Ma Bell. It’s a term that most people under 40 don’t have a clue about. Most younger folks have probably never heard of the Bell System or anything related to the pre-AT&T era because they weren’t even alive in 1984 when the juggernaut Bell System broke up and evolved into AT&T and the Baby Bells. This 1983 Dodge B150 Ram Van is a former Bell System van, and it’s posted here on craigslist in Waiteville, West Virginia, and they’re asking… well, they just “accepting best offers.” Here is the original listing, and thanks to Mitchell G. for the tip!
Even I wasn’t around in 1877 when Hartford, Connecticut became the first city to have a telephone exchange related to the American Bell Telephone Company, which was formed a couple of years prior to that. Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone in 1874, and it was so revolutionary that the rate of speed at which things started ringing off the hook, so to speak, is amazing. People were still riding horses, and electricity had just been used for the first time in 1882, to give some context on how revolutionary this new invention was.
Originally used to provide long-distance communication, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) swallowed American Bell Telephone in 1899. I remember 1984 like it was yesterday; that was when AT&T, deemed a monopoly, was broken up into seven “Baby Bells.” All of this tells us nothing about this particular Dodge B150 Ram Van, though. All we know is that it’s painted in the iconic Bell System colors of what is now a very faded light green below white. A gentleman named Saul Bass created the iconic paint scheme with the blue and gold stripes that are sadly missing on this van. This van has a variation of this normal color scheme, as seen here, as the green is brought all the way up to the bottom of the windows rather than being held down a bit to allow for the gold and blue stripes. Here’s one showing a hint of the gold and blue stripes.
Let’s get inside this van, which sadly only includes photos of the front seating area; there are no photos of the rear cargo space at all. That’s pretty disappointing, not even a photo through one of the side windows. I drove Dodge vans for years after high school, and then through a seven-year stint of owning a commercial cleaning company. My first one was a former Sears delivery van in another unique green color. We had 14 employees and four Dodge vans, and they were great. This one appears nicer in the cab area than I thought it would inside, and to top off the cool factor, this one has a four-speed manual (three-speed overdrive) on the floor. My green Dodge van had a column shifter manual that we converted to a floor shifter, but a factory version would have been much better.
The engine is Dodge’s 225-cu.in. OHV slant-six, which had maybe 110 horsepower by this time. The seller says this one runs off of an auxiliary gas can, but the driveshaft was bent, so it isn’t drivable. Another driveshaft comes with the sale. This would be a show-stopper if restored to its original Bell System colors. Any thoughts on this van, or phones, or anything else?
Cool find Scotty. And yes, I’d love to see this restored as a Bell Tel truck. True story, my older brother worked as a mechanic for Bell Tel in the early 80’s and he worked on many of these. One guy was complaining that the trans was messed up. Whenever he shifted to 3rd it lugged when he shifted to Overdrive it was fine…. Long story short my brother took a look underneath and bent his brsin around it. ( He is a eay better mechanic than I ever could be). The shift linkage was messed up from the factory and was reversed. He fixed it and the guy appreciated it. I would Love to see this restored. Thanks Scotty!!! I enjoyed your write up and the trip down memory lane.
I recently had an appointment at the VA, which is staffed locally with a young, but very competent, Nurse Practitioner. During the visit, the conversation brought up “pay phones”. She looked at me and asked, “What’s a pay phone?” Did you ever have that feeling that, perhaps, you really are getting old?
The last pay phone in NYC was removed May 22, 2022. It now resides in a museum for a “pre-digital era” exhibit. Number please,,,
The Bell System ordered their vans with curb side windows and none on the driver’s side.
Here’s a really fun video made by a guy restoring one of these Bell vans.
https://share.google/OJ0Ur5yGIH4BzCpYi
That is a great video John thank you for posting that link.
Thanks, John! That’s the video the seller included in their craigslist ad. I was thinking of including that link, but I didn’t, thinking that folks might see it in the listing when (if?) they clicked on it to see the photos and description, as we always hope they do.
Thats strage, I did click on your Craigslist link and looked at it, I totally missed the video link on the bottom. I actually knew of several Dodge vans with the 4 speed overdrive. I always liked that they did that. Thanks again for the write up Scotty I enjoyed it.
Scotty, I never click through on links to the cars on Barnfinds. I assume that you guys have done a great job of representing the car and that no further reading is necessary.
Fun write-up Scotty.
In Milwaukee in the 70s and 80s, there was a used car dealer that “specialized” in former utility vans. He had no less than 20 at any time, Ford or Dodge, $500, take your pick. That dealer supplied 80% of the shaggin’ wagons in Milwaukee. Never cared for vans myself, I was always a pickumup guy. These were always bare bones and usually not a lot of miles, as most were relegated to city duty, and sat most of the time. Nice find, not many were saved, the van thing came and went pretty fast.
Summer of 1968. I was a young phone installer for Ma Bell. Drove a Dodge van. They were monochromatic dark olive green back then.
People restor police, fire and other service and professional vehicles. Restoring this would be cool and provide folks a link to our past culture. It’s sad that so many see no value in where we came from. As if all that matters is what exists today . Which of course will be replaced next week with next big thing. Ford and dodge offered the overdrive transmission in their vans while GM stuck with the 3-speed. We tested a G-van with 3 on the floor for a short time but the test seemed to be canceled when, due to the tall axle ratio, the truck didn’t provide proper engine braking on the 11% grade.
I took my driver license test in 1976 in a ’73 B100 Dodge Sportsman cab with the slant 6 and three in the tree. My parents were early adopters on passenger vans, they also had a 61 or so Ford Econoline before the Dodge. They had a lot of kids but not a lot of money. My brothers and I agree, and laugh to this day, that it was about the world’s worst vehicle for taking a girl on a date!
I had an ’81, slant 6, four on the floor, no options except long wheelbase, in 1995-6. It was light blue, no quarter windows. One night I was driving across Connecticut and got pulled over. The trooper said somebody had been burglarizing people with an old phone company van, but he decided I wasn’t that guy (I wasn’t). It was a hell of a rig. I bought it for $300 and sold it for $400.
Hi Andy, oh, that’s creepy, in fact, today, you’d have gotten hauled in, then asked questions. I read, almost 75% of wrongful convictions involve mistaken identity. I say the cops story was bunk and they just wanted to check you out.
Ma Bell was a nasty girl. Breaking her up was an amazing thing to do and brought us what we have now. (Should be broken up again, oh well) In 1983 the 225 was down to 90 HP, at least in cars. Maybe trucks were a little better. 83 was the last year in passenger cars. I think several more years in trucks, though.
The listing disappeared/expired, so we’ll never know what happened to this van, bummer.