Anyone remember rotary dial phones and party lines?

Question

A party line was when you actually shared a phone line with one or more phone customers. You might pick up the phone and hear someone else talking on the phone. You had to wait for them to finish before you could make a call.

Answer 1

Actually, we were on an 8 party line when my daughter was born and I had to ask about 6 ladies to get off so I could call the hospital. We lived 30 miles away and she was born 11 minutes after we got there! peace

Answer 2

. When I was 10, we moved out into "the country" (actually a half-mile out of the city limits) and initially got onto an eight-party line. Yep, eight. Thank goodness, everybody only heard rings for themselves and three others. Within a year, we got a four-party line on which nobody used the phone very much; it was a real improvement! But, you know, in the 40s and early 50s, a private line was a rarity. People just didn't see the need for it. In fact, before we moved, we didn't even have a phone. If somebody wanted to call us, they rang the next-door neighbor, who would run over and tell us we had a call. That's when neighbors were neighbors... And while we are in the realm of the unbelievable here, there were very few dial phones outside of the big cities in those Days of Yesteryear. The small town I lived in was, in fact, the very first in the US to get what we now consider a standard dial phone system - in 1955! . .

Answer 3

I used to LOVE the rotary phones, then we had a pulse dial phone when push dial came in because they used to charge you for that. I was never around a party line. By the time I started using phones they were only in really really rural areas.

Answer 4

Yes - I remember rotary dial phones ..... and .... party lines. Interesting thoughts. rotary dial phones were actually easier for "calling" any person, however, dialing using rotary phones did take time. As for party lines ..... for the younger people who may be reading this ........ how would you react if you picked up your phone and discovered other people talking on "your line"? ........... disconcerting, no? ....... and, if you realized you could "talk" and join in the conversation of the people who were "talking" when you picked up the phone????????

Answer 5

Oh yes. Both were kind of fun. Especially the party lines. I bought one of those candle phones that has the dial in the base. It makes me feel like a reporter from the 40's calling in a hot lead.

Answer 6

Lol, yes I remember rotary dial phones. My Grandma had one forever. As for the party lines, nope I don't remember those.

Answer 7

I remembered living in a town where we don't even have a rotary dial phone. Any call wew make has to go through a switchboard.
And I am only 47 years old!

Answer 8

oh yes. It was hard being one of three teenage girls in a household that was still on party lines back in the 70s.

Remember pay phones? It took a dime to make a call. I'm not sure but I think payphones may be obsolete.

Answer 9

I know what a rotary dial phone is, but what is a party line?!

Answer 10

I remember both.
I work for AT&T and can tell you about hoot and holler lines too. They are lines in which a person picks up the phone and it automatically dials several people on the other end.