Good chuckle

[Mercutio]

When I was growing up out in the middle of nowhere in Illinois I knew a couple farmhouses not far from my house that had a "party line", a single phone line for about 6 houses that might've been charitably called a town sometime around 1870.

And 20 years ago we kind of laughed at the kids who lived in those houses.

But today I found this.

And I have to say it's kind of shocking. Maybe even a little scary. Some people can't even comprehend not having Broadband. Others look at you funny if you say you don't have cable TV (or immediately assume that you have satellite TV) .

But 130 years after the invention of the telephone, no entire community of people in the USA should be without phone service. It just boggles the mind.

 

[i]

My family had a party line, shared with several other homes (I can't remember how many now), back in the early 1980s. And yes, we did live in the middle of nowhere.

The family of my best friend was one of the homes that shared with us. They had an especially nosy live-in grandmother who would often "accidentally" pick up the phone when the ring was obviously for some other family.

 

[sechs]

Early 80's? My family had a party line in the late 1980's, and they didn't live out in the middle of nowhere. They didn't get touch tone until the mid-90's. I think that they were forced off of a pulse-only line in 2000.

You guys should look into indoor plumbing. Plenty of Appalachians without that....

 

[mubs]

Having always lived in bustling L.A. / Orange counties in S. CA, I have to remind myself from time to time that not all of America is like that. In 1991 we took a train from L.A. to Chicago that went through New Mexico etc. that really opened my eyes.

 

[Howell]

Yeah, we had a party line with a relative in the mid-80s.

 

[sechs]

P.S: My parent's local phone company is Sprint. Pindrop my ass.