Which meant... Poplar Camp exchange, line 3, Ring 1 long and 2 shorts.
Us kids weren't allowed to touch the phone. It was not a toy. One of my most vivid memories involving the old hand crank wall phone was waking up in the middle of the night with that thing ringing furiously, one great long ring. Mom jumped up and after it quit ringing, lifted the receiver and listened for a few moments. When she hung it up, she quietly said that one of the barns in the neighborhood was on fire. Dad was working in St. Louis during the week, and my oldest brothers were in the army, and the two of us kids that were still home were too young to go help. A horrible feeling. I probably never wished more strongly that I was older. That old party line phone was a very good neighborhood alarm.
One of my older brothers helped maintain the Poplar Camp phone exchange before he went into the army. It was an interesting system. One bare single conductor line running through the woods from tree to tree, mounted on glass insulators. A ground rod at each home. You could touch the wire in a lot of places, but you'd regret touching it if someone happened to be cranking a call. Each phone had two round dry cell batteries for talk power. The crank made the ring. In a thunderstorm, you automatically moved to the other side of the room, away from the phone. Lightning would flash outside, and the phone would faintly jingle. It was all the warning one would need. . .
I remember selling that old phone to someone for $5. I'd give $500 for it back. It'll never happen, 'cause they destroyed it to make a fishing worm shocker. It was beautiful - made of oak, and fitted like a fine piece of furniture. I no longer have the phone, but I've still got the memories!
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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