This week’s New Yorker says that the last place in the country with party lines are in the area of Dimondale, Michigan (just south of Lansing).
Those who aren’t at least 40-something probably don’t remember them – they are shared phone lines which had different rings for each house on the line. One house might be one quick ring; another one long ring; a third two quick rings.
The prime disadvantage was that your neighbors on the party line could all listen in on conversations and the temptation was universal. There were other problems too, including whose need was greatest:
“My wife’s about to call from work.”
“But my daughter’s scheduled to call long distance from California.”
They were prevalent through the 1960s in rural areas. I had one last in Lafayette, IN briefly in 1969.
Are there any left in rural areas of the U.K., New Zealand, Australia or elsewhere? But what we really want to hear are your party line stories. . .
We lost the last of our party lines in 1996, at the same time that the local phone company upgraded to using a digital switch to route calls rather than using a live switch-board operator. I know that doesn’t answer the question of if there are any still in existance, but it does go to show that some areas did have party lines well past the 60’s. Admittedly, this goes to show how outdated some of the rural areas of Georgia can be.
Dimondale is served by a Nortel DMS-100 remote switch out of Lansing. The DMS-100 is a class 5 switch. I didn’t think class 5 switches supported party lines. I guess I was wrong.
My Grandmother, 2 Aunts & 2 Uncles are all on a party line (they all live on the same road) in the Finger Lakes area of NYS.
Calling each other is a huge pain, involving some convoluted dialling. Yes, all rotary phones or push-button, not touch-tone; the line doesn’t support touch-tone.
I never listened in on phone calls when visiting, and while I’m sure they did listen in on each other occasionally, they never shared any good gossip with me.
My guess is that they’re on the edge of the area and somehow not served by the digital switches. I can’t imagine the analog-digital interfaces to make this work.
Of course the people on the party lines lose any capability to use modems but they have to be “late adopters” of telephone technology who don’t care.
I don’t remember any particular bothers to party lines, outside of them potentially being busy or others listening in on conversations. My parents would occasionally worry about a long-distance call being blocked because they’d arranged for a 2 pm call from a distant relative.
My aunt & uncle had a phone with the distinctive ring pattern and it always set a city boy on edge that they’d listen to the phone, then say, “It’s not for us.”
My bitchy grandma had a party line. We were visiting them in Tucson when I was 11 or so. The phone rang and I picked it up (not her ring) and I caught ten shades of shit for it. ExCCCCUUUUUUSSSSSSEEEEE ME!
I can’t imagine those interfaces either, but then again I do not have very much experience with digital switches. The interface has to exist somewhere to tie them into the network. Do we have any phone company people that could explain this for us?
The last in Australia was replaced by an automated exchange in 1986-87. I never used it, but I was working in the pub in the next town, and on Saturday the hillbillies from the party line village would come in, and while the adults were drinking, the kids would play with the “modern” public telephone out the back.
My mother’s house had a party line when I was a kid, back in the late 70s. The line was shared by an older lady who did nothing…but…talk…talk…talk. I didn’t get to make many phone calls. I don’t remember there being a distinctive ring pattern though.
Seeing how my Dad was a network software engineer for a telecommunications equipment maker I just asked him.
The majority of household telephones are analog. The analog to digital conversion does not take place at the phone, it takes place at the switch [if there is a relay between the phone and the switch (like a SLC) it takes place there]. Setting up a party line on a digital switch is simply a matter of configuring the proper software.
Some phone companies do offer digital phone service. In instances like that there is usually a box at the network interface that does the A to D conversion, or the phone itself is digital and does the conversion before sending the signal to the switch. It is possible to set-up a party line in this instance but you will be hard pressed to find a phone company that would do so.
Admittedly, this goes to show how outdated some of the rural areas of Georgia can be.