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A Long Time Ago

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JimH:
Hi Mark. I do remember.  You'd pick up the phone and hear a conversation.  My cousins on the farm heard two different rings.  One was theirs, the other their neighbors'.

antenna:

--- Quote from: KingSparta on December 31, 2024, 11:55:16 am ---
Does anyone remember A Party line?


--- End quote ---

I do.

When you pick up the phone to make a call, and there is someone already talking on the line.

Party lines were, imo, a result of the low usage of the phone combined with the cost of providing copper phone lines.

 

dtc:

--- Quote from: KingSparta on December 31, 2024, 11:55:16 am ---JimH maybe you can't remember but

Does anyone remember A Party line?

A party line is a telephone line shared by multiple subscribers.

This is how, back before the 70s, everyone knew your business.

--- End quote ---

Yes, I had a 4 party line in the 70's in rural Vermont. One of the party's keep leaving her phone off the hook and we had no service, sometimes for hours despite us yelling into the phone to get her attention.

Now, as a kid we had a central switchboard for the small town. I remember once calling home (our home number was 212) and operator immediately recognized my voice and told me my mother was at a neighbors and she would ring her there. Now that is small town.

JimH:

--- Quote from: dtc on January 10, 2025, 09:32:06 am ---Now, as a kid we had a central switchboard for the small town. I remember once calling home (our home number was 212) and operator immediately recognized my voice and told me my mother was at a neighbors and she would ring her there. Now that is small town.

--- End quote ---
I miss those days.  It was innocent in a way, but also very caring.

Nice story.  Thanks.

antenna:

> A long time ago, in a far off land, anyone could make a telephone call and someone else would answer it. 

Recently a neighbor's kid (high-school student) knocked on my front door.    He said his cell phone battery had died and that he could not call his parents to locate the spare key so he could get into his house.

I welcomed him in and gave him access to my land-line wireless phone.

I mentioned to him that he needs to dial the area-code on that phone.

His response was a surprise to me...

"What is an area-code?"

I did not expect that.

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