A good friend of mine, Dennis Markham, restores vintage Western Electric rotary dial telephones. He painstakingly disassembles them and cleans and polishes each and every component. Including the screws. He does a phenomenal job. Until you see one, you won’t believe how great they look.

Anyway, a couple years ago I fooled around with restoring the same phones. Nothing serious, but I restored a few and then lost interest. For some reason, two days ago, I suggested to Dennis that I was iinterested in a red phone that was manufactured during the month of my birth, which is November of 1955, and that I was searching eBay trying to find one.

Guess who showed up at my house today? Yup. He had a perfectly restored red Western Electric phone that was manufactured on November 11th and November 14th of 1955 - the day before and two days after the day of my birth. It’s a miracle, isn’t it, that a fifty-one year old telephone is still in service, and looks as good as the day it was made.

Thanks, Dennis, for another great restoration and a great gift! Anyone interested in one of these delightful gifts should visit www.VintageRotaryPhones.com.

December 29th, 2006 | One Photo a Day