Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Party telephone lines,

real playerz have multiple lines:

Interesting, topic and great quesrion!

Everybody knew everybody's business.

Two longs and two shorts here

Yes. Most crowded was 9 parties about 1953 in St James, Tenn

Yes, I have a slight recollection of them. Don't remember any short/long ring on incoming calls but do remember one lady that tied up the line for several hours each day. My mom, a very patient woman, would be grinding her teeth at that.

Yes . We had to asked the 2 elderly ladies on each side of us if they minded if we used the phone . They were talking to each other constantly .

Yes do remember. Our number was 10f03 and it was one long and two short rings . Six people on the same line. Yes we had the proverbial gossipers and eavesdroppers. To make a long distance call, ( which might be four miles down the road ) you went through a real live operator. There was collect calls, which had to be placed through a operator, and when the receiving party answered, the operator would ask them if they would accept the call and charges.

If you want to confuse anybody of todays younger generation, tell them to go hang up the phone.

We were on a party line until about '86.

Then we moved out to the farm and would have to pay for a mile of installation. We had no phone for about ten years.

US .gov eventually initiated a program to hook up all the distant rural areas. The phone company then ran a line in to our house. Our teen aged kids were pretty happy. But the line was barely adequate to handle a dialup modem at at about 1200 bps. Five minutes to download a photo. Don't even think about a You Tube video.

But it let me get on "Shooter's Talk" and eventually the 'Fire.

We abandoned that line when we got cell phones and a "Hot Spot". Maybe ten years later.

We had one for a short time when I was a kid. I was really too young to be using a phone but can remember mom and dad talking about it.

Yes, during the 60's-70's, one long two short.
Collect calls from an urban area were adventurous..."mark down, ring other" somehow helped the city operator.

Can still remember phone number and address. Preschool age, WW II era.

The insulators are a collectors item

You still have a party line. It's just not your neighbors.

I’m wAiTinG fOr thE puNcHliNE

I'm not that old, 53, and remember it at our house as a kid. I believe there was 3 total on our line..........do not remember what our particular ring pattern was.

In rural areas where there weren't enough cable pairs we often had to group people up on to 8 party lines. Over time it went down to 2. To know who made the toll calls there was a 1000 ohm ident on the tip side of the line.

Of course. I was on a party line until 1996…..

Didn’t have dial up modem until 2002, either.

Up until recently the internet cable was laid in the bar ditch on top of the ground. Whenever the neighbors cows got and grazed in the ditch they usually stepped on the cable and pinched it. I got tired of calling the cable company and went and bought the tools to splice it. Usually I was successful…..

Last one was in 76 through 82. 4 party line. Neighbor had three kids. They would leave the phone off the hook so they could hang up and call anytime. Left the other three parties no way to cal out.