Centrex

You may think of the ROLM Phone as some sort of pre-historic telecommunication contraption, but you'd be mistaken. That title goes to Centrex, a phone so advanced that it features "light-up pushbuttons to switch among lines".

Lamentation for Centrex

On Fall Orgo Night, 1988, shortly after it was replaced by ROLM, CUMB sung this lamentation for the Centrex:

A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that CENTREX used to make me smile,

And I knew if I had my way,

I'd still have my answering machine today,

And then I could be happy when I dialed

But the ROLM lady made me shiver

With every message I'd deliver

Bad news came this fall

I couldn't get one more call

I can't remember if I cried

When I read that damn contraption's guide

But something touched me deep inside

The day the CENTREX died

(CHORUS)

And we were singing . . .

Bye, bye my old CENTREX phone line

Why the hell do we have ROLM when that old system was fine

For that amount of money at Lutece we could dine

Of the Apocolypse this must be a sign

Of the Apocolypse this must be a sign