Do You Remember Party Lines?
By Susan
@HazySue (39265)
Gouverneur, New York
February 10, 2018 8:32am CST
When I was a young teen, many, many, did I say many years ago we had a party line. For those who weren't around then, a party line is when two households share a phone line. Who one house hold is on the phone the other one can't use it.
Anyway, I can remember the family that we shared a line with, especially the mother. It seemed that every time one of us tried to use the phone the mother was already on it.
In other words, she hogged the line.
For several months my mother tried to talk to her about it and you probably have already guessed, it did no good. Finally we ended up getting a private line.
If you remember the party line, were you paired up with a house hold with someone who was a "Chatty Cathy"?
Better yet, do you remember the party line?
9 people like this
8 responses
@toniganzon (77209)
• Philippines
11 Feb 18
I remember party lines and I think this party line system continued till in the 90s in our country. I remember making this statement:
"hello, partyline. I must make an important call. Could you please stop gossiping now?"
1 person likes this
@toniganzon (77209)
• Philippines
11 Feb 18
@HazySue We weren't allowed to get one without a party line and there was only one telephone company monopolising the whole country back then.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39265)
• Gouverneur, New York
12 Feb 18
@toniganzon I remember. It the minute we could we got a private line. It was much better.
1 person likes this
@Blondie2222 (28610)
• United States
11 Feb 18
Yup we had that also when I was a kid. It annoyed me at times as my sister was popular so she was always on the phone and I could hardly use it.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382240)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Feb 18
It wasn't unusual in our country area to have three or four households connected to the one line. Each phone had a separate ring so you'd know who needed to answer. Ours might be three short rings while the neighbours might be a short and a long.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (209014)
• United States
10 Feb 18
I sure do remember those. The thing I remember most was that it seemed like whenever you wanted to use the phone, somebody was on the line.
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (130150)
• Israel
19 Mar 18
I love the phones in the picture. I do remember those but I do not believe I ever had to worry about sharing with someone else.
