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Post by jemali on Jan 28, 2024 18:40:16 GMT
We had a party line when I was a kid in the 70’s. We never listened to the other party’s conversation though. We never knew who we shared a line with.
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artbabe
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,042
Jun 26, 2014 1:59:10 GMT
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Post by artbabe on Jan 28, 2024 18:53:00 GMT
We had a party line when I was young - early 70s.
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Post by katlady on Jan 28, 2024 19:04:12 GMT
In the 80’s, as a teenager, I remember being able to call certain phone numbers, and those numbers could accept all calls, and there were tons of teenagers on the line just chatting. Then one would suddenly be unavailable, and someone would provide a new number. The party lines mentioned here sound very different. I think those were phone chat lines. But I remember they weren’t free. You were charged per minute or so.
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Post by chedanemi on Jan 28, 2024 19:10:27 GMT
We had a party line until the late 70s/early 80s. We were the "uppity" neighbors who had not one, but TWO phones on the line! We lived on a dairy farm, and my mom was a substitute teacher. In order to not miss a call letting her know she was needed as a sub that day, we had a phone in the barn as well as the house. I remember if we needed to call from the house to the barn or vise versa, we had to dial 9+ the seven digit number, hang up to let it ring just one time (our chosen barn-to-house code) and wait until the other person picked it up to talk.
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scrappinwithoutpeas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,914
Location: Northern Virginia
Aug 7, 2014 22:09:44 GMT
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on Jan 28, 2024 19:14:10 GMT
We never had a party line when I was growing up, but my grandparents who lived on a farm had one. I remember being told as a child when we were visiting there that we could only answer if it was 2 short rings, otherwise it was someone else's line and we weren't supposed to touch it...but my grandparents phone was in a little vestibule/nook in a short hallway between two rooms of the house, and it had a little privacy curtain around it. Do you think we didn't play & hide in that nook and pick up the phone to listen in when we were kids!? Of course we did, until we got caught and were sent outside to play.
When I was a teenager, we only had one phone and it was just off the kitchen so everyone in the household knew if you were talking on the phone and listened to your side of the conversation, especially if my sister or I had a call from a boy (rare) or my brother got a call from a girl (even more rare). No party line needed LOL - your sibling(s) would tease you regardless! Later my parents got an extension in their bedroom, which we were only allowed to use by special permission.
Also, for those of you who got the prized princess phone, I'm still jealous!! (I never got one, pink or otherwise...still kinda mad about that LOL!)
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Mary Kay Lady
Pearl Clutcher
PeaNut 367,913 Refupea number 1,638
Posts: 3,074
Jun 27, 2014 4:11:36 GMT
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Post by Mary Kay Lady on Jan 28, 2024 19:39:08 GMT
I attended Illinois State University in the early 1980s and lived on campus. My first year there I lived in a residence hall that had party lines. Five rooms (10 people) shared a line. Each room had a unique phone number.
My second year there I moved to a different residence hall and was a resident assistant, so I had a private line and a single room.
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used2scrap
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,036
Jan 29, 2016 3:02:55 GMT
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Post by used2scrap on Jan 28, 2024 20:50:29 GMT
We had a party line in the 80s. Lived in a very small town so everyone knew everyone’s business anyways lol. Just after we finally had a normal landline, my grandparents gifted my sister a blue princess phone for her 13th birthday. My mom was FURIOUS, but somehow eventually a phone jack was added into my sister’s room. By the time I was a teen we had moved to a bigger town, and our temporary rental had two separate phone lines, which my mom loved so much when we moved into our house a second line was added. That was one way to not have two teen girls tying up your phone 24/7!
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twinsmomfla99
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,987
Jun 26, 2014 13:42:47 GMT
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Jan 28, 2024 20:56:57 GMT
My parents renovated an old 1860s farmhouse, and we moved out to the farm in 1970. We had a a 4-party line at first, but it eventually dropped to a 2-party line before we just had our own in the mid-1970s. I was in high school when we got the private line, but my siblings and I still didn’t really talk on the phone that much. Everybody was too busy between schoolwork and chores. We got on the bus at 6:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until close to 4:00. By the time you finished chores, had dinner, and got everything ready for school the next day, we had an hour or so to watch TV before bedtime. I knew kids who spent a lot of time on the phone, but I just couldn’t comprehend having time for so much “idle conversation” LOL.In high school, I was in a clique of 10 girls and all evening long after school we 10 would talk to other members of the group. You'd hear the same stories 5 or 6 times by the time you went to bed. I don't think I ever didn't have a phone line attached to my ear for 4 years. ❤️❤️❤️ I remember seeing situations like this on TV and in the movies, and it was all so foreign to me. I would also hear girls at school making plans to talk on the phone at night or over the weekend, and it all seemed so out of reach for me. Maybe that’s why I talk on the phone so much now LOL. I just had a 2-hour conversation with my mom this morning. It isn’t unusual for me to have hour-plus conversations with my daughters or siblings.
