Those were the days

Back when I was an apprentice I actually had quite an interesting job.

Some of the stuff that I got to work on was, how can I put this, very novel. We had a robot that was used for PR stuff to publicise the Gold Phones that were new at the time. I got to go out with this little radio controlled robot and terrorise lady shoppers at a shopping centre in Ipswich, near Brisbane. I even got to redesign some of the circuit boards inside, something most of the guys in my intake missed out on while the were busy installing phones or being exchange Mungos.

My favourite though, was the Beatle Phone. It wasn't really a Beatle, but a Volswagen Kombi, or at least the chassis and running gear. The body was all fibreglass and was in the shape of a telephone. It used to be used in parades, but once it was parked it could actually be used to make phone calls via the cordless phone inside it. This was in the days before mobile phones.

Rather than try to describe it, here's a picture of it.



That keypad on the front actually worked. Next to the number three is a speaker that doubled as a microphone. People could actually make a phone call on the Beatle Phone, although if they weren't used to using radio they had a bit of trouble as they had to press a button to talk, then remember to let go so they could hear the person on the other end.

It was used all over Queensland, but was based at the workshops in Brisbane where I worked. Whenever it came home, it was an apprentice's job to give it a bit of a polish and make sure the phone was working. Sometimes this meant tipping the water out of the speaker.

Anyway, all this cleaning and testing usually meant that it had to be taken for a quick drive as well. Great fun, even though the steering wheel had heaps of slack and the gear stick was between your legs.

Those were the days. Thanks to Dave for reminding me of them.