scooter

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telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

Feb 20, 2023, 11:16 AM

this weekend, and he didn't believe me, said no way that was true or even legal. But I know it was true.

When I was growing up, we "shared" a phone line with our 2 neighbors. So if they were on the phone, we couldn't make a call, or receive a call. And vice-versa. You could pick up your phone and hear a conversation if the neighbor was on the phone. They could hear you, so you could tell them to get off (or they you), if you had an emergency or whatever. Incoming calls, phone rang differently according to which house it was supposed to go to.

So obviously, we only used the phone when absolutely necessary, and then the conversation was short and to the point. I'm still that way, my phone conversations even today are usually short and curt, not much of a phone conversationalist.

This was the case at our house until probably 1980? or sometime close to that, my parents finally got their own private landline.

Anybody else have this in the past or have heard of this? Maybe this was just a symptom of living out in the country.

https://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/6/6/at&t-archives-party-lines

A 1946 etiquette film about how to use a party line, which was a phone line shared by more than one household, prevalent throughout much of the 20th century

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I discovered it one time I picked up the phone and listened in on a Brandoesque voice asking about some kind of parlay at a racetrack.

This was the first house my wife and I bought in Northern NJ. We bought it from a woman who was a first cousin of Frank Sinatra, and in the basement, there were probably 20-30 phone jacks on the wall, lol. We guessed that one of the prior owners was a bookie as well.

I had the phone service out there to fix that #### asap because it was likely they heard all of our convos as well. A few years later we found out that one of our neighbors actually was busted for illegal bookmaking, racketeering, etc. maybe one of his new neighbors turned him in, lol.

This was in the early 2000s.

telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

yep, it was a thing. Never had one, but a couple people

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

Absolutely. My best friend growing up had a party line, and

These still existed in RH when I first went to work with a

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

I thought party lines were those things they advertised on

I thought this was a party line?

Re: I thought this was a party line?

Go on....***

Re: I thought this was a party line?

Yep - had it - as a very little kid.***

Yep. My grandparents had that. Also their number was

I thought you were going to say BR549 . . . .***

I'm a city slicket from LA

It was a thing everywhere, though I think it lasted longer

This was the case for both my parents growing up.

My first house we had a party line for the local bookie

Yep

Oh, and they still exist

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

we had one. the number of rings was different

Re: telephone party lines - was talking to a college student

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