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garcia5050
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,729
Location: So. Calif.
Jun 25, 2014 23:22:29 GMT
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Post by garcia5050 on Jan 28, 2024 21:08:40 GMT
In the 80’s, as a teenager, I remember being able to call certain phone numbers, and those numbers could accept all calls, and there were tons of teenagers on the line just chatting. Then one would suddenly be unavailable, and someone would provide a new number. The party lines mentioned here sound very different. I think those were phone chat lines. But I remember they weren’t free. You were charged per minute or so. My mom would have kicked my ass if there was a charge. These were local numbers and the kids were usually in the same area. I think that’s what made it fun. We’d be talking to kids in the same city, but at the junior high across town. This post brings some good memories.
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Post by lisae on Jan 28, 2024 21:12:29 GMT
We had a party line with one neighbor when I was young. After my parents started their business, we had to get our own line.
DH's sister had a party line well into the 1990's. There were many people on it, it was often very difficult to get through.
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Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,969
Jun 25, 2014 23:13:23 GMT
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Post by Nanner on Jan 28, 2024 21:24:08 GMT
We had one when we lived in a remote northern village in the 60s.
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cakediva
Drama Llama
Making the world a sweeter place one cake at a time!
Posts: 7,444
Location: Fergus, Ontario
Jun 26, 2014 11:53:40 GMT
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Post by cakediva on Jan 28, 2024 21:40:08 GMT
When I was 7 we moved to a small country village about 30-40 minutes from the city. We had a party line back then. I can’t remember how old I was when we got our own lines - but I still remember our phone number!
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Post by librarylady on Jan 28, 2024 22:18:07 GMT
My family got their first phone when I was entering 4th grade. The man who came to install it asked if we knew a particular family. We didn't. He had installed their phone that morning. He told us we might want to know them as their daughters looked about our ages. We made a point to meet this new family in the 'hood. Daughter Jane was going into the 4th grade. She became my friend and we are still in touch with one another all these years (69) later. My family had been in that community for years. Jane's family was moving out of the city into the country.
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Post by boys5times on Jan 29, 2024 3:31:22 GMT
When we first moved to the small town we live in, in 1982, to call anyone local you only had to dial the last 4 numbers. No area code, no prefix, just the last 4 digits in the phone number.
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Post by librarylady on Jan 29, 2024 3:35:19 GMT
When we first moved to the small town we live in, in 1982, to call anyone local you only had to dial the last 4 numbers. No area code, no prefix, just the last 4 digits in the phone number. I had forgotten that. I also lived in a situation where we could call that way.
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Post by AussieMeg on Jan 29, 2024 3:37:12 GMT
I know what they are, but they were non-existent by the time I was born (or at least old enough to use the phone). My grand nephews were stunned to learn of rotary phones. I remember taking my now-19yo son into a department store when he was about 10yo, and they had a rotary dial phone for sale. He was trying to work out how to use the dial, it was the funniest thing to watch - he had no idea!
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Post by AussieMeg on Jan 29, 2024 3:46:20 GMT
Huh, I just did a search to see when party lines were stopped in Australia, and Wikipedia says this:
One of the last manual telephone exchanges with party lines in Australia was closed down in 1986 in the township of Collarenebri, where most town residents had a telephone number of only three digits. To make a call outside the exchange area it was necessary to call the exchange to place a call. For rural residents, many were on a single telephone line identified by a number and a property name, such as "Gundabluie 1". Each party on that single line was identified by a letter, and the ringing pattern for that party would consist of the corresponding letter in Morse code. This distinctive ring would alert all parties on the line who the call was for.
How weird! They were obviously stopped well before that in most places here, because I remember making phone calls to my BFF in the early to mid 70s, and we had our own line.
1986, co-incidentally, was the year I started work at the telephone company. All phone numbers were six or seven digits, plus the area code.
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Post by boys5times on Jan 29, 2024 3:58:07 GMT
A few friends & I went to an escape room a couple months ago; one of my friends 24 yr old daughter went with us and had no clue how to use the rotary phone! One of the clues we had to find was a phone number to call that started with 247. She ran to the phone & put her finger in the 0, drug it up to the 2 and let go. Then was doing the same thing from 0 to 4. Her mom yelled "what are you doing?!" and her daughter said "I don't know how to do it!" and her mom yelled "then get out of the way and let someone who does do it!". We're still laughing about that.
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Post by dewryce on Jan 29, 2024 6:08:22 GMT
I knew what they were, but don’t think I ever lived in a house with one. Both of my parents worked for Ma Bell/Bell/Southwestern Bell Bell/AT&T as project managers. So from my tweens we each had our own separate line in the house and cordless phones. Best thing ever for a girl way back then, especially with 2 teenage girls in the house! My mom started out moving the wires on a switchboard to place people’s phone calls.
