I’m thinking it was 1948 or 1949 when we got our first phone, a crank-operated eight-party party line. Our number was 6613, so our ring was one long and three shorts. To reach someone on the party line we simply had to crank the appropriate combination of longs and shorts. To make a call outside the party line you cranked one long to get “Central”. When Central came on the line, you told her the number you wanted, or in some cases, just gave her a name. It later changed, but initially everyone on a party line could hear the rings whenever anyone else on the party got a call. It was very annoying to hear three or four receivers pick up when you answered your ring. One old man on our party had early stage COPD; he listened in on every call, because you could hear him wheezing. Most folks finally got to the point of saying, “Hang up the phone, Mr. Tom; this ain’t none of your business.”
I think it was the mid-50s before we got dial private lines.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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