ATTN Tracker what YOU think??

[mrbb]

OK just for you Tracker, MAYBE I got me one on camera?? or did I?



[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]so I was up near lake Erie a little while back now, and took this pic of the lake for a friend, was a nice warm summer day,, just re-looked at the picture and noticed this in the mirror?? HUMM?? COULD IT BE?? could it be some creature of massive proportions? I never noticed while there or would have looked better [/FONT]

but I have NO idea what it is, so,?/ b maybe I got me a BIG FOOT on camera like so many others CLAIM to have HAHA

what ever it is it IS casting its own shadow so??
SO what YOU THINK there Tracker, did I do you GOOD and get me one on camera??
I mean I STILL didn;t see it, but? thought you and maybe some others here might enjoy this??
and I have NO clue how to photo shop anything or even how to start to try? so??

pic was taken off an older model cell phone

 

[Lost Sheep]

Looks Squatchy!

 

[mezz]

Looks like Sigmund the sea monster!!!lol! Anyone remember that show? Ahh, good memories of seventies Saturday morning t.v..-Mezz

 

[sweeperguy]

Looks like Sigmund the sea monster!!!lol! Anyone remember that show? Ahh, good memories of seventies Saturday morning t.v..-Mezz

LOVED Sat morn TV. 4 channels to choose from, wanted to watch all of em. No DVR or VCR to record and watch later.

 

[wirev]

Heck, you guys needed to watch Saturday morning cartoons in the very early 50's on a 10" round black and white TV. I swear it was 3' long and weighed 50 lbs. but we had the whole neighborhood there as we had the only TV! TV back then only went to 9 or 10 at night and signed off the the National Anthem. Ah, those were the "good ol'" days.

 

[frnash]

… TV back then only went to 9 or 10 at night and signed off the the National Anthem. …

Followed by this (for perhaps ≈ 20 minutes):

(Click thumbnail for larger image.)

A few more from the 1950s/1960s:

• (click →) I Love Lucy, October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957
• (click →) The Jackie Gleason Show, a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.
• (click →) The Honeymooners, 1955-1956

 

[mrbb]

I recall a lot of them old shows, the black and white tv's and how channels ended at late hours and stations played patriotic songs and theme's over airing useless info commercials like they do now
I wonder how many generations, now don't recall, black and white tv's or tubed TV's period
or days before cable/satellite TV, or recording or play back was an option!

SO many don't realize how spoiled things are as to just a few yrs back!

How quickly we all seem to forget the more simple times!

 

[mezz]

Lets not forget, the TV's only went to 13 channels & there was no remote control. The remote back then was the person closest to the TV to go & flip the dial. TV Guide was king then too! Test patterns on the screen prior to station sign on & off, Ahh yes! simpler times & good memories that are making me feel real old. LOL! -Mezz

 

[mrbb]

well if were going down this road, we might as well bring up phones, remember when many homes didn;t have one?
or they were wall mounted ONLY, had a short cord, and a rotary dial on them?
or how about dial slow dial up internet , and its poor connection IF you could even one get it at times, and big monitors! super slow everything on them! LOL

 

[slimcake]

Found me a yeti!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Trackers pickup??

 

[sweeperguy]

well if were going down this road, we might as well bring up phones, remember when many homes didn;t have one?
or they were wall mounted ONLY, had a short cord, and a rotary dial on them?
or how about dial slow dial up internet , and its poor connection IF you could even one get it at times, and big monitors! super slow everything on them! LOL

How about party lines. Had different ring patterns for each house on the common line.
Had a 5 diget phone number growing. 29496.

 

[frnash]

How about party lines. Had different ring patterns for each house on the common line.
Had a 5 diget [sic] phone number growing. 29496.

Like this …
(click →) SOUTH RANGE TOWNS — 1962 TELEPHONE DIRECTORY,
Southern Houghton County, MI., Which includes the following information [slightly edited here by myself]:

"The Houghton central office had 4,000 lines – from number 1 up to number 4,000. If your phone number was, for example, Houghton 2855 - that was your line (jack) on the switchboard…2855.

On lines with up to four parties (common in those days), everyone on the line had the same number – followed by a party line letter of either J, M, R or W. The party line letter told the operator which ringing key to use and how many “rings” were needed. “J”= 1 ring; “R” = 2 rings. Ringing on the opposite side of the line used “M” = 1 ring; “W” = 2 rings. Therefore, if you see phone numbers like 185-J, 185-M, 185-R and 185-W, you know they are all on the same party line.

