Party lines were especially popular in rural areas; Dozens of farmhouses would share a single party line, so farmers could just pick up the phone and chat with whoever happened to be on the phone already. It was a huge source of socialization for people who otherwise would have been almost entirely isolated. Farmhouses often have literal miles in between each house, so socialization was difficult simply due to the distance. Party lines were basically pre-internet Discord servers, and you just shared the server with all of your neighbors.
Many farm houses had two phone lines coming into the house; One private line for personal calls, and a party line for the neighbors.
My mom always talked about the party lines growing up in Florida in the 60s, and how she could never get a call out because “Barbara Snyder talked too much and always tied up the lines” lol. Apparently it was common for one party line per block or something like that. Iirc it wasn’t too common to have a private line until much later, as the phone company had to run dedicated lines back to the central office and it didn’t always happen until much later.
WTF, my mom also mentioned this mythical Barbara in Florida around that time when she talked about part lines. I know it was a fairly common name, but man, Barbara sucks.
Don’t forget about party lines, where you could pick up the phone on your neighbors.
Party lines were especially popular in rural areas; Dozens of farmhouses would share a single party line, so farmers could just pick up the phone and chat with whoever happened to be on the phone already. It was a huge source of socialization for people who otherwise would have been almost entirely isolated. Farmhouses often have literal miles in between each house, so socialization was difficult simply due to the distance. Party lines were basically pre-internet Discord servers, and you just shared the server with all of your neighbors.
Many farm houses had two phone lines coming into the house; One private line for personal calls, and a party line for the neighbors.
My mom always talked about the party lines growing up in Florida in the 60s, and how she could never get a call out because “Barbara Snyder talked too much and always tied up the lines” lol. Apparently it was common for one party line per block or something like that. Iirc it wasn’t too common to have a private line until much later, as the phone company had to run dedicated lines back to the central office and it didn’t always happen until much later.
WTF, my mom also mentioned this mythical Barbara in Florida around that time when she talked about part lines. I know it was a fairly common name, but man, Barbara sucks.
Yeah, apparently Barb was a real chatty cathy