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Benedict Arnold

Did your household have a telephone party line when you were growing up?

I grew up during the 1950's. For economic reasons our family had a telephone line that was shared with other telephone subscribers.  My siblings and I would sometimes listen to the conversation of other telephone subscribers on the party line. It was in 1960 that my family was able to secure a private telephone line.

May be an image of text that says 'FOR Good TELEPHONE SERVICE especially Please be on all calls brief on Avoid needless calls Party V Space calls so other parties have a Lines- chance at the line Yield the line emergencies in SINGLE LINES or PARTY LINES.. Courtesy IS CATCHING'

Posted - September 30, 2021
Tags : None

Responses


  • 6023
    Not officially.
    However, we had a weird connection with our cousin's house about 10 blocks away.
    If we were talking with them, and then only one of us hung up ... and the other dialed or received another call ... the party who didn't hang up could hear both sides of the conversation, but neither of those parties could hear the listener.

    As far as we know, the phone company never figured out what was happening, but it stopped when they upgraded their equipment in the mid-90s ... over 20 years after it was discovered.
      September 30, 2021 8:45 AM MDT
    5

  • 19937
    No, we had only our line.
      September 30, 2021 9:21 AM MDT
    6

  • 318
    Yes, two longs and one short. Great thing for hearing the latest gossip.:)
      September 30, 2021 11:04 AM MDT
    6

  • 13395
    Yes our rural community had party lines, there were usually 8 phone customers to a party line. I still remember our number: 432-21. The 21 meant our household was to answer when we heard 2 long rings and a short ring.
      September 30, 2021 11:07 AM MDT
    6

  • 11109
    No my family was rich and possibly into organized crime so they had a private line. Cheers!
      September 30, 2021 11:27 AM MDT
    4

  • 1953
    No I wasn't even born yet in 1960, sounds like a lot of fun though.
      September 30, 2021 1:36 PM MDT
    5

  • Not much fun when somebody sharing the same telephone party line listens to your conversation and shares that information with others.  
      September 30, 2021 3:14 PM MDT
    3

  • 1953
    Well since you and your siblings were the ones doing the listening I hope you didn't share any scandalous information with other people. :)
      September 30, 2021 6:20 PM MDT
    3

  • My siblings and I did not share scandalous info with other people.  
      October 1, 2021 7:48 AM MDT
    3

  • 1953
    No one said you shared scandalous information over a party line, I said I hope you didn't and anyway who cares that was over 60 years ago. 
      October 1, 2021 12:01 PM MDT
    1

  • 5451
    This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a party line.  No, my family never had one.  I haven’t had landline service since 2012 either.
      September 30, 2021 2:20 PM MDT
    5

  • 1440
    still, since youre probably from the usa, ahead of its time .
      September 30, 2021 2:59 PM MDT
    2

  • Yes, I grew up in the United States
      September 30, 2021 3:12 PM MDT
    2

  • 17596
    We were poor but always had a private line.
      September 30, 2021 5:38 PM MDT
    4

  • 34282
    I had never heard of a party line until I was in married and in my early 20s. The phone company asked if we wanted a private or a party line.  After they explained....definately a private line. Cost us an extra fee. This was in the mid 1990s.   
      October 1, 2021 5:44 AM MDT
    4

  • 53509

     

      No.
      ~

      October 1, 2021 5:49 AM MDT
    4

  • 44617
    i don't remember.

      October 3, 2021 8:14 AM MDT
    1