Everything starts somewhere. We had all the neighbors stopping by after we got the first push-button phone in 1968. Everyone had to play the tones.
You were spoiled rotton. I think we had a rotary phone through most of the 70s. I can't remember when we got our color tv, but I was nearly in shock when I watched Star Trek in color for the first time.
The first color TV I ever saw was in 1959 or 1960. It was at my Dad's boss' house. NBC was the only network broadcasting anything in color, and I think it was only two shows a week. I saw a few minutes of "The Cisco Kid" in color. I was five or six.
That same man had a BIG reel-to-reel tape recorder in his den. He let us kids record our voices and he would play it back. I was in Wonderland! I think I sang the "Felix The Cat" theme.
The touch-tone phone thing was a fluke. My mother was having the phone company in to do some repairs. The phone man just happened to have one of the new phones (in RED!) on his truck. We just happened to live in one of the few areas that was touch-tone ready. I talked my mom into spending the extra seventy-five cent per month.
It was the first - only - and last time my mother was on the "cutting edge".
We got our first color TV in May of 1970. It was delivered in the middle of "The Guiding Light". I was in awe. The picture was so clear and colorful and beautiful. The new set was a beautiful piece of furniture too. Remember when console TV sets were furniture?