Back when telephones were first used, what did people say when they answered the phone?
by 
koldkanuck
ANSWERS: 8
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"Can you hear me now"
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when they were first used???? "holy (*&#(*&#"
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What the.........HELL.......do YOU want! Geez Marge....I've got to answer this G-dam thing all the time now...........who's gonna pick the cotton?
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"..You sound like you're right in the next room!" Today you can be with your s/o on your bluetooths in the same bed talkin' pillow talk and still say.."you sound like you're right here."
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You sound funny Henry and who is that listenin' on this thing. Party line, whatya mean partyline..You at a party?
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Henry, is that you, ya sound funny...Who's listenin'? Party line, what's that? Are you at a party Henry, you better get your butt home now Henry, get off this thing and get home.
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I think the word "hello" had already been invented back then so they probably used that as part of their answer. ;)
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The word hello, as used today, didn't really exist back in the 19th century. Halloo was used to hail someone from a distance -- as in "Halloo! You up there on the roof!" -- or to incite hounds to chase, but it was not used as a greeting. Thanks to the discovery of a letter buried for more than a hundred years in AT&T's archives, we now believe that the word originated with Thomas Edison and the telephone he invented. Edison suggested using "Are you there?" or "Are you ready to talk?" to start a conversation on his phones. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, was insisting on "Ahoy!" as the preferred greeting. In a letter to a colleague, Edison wrote, "I don't think we shall need a call bell, as hello can be heard 10 to 20 feet away." From then on, hello became the recommended greeting in telephone operating manuals. www.almanac.com
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