Party Line

[life24]

Hello,
Would you mind please explain the yellow line?
Thanks

 

[RLGL]

Several residences would share a phone line, all had the same number and could listen in on another's conversation. The cost per line would increase depending how few parties were on it. In those days a private line was spendy.
Where I grew up we did not have the option of a private line until the early 60's.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I had a party line as a kid, you would share a line with several neighbors, you had a distinct ring when a call came in for you, but if you wanted to pick up the phone and listen to bob next doors call, there was nothing stopping you.

There was also nothing stopping them from being on a call all day and keeping the line busy, you all shared the line.

 

[slag]

Several residences would share a phone line, all had the same number and could listen in on another's conversation. The cost per line would increase depending how few parties were on it. In those days a private line was spendy.
Where I grew up we did not have the option of a private line until the early 60's.

We were on on a party line growing up but our neighbors on that line Had their own phone number. There was a distinctive ring though but separate numbers. You could listen in on their conversations as well.

 

[MtnMan]

Several residences would share a phone line, all had the same number and could listen in on another's conversation. The cost per line would increase depending how few parties were on it. In those days a private line was spendy.
Where I grew up we did not have the option of a private line until the early 60's.

No, they had different numbers, but all on the same pair.

There was a different ring sequence for each number and you only answered when it was your 'ring pattern'. But yes you could listen in, and you had to wait your turn if you wanted to make a call.

We had a "private line" because my dad also ran a business but all my friends homes were on party lines.

 

[RLGL]

No, they had different numbers, but all on the same pair.
.

not in my area!

 

[Red Squirrel]

The way POTS works is that each house gets it's own pair from the CO going to the line equipment in the phone switch. (probably a cross bar tandem or similar in those days, now days it's mostly DMS) But with party lines, one pair would feed a few houses, as it requires to run less wire.

Though I think in some cases they actually had their own pairs going to the CO but they were connected to the same line equipment.

 

[boomerang]

We also had a party line when I was young but not for very long.

When I first moved out into the area I live now, the small local phone company would have an operator break in when you dialed a long distance number to ask what phone number you were calling from for billing purposes. Evidently a lot of people would give them any phone number but their own. You'd get your bill and there would be a slew of charges for long distance calls that you hadn't made. You'd just call the phone company and they would cheerfully remove the ones you disputed. Basically the long distance portion was run on the honor system.

About 18 months after I moved here this bigger phone company called Verizon bought out the local phone company and the process became automated.

 

[mpo]

I lived in a rural area that had a party line until the mid- to late 80's. It was annoying when you were a teenager, no such thing as private call to your gf or bf.

We moved to town. The area only had two exchanges, 354-xxxx and 356-xxxx. You only had to dial the last five digits to complete a local call. We had a 354 number, so you would just dial 4-1234 to call us; 6-1234 was a local bank. Before the phone company required us to dial all seven digits, I think 10% of the calls were expecting to reach the bank. The move to dialing all seven digits was in the early 90's.