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singalong37 t1_j3n8f0a wrote

I remember a video shown in school introducing the whole idea of numbers and area codes. Until then, letters and numbers, like JE4-0867 (Holyoke) or CE5-1235 (Wellesley) or LA7-1928 (Newton). Old enough to remember party lines too- your ring is two longs and a short, someone else’s was too shorts and a long, et c. Pick up to make a call, someone already talking, you hang up and wait. In Holyoke back in the day you could dial only the last 5 digits for local call.

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sightlab t1_j3nt9dz wrote

Even in the 90s my grandfather's town in North Carolina was mostly party lines and a small switchboard office downtown handled any out of town calls. Most people were used to just picking up the phone, tapping the hook twice until an operator came on, chatting with them for a little while and then eventually asking to be connected to whoever they were calling. The women (of course) who worked there routinely listened in on calls and grandad's (5th) wife would spend most of her mornings in the phone nook gossiping with the operators and neighbors on the same party line, expressing shock at the news in her formal lilting southern debutante voice.

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warlocc_ t1_j3oat28 wrote

Party lines as late as the 90's? That's kind of mind blowing.

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