Reply #20: And at home you had party lines

[jmowreader]

For you young'uns who have never heard of a party line, in the really old days telephone dial central office switchgear was really expensive...and they passed the expense on to you. If you wanted to save money on your phone bill, you could request a "two party line" (two families sharing the same phone number) or a "four party line" (four families sharing the same phone number). When the phone rang, all four houses would pick up the phone, and the caller would say who he or she wished to speak to. Etiquette demanded you hung up if you weren't the person who got called, but a lot of people didn't, which is how lots of juicy gossip started.

For extra entertainment: If you were on a party line and wanted to call your neighbor, you picked up the phone, dialed your own phone number and immediately hung up. The switchgear took a few seconds to complete setup, and then all the phones on your party line would ring. You'd pick up, your neighbor would pick up (you could pick up into a phone call at any time) and you started talking.