There were a few rural multi-party lines still in use in the Range towns back then. Like four party service, everyone on the line had the same number but with a different party line letter + ring numbers at the end. Here is how a Trimountain rural line looked in June of 1962:

[For example, for] Line number 2580:
Party 1 2580-J1 = 1 ring
Party 2 2580-J2 = 2 rings
Party 3 2580-J3 = 3 rings
Party 4 2580-J4 = 4 rings
Party 5 2580-R-1-1 = 1 long + 1 short rings
Party 6 2580-M1 = 1 ring
Party 7 2580-M2 = 2 rings
Party 8 2580-M3 = 3 rings
Party 9 2580-M4 = 4 rings
Party 10 2580-W-1-1 = 1 long + 1 short rings

NOTE: Multiple rings like “W11” are “W-1-1” & not “W-eleven”.""

The two wires connected to your phone were called Tip and Ring, originally referring to the part of the telephone operators' phone plug to which they were connected.

On multi-party lines, "ringing" was accomplished by sending ring current down either the "tip" or the "ring" wire (where codes J and R rang on on one side and M & W on the other, I forget which was which), thus not all parties on your phone line would hear the ring — only parties whose ringers were on the "same side" would hear the ring.

I see from the above RANGE TOWNS — 1962 TELEPHONE DIRECTORY link above that some of the smaller towns (those that were considered "long distance" calls from the Houghton central office) also had telephone numbers with a "ring code = "F", of the form:

Donken 1-F11
Lk Roland 3-F21
Toivola 1-F3
Twin Lakes 1-F21
Winona 1-F2

I don't know the meaning of the "F", maybe "Far, Far Away" as in Shrek2 the movie ?

It was a bit of a shock when I arrived on campus at Michigan Tech in Houghton in September 1958 to find that the local community still had a manual phone system, where the central office switchboard looked somewhat like this:

(Click thumbnail for larger image.)

… never mind my grandparents still had one of these:

on the wall on the farm near Bruce Crossing, served by the Ontonagon County Telephone Company.

---

During in my college daze at Mich Tech (circa 1958-1962), I earned some extra $ and spent considerable time as part time telephone operator on the main campus switchboard, which was located in Douglas Houghton Hall (DHH).

The MTU campus at the time had their own local (3-digit) dial system for faculty and staff phones, using vintage two-axis Strowger switches (in three variations: linefinders, selectors and connectors) located in a basement closet in DHH, yet had only a few manual phones for the dorm residents, in enclosed phone booths in each section of the dorm, and a buzzer in each room to alert residents to find a phone for incoming calls.

The main campus switchboard served as the link for incoming calls from the manual phone system then in use in the local area (Houghton/Hancock and elsewhere), and was located in the dorm not only as a means of providing service to the dorm for extended hours, but also for the convenient population of dorm residents to serve as part time/backup telephone operators.

---

Mother's Day in 1966 marked the final week of manual switchboard operation in the Copper Country. The automated dialing system officially took over the following Sunday.

The May 1966 Calumet cut over completed the effort to convert all of the Copper Country's telephones to dial service. The new Calumet exchange was a Western Electric Number 5 crossbar office - the state of the art at the time. But it was also unique in that Touch-Tone was brand new, and the new Calumet dial office was equipped to provide this service. As was the case in the Houghton-Hancock cut over of 1962, Michigan Bell sent technicians out to every home and business prior to the cut over to either install a dial on existing phones or to replace them altogether with brand new dial instruments. But in the case of Calumet, customers were also offered Touch-Tone service upon completion of the the dial cut over . As a result, there were many homes in the Calumet Exchange that went from having the old blank phones right to Touch-Tone....without ever having a rotary dial phone in the house.

Calumet was the first place in the Upper Peninsula to have Touch-Tone service.

 

[frnash]

Speaking of telephones...
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.

So where do you suppose were the first telephones in Michigan, and when? ... Detroit, perhaps?

---

No, try Yooper country! - Ontonagon County, to be exact, where Linus Stannard (for whom Stannard Township was named) installed the first telephones in the state of Michigan in his home and general store in Rockland in 1877. Can you say "cutting edge technology"?

By the winter of 1877-1878 the telephone lines had been extended to Ontonagon by way of Greenland, leading in short order to the formation in October, 1879 of the Ontonagon Telegraph Company, later the Ontonagon County Telephone Company.

For further detail, see …
(click →) The Spring 2005 issue of Dial-Log, the Telecommunications History Group's quarterly newsletter. Scroll down to find:

The First Telephones in Michigan
By Paul Rauth

The OCTC was so far ahead of its time that it took until August of 1907 for the lines from the rest of the world (via the Michigan State Telephone Company, later Ameritech, then SBC) to reach the neighborhood.

Does the ol' Yoop have a rich heritage, or what?

---

P.S.: Sadly, the OCTC web site at http://www.ontonagon-telephone.com has long since gone missing.