
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