Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 20, 2014

So that’s where the NSA got the idea!

My grandparents had party lines. And black Bakelite dial-up phones. Better than gossip.

On the party line you could hear both people…

Had a party line growing up in Texas, shared with a family down the street. Eventually lost contact with them but 23 years later met one of the family in church at Bellows AAF in Hawaii and reconnected. Life is strange sometimes.

How about the NSA jingle.“Reach out, reach out and bug EVERYONE”

Sarah in Mayberry is always there. Day or night, seven days a week. I forget the name of Lily Tomlin’s telephone operator, but she was funny.

Nice point Mr. Mallett.

We had a party line when we first moved to Anaheim. We shared with an older couple down the street. My mother made it absolutely clear we were not allowed to listen in on their conversations. We would have done it anyway, but they were boring.

Isn’t the movie “Pillow Talk” with Doris Day & Rock Hudson based on an unfriendly couple sharing a party line?

ebsan: Is anyone old enough to remember Myrt on Fibber Magee and Molly?

My grandparents answered their phone on “three rings”.

The first phones were two tin cans connected by a string. The party line came later when another can was strung in.

I remember NPR decades ago reporting on the last operator-only phone system in America. The reporter called the long-distance operator and asked to be connected to some small town in the Midwest. When the operator asked for the number and was told “3”, there was a long pause before she (they were always she) said “That is not a complete number”. At that point a pre-arranged supervisor already on the line spoke up and told the operator to put the call through. You could almost here the operator shrug her shoulders. The reporter then had a nice conversation with a man in a pharmacy where the phone had been longer than anyone could remember. All gone now.

How did we ever survive with phones that were not only stuck to the wall, but had no camera, no texting ability (although they did have letters with the numbers), and could not access the internet?

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember Myrt and Digger O’Dell

We had a 4-party line from ’88 to ’93. This was not Siberia, this was just south of Denver. It was horrible when a neighbor would go away for the weekend AND LEAVE THE PHONE OFF THE HOOK! No cell phone then.

When the phone company finally got the private lines out here, we didn’t quibble at the 125.00 to hook it up.