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From: "Mike Vaughn" <>
Subject: [APG] Party lines
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:04:14 -0600


Does anyone remember the days before telephone numbers or even before operators connected the calls -- when receiving a phone call was signaled by a series of rings -- longs and shorts, i.e., your number might be 2 longs and 1 short.

As strange as it may seem that practice was still employed in many rural areas even into the 1950's.

And they were the original party line -- everyone in the community was on the same line. When one phone rang they all rang, and it was common to hear other phones being picked up so that neighbors could listen in on conversations. Maybe the luxury of having a telephone at all outweighed the lack of any privacy -- and maybe it made no difference since everyone in the small communities know everyone else's business anyway.

Mike Vaughn

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