The Fine Art of Family Magazine

Recently I picked up a vintage rotary phone. It’s actually the second “corded” telephone in my home, as I still have a landline in my kitchen. People make fun of it but when we lose power, my phone still works.

The red rotary phone has been installed on its own little table, old-fashioned style. To use it, you need to sit down to dial. It reminds me of the classic TV shows like I Love Lucy or a long time ago, when our grandparents were on the telephone. In those days, the phone often had a sacred spot in a hallway with two chairs beside it. Privacy was impossible then because you had to stay where the phone was to talk on it.

These days, technology has made all of our lives so rapid and immediate. We can multitask: talk on the phone with one person and simultaneously receive a text from someone else. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but sometimes it’s nice to change up the pace and really concentrate on the person you’re on the phone with. That, and the reception on the rotary phone is amazing!

Vintage objects like my phone, with its painstaking dial, ultimately remind me why life is in fact worth slowing down sometimes. You can tap into this same nostalgic feeling many ways: listening to vinyl on a record player, for example (Urban Outfitters is even selling them right now!) Shooting with a film, not digital, camera. Writing on an original working typewriter, or even picking up a fountain pen and ink to whip up a handwritten note telling a dear friend, “I had a great time seeing you the other day.”

When all is said and done, pieces like these in our homes can help us better savor the hours and seconds of our lives. Allow yourself a respite now and again and reap the rewards of feeling time take a pause.

Published on October 27, 2010

Tags: monica rich kosann, rotary phones, vintage phones, vintage shopping