It’s a testament to the anachronistic nature of my family that I — a hot, sexy male in my late 20’s — can operate a rotary phone with aplomb. A dusty, rotary wall phone with a hypnotic whirring click was present in my kitchen up until my late teens, when it suddenly and sadly gave up its ghost.

So I find it amusing that this Yahoo! News article about a widow who has rented a rotary phone for the past 42 years actually needed to dedicate a paragraph to explaining what one really is. But that doesn’t let AT&T off the hook for bilking an octagenarian.

According to the article, Ester Strogen, an 82 year old granny, rented two rotary phones from AT&T in the early 60’s. She has continued to pay AT&T a rental fee every month for the phones… currently at $29.10 a month.

How much has Ester’s rotary phones cost her over the last 42 years? According to her grandaughters… $14,000, or $7,000 a phone.

Ester has apparently been purchased a new phone, and canceled her bill. But she doesn’t like these new-fangled tone dial phones all these crazy kids go on and on about. “I’d like to have my rotary back,” she stated simply. “I like that better!”

Heck, they go for $15 on eBay. I’m tempted to send her one myself, for old time’s sakes.

Widow rented rotary phone for 42 years [Yahoo News] (Thanks, Amy!)

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