A Telephone “Landline Pod” Is Becoming a Hit With Some South Portland Residents

If you remember the days of rotary and touch-tone telephones hooked up to a landline, you might want to move to South Portland, as some homes there are bringing these relics back.

Land Line Phones Make a Comeback With Kids

NBC Nightly News had a recent segment about parents in South Portland who have swapped out smartphones for old-fashioned rotary and touch dial phones like the one above.

Why? Her parents thought a better choice for a phone for a 10-year-old is one of these old-fashioned phones.

Remember the 70s and 80s?

Everything about the above commercial is me. That kid's Rawlings baseball glove is the same as mine was in Little League. We had two phones. One in the hallway and the second in my parents' bedroom. My mom would talk on the phone for hours with grandmotehr in Bethel using these phones. The biggest innovation in phones in our house was when we got a cordless phone with an antenna.

South Portland Landline Pod

A family in South Portland decided that when their daughter Molly asked for a smartphone for her 10th birthday, her parents felt there was a better way.

That's when they installed landline phones along with their other neighbors, letting kids make phone calls to their friends. It's a brilliant idea and it's starting to gather a bit of steam with what they call a landline pod. It's a little like their own telephone system that others can join and become a part of.

Surprisingly, the kids seem to love it, and their landline pod has grown to about two dozen people. Even if they were skeptical at first, thinking this was some sort of toy, they've embraced it.

Welcome to the 80s, kids. You're gonna love it.