On wall-mounted phones and the internet

The passing of time naturally stands in the token of change. Nothing is as certain and unchangeable as change itself. When certain items, tools, commodities etc. eventually prove themselves less effective, change and improvement necessarily follow. All the technological aids and means to ease our daily duties are the direct result of dissatisfaction with outdated methods.

In the sixties the use of wall-mounted telephones was still widespread in rural areas and especially on outlying farms. To make a call, the receiver was lifted off its hook after the handle was cranked to indicate that you intended to make a call. It was customary to ask “busy?” to ensure no-one else was on the line. The receiver was put back on its hook, the handle cranked again to make the call: for instance two longer cranks and one shorter to dial the number 21.

In urban areas the hugely improved rotary telephones had already been in use for quite some time. These had a dial face similar to a watch with printed numbers 1 to 0 and corresponding openings for your index finger to rotate the dial when making a call.

Although the first cell phone was invented in 1973, they did not become popular until about the turn of the century. That also meant that no child had a telephone available to phone parents in “emergencies”, an occurrence that has received much “legitimacy” lately. Strangely enough, there never was any emergency that could not be dealt with via the school secretary’s telephone.

Take note: No weapons of any kind were ever found in any child’s possession, no knives, no knuckle dusters, and no firearms.

Corporal punishment (for boys) was enshrined in the education ordinance and was neither regarded as criminal behaviour, nor as barbaric. On the contrary: the view was held that to spare the rod was to spoil the child. Strict rules governed this policy and caning was only allowed in cases of gross and deliberate negligence, thievery, blatant lying, dishonesty in examinations, etc.

Fifty years ago teachers still had to manually note down their pupils’ marks on awkward big spreadsheets. Errors were inexcusable. Totals of every class had to tally horizontally and vertically. It was a gigantic and exhausting task that demanded constant focus, as pocket calculators only became generally available during the mid-seventies.



To imagine a life without internet is now simply impossible, yet it was non-existent and pupils could not research a topic online. The next best solution was the municipal or school library, or teachers had to scrounge through old magazines to collect clippings and build a private pictorial collection for their classrooms.

Were they really the good old days? No. There were also serious shortfalls. We still do not inhabit Utopia!


Nickey van Zyl