I stick my finger where?

One of those things that sets one generation apart from another - behold, the princess phone. When I was a girl, this was the must-have technology for every girl's room. It actually had a dial that lit up so you could find it and dial in the dark. Like, wow.

Oh, and that word "dial" is what it actually did. If the number was, let's say, 555-5512, you'd put your finger in the 5 hole and turn the dial clockwise till it hit the little silver do-dad. Pull you finger out and the dial turns back clicking once for each number. That was how the telephone switching equipment knew what number you were calling.

It was common on tv spy shows of those far off times to have the good guys figure out what number the bad guys were calling by counting the number of clicks...seriously. And there were a lot of spy shows in those days - Man from U.N.C.L.E. , I Spy, The Avengers, Department S, The Saint, Danger Man, The Prisoner (okay, that wasn't a spy show, just plain weird but in a fun, creepy way), Mission Impossible. No, the original ones...in real Black and White. Yes, that old.