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Tara, dear, the best way I can explain it is imagine that every house on your "party line" had the extension of your phone. The people could pick up the phone while you were talking to your friend and they could listen to your conversation (if they wanted to). If you were talking for a really long time and they had to use their phone, they would sometime ask you to please relinquish the line so they could make their call. Each "party" had a distinctive ring. Our ring was one long. When the phone rang two short, that was for the other party.
Most folks tried to be considerate and not hang on the phone for hours on end. Made it tough on me when I was a teen-ager but I got over it. LOL
Something I was just thinking of, do you all remember your old phone numbers, maybe from when you were a kid, or your friends or families numbers? I mean back when people just had landlines, in the dark ages. I remember some from way back when.
I remember every phone number I've had and a lot of friends' old numbers as well. That changed when I went to cell phones.. Put the number in the library so you don't have to dial it. Now I don't have anyone's number memorized... Last summer, my cell phone died and they weren't able to save my contacts. I was screwed!
I remember the summer before I started kindergarten. My mom wanted to make sure I knew how to use a telephone and remember our home phone number just in case. She gave me an unplugged rotary dial phone and made me practice dialing the number.
I don't have a landline anymore, but when I did I kept an older phone just because I prefered the actual bell ringer and I set it in the soft, low volume ring. I'm not that old, but I just prefer that sound over the digital warble ring.
Originally Posted by Tara0815
Whats a party line ????
Ohhh, to be so young as to not know what a "party line" is .......
I always thought it was"hey good looking, lets leave this place and go have a real party at your place or mine?" "we can call a few friends over and have some real fun".
Oh, it happens here! And I think it's because we have to dial the damn area code for LOCAL calls. I know that I make a lot more dialing mistakes from having to include an extra 3 digits. I get a fair amount of wrong numbers in our lan-line's answering machine, and a lot of hang-ups.
This brings back a memory, someone calling relentlessly to my home phone, a long time ago, asking for 'Suzanne'. I finally called back the number they left on my machine, and they were asking for Suzanne K______. Almost the same last name! But this person was 6 months behind on a payment for their 'Vette. I told him Ive only had that number for a month, never had a 'Vette neither do I even like them, this number was new to me. Their last name was spelled one letter differently! Never heard from that collector again either.
Mischievious me, I would have had some fun with this one! 6 months late on payments for a Corvette?
"Yes, this is Suzanne! But my friends call me Suzanna! I just got back from a 6 month trip to Europe, and what would you expect!!! I was having so much fun, I forgot to make my car payments! But right now, my credit card is maxed out so please be patient! I'll get caught up eventually!! So don't call me again for another 6 months!"
Party lines....Now that I know what it is.. I gotta ask didnt that mean ALOT of people could know your business if you had nosey neighbors?
Absolutely. If you had someone as we did like Ruth Winterbottom, you would always know that she would be listening in. Sometimes we would make up things to say just so that she would be shocked & then tell everyone things that turned out to be false.
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