Pluggers by Rick McKee for October 14, 2011

“Oh, good morning, Earl. I’m afraid that line is still busy.”

Those were the days! I say this often when I read Pluggers!

of course, but only after you convince the the other folk on the party line to get off because it’s an emergency call to talk to Dad

That’s before my time. In the 1970’s you got dial tone then dialed your number. And calling your own number got a busy signal to others calling in. I recall getting a really sore finger from trying to be a certain number caller to a radio station, calling over and over.

13 on 4 is the first phone number I remember. Thirteenth party on the fourth trunk. Two longs and a short was our “ring”!

@Yukoneric

I remember those days too. Two longs and two shorts was our ring. We also had a crank on the phone we could use to call other people on our party line or we gave it one long continuous grind to get the operator’s attention…………Jeez, when I think about stuff like that it makes me think I’ve lived an awful long time……

And how about when it really was a dial, not just a bunch of buttons to push.

“Number please” went extinct while the “candlestick” phones were still in use.

And we had dial phones with five digit numbers (although the first was called a letter). Party lines still existed in rural areas at that technology level, but you could dial one directly.

…and everytime it rained, the phones all went dead for the rest of the day.

Do you know the best thing about “the good ol’ days?” - We were younger then. :)

I remember when you had to “rent” the basic black dial phone from the regional Ma Bell. Later, they added the color option for $1 a month more and still later, the “Touch Tone” push button option for yet another $1. You alsoo had to pay extra for each additional phone in the house, which of course had to also be “rented” from the regional Ma Bell.