When I was a kid, I used to spend my summers on my uncle's farm in Iowa.
Both he and my other uncle had crank phones on their farms, where
turning a crank generated power from a magneto (yes, the same device
used to produce sparks on most small airplane engines) to ring
everyone's phone on the party line. Each farm had a ring code for their
phone, like two shorts and a long or a long and a short, so everyone
would know who the call was for. There were no secrets because anyone
could listen in on a call on the party line, and they knew who was
getting the call. IIRC, to call the operator, you just made one long
ring by cranking the magneto for several seconds.
Often, you'd get a call and hear clicks on the line as various people
picked up their earpiece to listen in. The phones were tall wooden boxes
with the magneto inside, a black microphone in front, and an arm on the
side that held the earpiece. When you picked up the earpiece, you could
listen in on anyone who was on the line.
My cousins went to a one room, eight grade school. On some days when the
weather was bad, they'd disconnect the magneto from the system, have one
kid hold on to one wire, then a chain of kids holding hands would go all
the way to the last kid, who held the other wire. They'd sing, "Old
MacDonald Had a Farm", and a kid would crank the magneto when they got
to "Ei, ei, oh", and all the kids in the line would be jumping up and
down, singing as they were shocked. Luckily, no one had a heart condition.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and we had dial phones that were on a party
line with at least one other phone on the circuit. Our phone didn't ring
when the other party was called, but occasionally we would pick up the
phone and hear them talking. Then, we couldn't call in or out. Someone
calling us would get a busy signal, even though it was someone else on
our party line that was talking.
On 8/6/2022 3:36 PM, David Maultsby wrote:
I don’t go quite that far back. I grew up on a party line where the
lady with hot gossip could tie the line up for days at a time before
we could get to use it.
Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
Windows
*From: *Flesner via KRnet <mailto:krnet@list.krnet.org>
*Sent: *Saturday, August 6, 2022 2:11 PM
*To: *krnet@list.krnet.org
*Cc: *Flesner <mailto:fles...@frontier.com>
*Subject: *KRnet> hat / shirt payment
I should have mentioned that a check by mail after I advise of the cost
to each individual is the preferred method of payment. I have no online
payment methods available. I'm old. I'm lucky to have e-mail. When I
grew up we were still using smoke signals. If it was windy out we may
not speak to the rest of the family for days at a time. 😁😁
Larry Flesner
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