Rotary versus push button

I, of course, grew up with a rotary phone. And into my early married years, we had a rotary phone. Push button phones came out in the late 60s, I think, but they cost money, and the standard phone issued by the phone company (they gave you a phone with service back then) was black and had a rotary dial. See the picture above.

Even now, as I dial a number, I visualize that rotary dial, and dial the number I'm visualising in my head, transfer it to push buttons, and there you have it, I'm connected to the person whose number I pushed. I can't say "dialed", even though every one does, because, let's face it, we're not dialing anything, we're pushing numbers to get a signal to send to a computer that recognizes that particular push signal as a letter/number and then when all the numbers/letters are pushed in you have a connection on the other end and the phone rings at the place where that particular phone sits. Is that clear?

I do prefer a dial phone myself, although I have to say, I can do one-hand pushing and with a rotary phone, no matter what, you had to hold down the phone with one hand, while you dialed with the other, the only exception being the ones that were attached to the wall.

We still have an old rotary phone, but we don't use it. We've opted out and are using only push-button phones. Is that a cop-out? I don't think so. Is it easier on the fingers? Yes.

But if I were forced to keep a rotary phone, I wouldn't complain.

And thinking about the visual redial thing, maybe it's easier to visualize a number in redial (not repush) because dialing a number is slower than pushing a number. You have to wait for the rotary part to swing back to "zero" so to speak before you can dial the next number.

What brings up this issue is, again, the missive from my niece, Heather, in which she reminded me that my father would NOT give up his rotary phone. No matter how crippled or bent his fingers became, he would NOT give up that phone. I know I spoke to him about it several times, but I guess it was one of those old things that still worked and it was a comfort to him. (We older folks get comfort out of the old things that are worthless or nearly worthless because they remind us of some happy time/event in our life.)

Some things that change aren't always for the better.