A long time ago BT (British Telecommunications) was part of the Post Office Telephones. When having a 'phone line installed you had the choice of Private or Party Line. You paid more line rental for a private line as it was a line for your exclusive use. A Party line was a line shared by several people who were not necessarily related, so this would lead to problems with your neighbours or the other people linked up to the Party line.
After Privatisation of the Telephone Service the Party line subscriber was phased out and all became Private line Subscribers. By the early 1980's all Party Lines were withdrawn.
2006-09-14 08:46:32
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answer #1
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answered by tunisianboy46 5
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Up until the early 80's I had an aunt that did, who lived in a very small town. She had a party line with 6 or 6 other houses. It was fun to listen in. But we'd always get caught and get into trouble.
2006-09-14 15:42:54
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answer #2
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answered by Princess of the Realm 6
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I did not have a party line but some of my friends who lived in the country did. They were kind of annoying because the other party could listen in on your conversation.
You could listen in on their conversation as well, but it would often times cause hard feeling between neighbors.
Man we must be old.
Thank goodness they are no longer around.
2006-09-14 15:41:35
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answer #3
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answered by Jerry garcia 2
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the term party line use to refer to a phone line that more than one person shared;you would have to wait for them to get off the line to be able to use it.In case of an emergency you would tell the people talking it was a emergency and both parties were suppose to hang up so that the line would be open for your;if they didn't hang up they could get locked up if it was truly a life or death situation.thank God for private lines to day.
2006-09-14 15:48:56
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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Yes I remember what one is, and yes we had one but only for a short while cos my Mum and Dad got fed up of every time we wanted to use the phone we couldn't cos the third party was always on it, so we decided not to keep it and got our own line, thank god they got rid of them eh?
2006-09-14 15:42:00
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answer #5
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answered by hotbabes_tracey 4
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a party line is when a more than one person shares the same phone line its usually limited to 4.
2006-09-14 15:39:17
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answer #6
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answered by stocketrader24 3
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My grandfather had a party line, its when you pick up the phone and you can hear others conversations, you can join in too ! Its like your connected with another house. You share a phone line.
2006-09-14 15:40:11
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answer #7
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answered by kimmy3 3
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Yes, I used to work for a company that had party lines for straight and gay people. Night Encounters and Gay Live Network.
2006-09-14 16:14:51
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answer #8
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answered by Emjay 3
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Yep, I grew up on the PA/WVA border. We had a paryt line on the farm. I think it was in 85 before we got single lines run in the mountians.
Every one knew what every one was doing back then. Had the Grannys always listening in on every call. It was a trip.
2006-09-14 16:14:05
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answer #9
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answered by the_saint1963 4
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Yes. we had one too. You would pick up the phone to make a call and you could sometimes catch a good conversations going on. there sure would be trouble for some people if it was like that now.
2006-09-14 15:42:07
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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