Jan 2, 2008

You Have Some 'Splainin' To Do.

This is a Western Electric 302 desk telephone set. It is nicknamed the "Lucy" because it is the set that appeared in the I Love Lucy television series. The production of this phone began in 1937 and continued to 1958. The early models had metal bodies and beginning during World War II they changed to plastic. This was the first desk telephone set that had the ringer contained in the body of the set. Despite the fact that most of the remaining 302s are black, they were available in nine different colors.

I bought two of these sets at Christmas. One was in restored condition and we gave it to Daughter Sneed's soon-to-be-husband Greg, who is an old telephone man. The second, the one pictured here, was in rougher condition and I kept it for myself. My particular set was manufactured in 1949. The cords have been replaced to allow it to be plugged into a modular telephone jack.


Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but this article reinforces my point about how most people believe that they are doing okay but that others are not. I think that we get deluged with so much bad news that we just assume things suck, even when our personal experience does not match the reports.

This phenomenon reminds me of when professional wrestling was even bigger than it is now. In the 1950s and 1960s everyone over the age of twelve claimed that even though they knew wrestling was all fake, they also knew someone who swore it was real.

The world of retail hardware is abuzz in anticipation of my debut as A Helpful Hardware Man, tomorrow at 9:30 am local time. In after hours trading nuts and bolts futures are way up on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It seems that I passed my drug test and I got a call today telling me to report for duty tomorrow.

I also had a call this afternoon from Some guy Named bob asking me if I would be playing golf tomorrow. When I said no, he seemed a bit put off. The Seafood King is going to really give me a hard time over this.

My ongoing schedule at Ace is to work 2 pm to 6 pm on Thursdays, but I have to go in early tomorrow to fill out paperwork and to become acquainted with the store. Starting next week I will have to work at the garden center on Thursday morning so golf was going to be kaput anyway.

My good friend Greg came over today and we installed the new garage door opener. It works beautifully which will make the lovely Mrs. Sneed happy because she hated having to park outside.



Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

4 comments:

Squirrel said...

you are freakin me out, merle---check your e mail!

Kurt said...

Love the phone. I managed to get one of the classic plastic rotary phones from the 70's, and I keep in plugged in in case of a power outage. Most people are unaware that their cordless phones won't work when the power goes out.

70% of American agree that the Public schools are in bad shape. The same percentage say that their child's school is just fine.

Bobby D. said...

Wow --another coincidence-- the pink manhattan blog has posted a photo of my telephone today! freakyy freaky

taco said...

i have an old phone that runs on gas but they don't make the wick mechanisms anymore. sigh...