With cellphones today, how many remember the party line? It was a number of people say 5 families on one line and each party had a special ring such as my parents ring was be 3 short rings and 1 long
Past telephone service
- Thread starter Baxter48_rivals204143
- Start date
I'm too young, but have heard my parents and their generation talk about it. Here's my closest equivalent - I grew up in a small (200ish) Nebraska town that has a volunteer fire department. In the 80s a select number of firemen had a button installed next to their home phones that would sound the fire siren signaling all the firemen to get their *** to the fire hall. On more than one occasion as a kid I answered the phone and got to press the button. Then the pagers came and ruined all of that excitement.
Today a lot of people might find the old 4-digit local phone numbers even stranger than the party line. You could call someone within your exchange using only four digits, but anything long distance was operator-assisted. Yes, it was a lot like Mayberry or Hooterville.
My Dad had a couple of these that he bought at auctions...... It was revealed to me at the age of about 10, that they were used to go fishing! Catfish did not like the electrical current sent through them when wires were placed on both sides of the log jam and one commenced on cranking the telephone connected to the wires. The Alex Road Rally fish fry, put on by the volunteer fire department, fed nearly 1000 people every year, thanks to some telephones (and lots of fish nets held by individuals that will remain nameless).
Btw it works on all fish. Anyway I heard Winking
My Dad had a couple of these that he bought at auctions...... It was revealed to me at the age of about 10, that they were used to go fishing! Catfish did not like the electrical current sent through them when wires were placed on both sides of the log jam and one commenced on cranking the telephone connected to the wires. The Alex Road Rally fish fry, put on by the volunteer fire department, fed nearly 1000 people every year, thanks to some telephones (and lots of fish nets held by individuals that will remain nameless).
In laws had one and my wife and they talk about it. They also talked about knowing when a snoopy neighbor listened in.
Yep. You could always here a click if someone would pick up and listen or when they hung up. The volume would get weaker as more got on the line and vice versa when getting off.
Everyone had their own unique ring. Our line was "black". Our number was 5-2-5. So our ring was a long- short short- long. But everyone on "black" would hear that same ring but only we were to pick up... but that probably rarely happened. They also had a "general ring" which the office would send out to everyone. This was meant for everyone to pick up AND was important information
Neighbor lady would talk with her mom everyday for at least an hour. Did I mention they talked every day? After a few persuasive hang ups they would quit. But there was usually one more story about nothing to conclude the call.