In the olden days.....you would "ring up" the central operator to connect you with whoever you wanted to speak to. There could be up to 5 families on the party line and each one had it's own distinct ring. 3 shorts, 3 longs, 2 shorts & 1 long....and so on. You had to know what ring was yours so that you could answer your own call. (my mom was a central operator). Then they moderized, gave everyone phone numbers and there were private lines (like we have now) and 2 party lines like we had at home. We were on the line with our neighbors and if you picked up the phone you had to make sure that there was a dial tone before you started to dial. If you heard someone talking that meant that the neighbors were on a call and you checked back later to use the line. Then Bell Telephone upgraded enough to let everyone have private lines. |