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Post by karenk on Jan 29, 2024 12:39:02 GMT
In the 50s we were on a 3 party line! And one year the two other lines had daughters who were getting married…we didn’t get to make many calls. As a teenager we had a two party line, and I remember listening in on the the busybody on the other line.
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Post by picotjo on Jan 29, 2024 18:56:44 GMT
We had one when I was little and I also had one after I was married. I tried to call my parents once and nobody answered. That wasn't unusual until I had tried for 2 days and nobody answered any time I called even when I knew that it was time they were always home. I was getting scared and so knowing that it was a party line I let the phone ring 50 times thinking someone on the line would pick up and I could ask them to check my parents. Again no one answered. I finally did get ahold of them and the phone company had changed their ring and forgot to tell them! And yep they sat there wondering who was letting the phone ring so long!
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Anita
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,646
Location: Kansas City -ish
Jun 27, 2014 2:38:58 GMT
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Post by Anita on Jan 29, 2024 19:10:44 GMT
I grew up with them. My family didn't have private phone lines until the late 80s.
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Post by lbp on Jan 30, 2024 15:45:10 GMT
We had one in the 60's early 70's. We shared the line with 4 other people. We ususally didn't eavesdrop but one of our neighbors was a jabberjaw! She would talk for hours and you would have to wait for her to hang up to make a call or to get a call. Several occasions my mom had to butt into her conversation to tell her she was waiting on a call from the Dr. She would get all huffy about it but would hang up for a bit.
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Post by disneypal on Jan 30, 2024 15:54:37 GMT
My mom said we had a party line when I was young, but I never used the phone until I was a teen, so I guess I didn’t know
I do recall visiting my aunt and she would get so annoyed because she would pick up the phone and someone else would be on the party line and she said they tied it up all the time, she let me listen in and I thought it was so weird to be able to hear two strangers conversation on the phone as if they were actually on extension lines
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 30, 2024 16:57:35 GMT
I know what it was but never had one.. I am way too young for that.. HAHAHA I'm 55.
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 30, 2024 16:59:37 GMT
I was born in the late 70s, we had a party line with one other neighbour. I don't know when we got a private line, by 1990 I'd say. I remember it took mom still picking up the phone to hear if it was free. My DDs know what a rotary phone is. My grandma had one wired to her wall. She also had a cordless. WHOA... up to 1990 there were party lines?? I am seriously shocked.
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 30, 2024 17:04:55 GMT
In the 80’s, as a teenager, I remember being able to call certain phone numbers, and those numbers could accept all calls, and there were tons of teenagers on the line just chatting. Then one would suddenly be unavailable, and someone would provide a new number. The party lines mentioned here sound very different. When I was dating my DH it was long distance (early early 90s). My roommate had this 1-800 number to call then you would punch in the number you wanted to call and that bypassed your long distance charges. We would spend hours and hours on the phone to each other and was never charged anything. I have NO earthly idea where she found this hack. I was always afraid the police would be coming to get me.. hahaha
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Post by katlady on Jan 30, 2024 17:18:36 GMT
I was born in the late 70s, we had a party line with one other neighbour. I don't know when we got a private line, by 1990 I'd say. I remember it took mom still picking up the phone to hear if it was free. My DDs know what a rotary phone is. My grandma had one wired to her wall. She also had a cordless. WHOA... up to 1990 there were party lines?? I am seriously shocked. I had to look it up. In the US, most party lines were phased out by the 90’s. Apparently there are still some very rural areas that have them, but not too many left.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,134
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Jan 30, 2024 17:21:30 GMT
A party line: In the 1950s, unless you had a private line, several neighbors phones were on the same electrical line. We had a party line when I was a kid. Just one old guy was on it, but it seemed like he used his phone a lot. We didn't have a special ring. We must have gotten a private line by the early 80's when the phone was a major part of my life! Can you believe a boy had to call your house and might have to talk to your parents first! LORD! When a phone call came to the household, one homeowner had a ring tone that was very long (length of the sound). The next home might have 2 short rings, so that the homes knew who was receiving the call. My mom talked about the different rights when she was a girl. Those were the old crank phones back then. She said they had a 'community' ring that everyone was to pick up. She said when the Colorado Peaches would come in, the community ring would go out and let everyone know to go get some! LOL I have one of those old crank phones at my house, just for decoration. It has a magneto in that I have heard will shock you into another dimension if you ever touched it when it was energized. It's inside the cabinet of the phone though, it's not something you can accidentally touch.
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bronte10
Junior Member
Posts: 72
Jul 31, 2015 16:13:13 GMT
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Post by bronte10 on Jan 30, 2024 22:13:25 GMT
I was born in the late 70s, we had a party line with one other neighbour. I don't know when we got a private line, by 1990 I'd say. I remember it took mom still picking up the phone to hear if it was free. My DDs know what a rotary phone is. My grandma had one wired to her wall. She also had a cordless. WHOA... up to 1990 there were party lines?? I am seriously shocked. Teleco person here… there are still a few holdouts to this day 🤣
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