Are you old enough..

[Kay/NC]

...to remember the word name of your telephone exchange, which is still represented by the first two numbers of the seven that you dial locally? Ours back home was" Greenfield" as in "Greenfield 8-2280". Our original telephone book listed numbers this way...we didn't have any phone in our home until I was ten...can you imagine that,when children far younger than that have their own cell phones now? Had forgotten about these quant exchange names, until that book "At Home" reminded me this morning. Had forgotten that there was once only one telephone company...remember Ma Bell? Actually, phones were a lot cheaper and easier to deal with back then, so Imiss her.... This will date you a bit...IF you remember making phone calls by exchange names instead of numbers.

[turkey feather]

We still have party lines here in the early 60s, two shorts and a long. Then there could be several listening in on the conversations, especially at night.

[suey1973]

I grew up with a party line.  We even had party lines in the college dorm.   I think that 4 rooms shared a party line.    But, in each case only "your phone"  would ring.

I had never heard of learning your ring until I met my husband's family.   The phone would ring and no one would answer.   When we got married  I had to learn my "ring".   That was only  about 35 years ago.  Can't remember when we got private line.   Right now we are the only one with a land line in our area.   The other  4 houses rely on cell phones.  

[soilbabe]

Not only do I remember having a party line (our ring was three short) but when you dialed "O" you actually got a real live operator....I don't know where she was located but she seemed to know everyone in our area by name.

[Kay/NC]

Ten parties on our one line...all the numbers were the same, except the last digit. We could nay hear half of the rings. It was a total invasion of privacy when you used the phone, since some of the people on the line had nothing better to do than eavesdrop all day. I laughed at a lady yesterday whose daughter didn't know her Bluetooth was answering the phone for her while she wasn't wearing it...she could hear everything going on in their house. Some folks talk about being " butt dialed", too, when someone shoves their cell phone in a pocket or purse. Maybe we have less privacy than we think now, too!

[linda/IL]

Yup, I remember.  My mom still has an old oak telephone with a handle on it stored away.  I often get to listen to her working in the kitchen when she pushes the wrong button for disconnect (and it doesn't).  Our phone bill is really high and I'm considering at least dropping the long distance service &  using our cell phone for that.  Hate to completely drop the landline.  Many have switched to "phone jack" or internet phones but they have problems with the call dropping.  Wouldn't be tragic except when you've pushed button after button to get through to some company and then get dropped!!

Technology has exploded in our life time making you wonder what will come next.  I saw a TV ad for Chase banking today where the customer just logged into his account, took a picture of the front & back of his check on his cell phone, and it was deposited.  Looks like there could be fraud there but I'm so far out of the circle what would I know.

[Papa Wheelie]

when the phone numbers were only 6-digits? 

I remember there were other phone companies than Bell, Conestoga is one still in existence in eastern Pennsylvania.

Grandmother's sister was the telephone company in her little town. She would walk across the street to the switchboard from time to time when we visited.

[turkey feather]

In our area, the switchboard was located in the woman's home. They knew everyone and everything in our small community.

[Nebrfarmr]

A friend of mine was still on a party lone in the early 1990s here. We would be talking about getting together, and chasing girls or whatever, and the phone would go click click click, and the neighbor lady's voice would say she needed the phone. Learned real fast to just plan to meet somewhere, and then start talking about girls and such. As of right now, my neighbor who's mailbox is less than a half mile from mine, and we can see each other's yard light is a long distance call. A local dance hall has the original stage curtains yet, and they have ads on one that say things like Joes hardware store phone #35 or CoOp feed dial 36.