LOL, we had some gathering at our house a while ago and it was a mix of Gen Y and Gen X and the concept of a “party line” came up. Some of us Gen Xers knew of it (I distinctly remember we had one with several neighbors - possibly 3 others?) and had to explain the concept. Basically, if you lived in a rural area and are old enough, you likely had no other choice. (Just searched, and it apparently was finally phased out by the late 90s.)
I experienced it as a young kid for several years and it still boggles my mind. We had a bored elderly neighbor who seemed to have the hobby of hogging the line a lot and picking up and listening when others were making calls. I remember many times where my mom had to tell her to hang up the line because she had to make an important call.
The fear of making a non-local call was an ever-present concern for sure. I remember my mom quizzing me over and over if a new girlfriend I had was a local call, since she lived about 20 minutes away and it was another prefix, but same area code.
Also, you had to basically rent your phone and the choices of that hardware were rather limited…but built like a tank. Ma Bell and the baby bells had a lot of control.
People have a tendency to sometimes “freeze” their experiences and I could see how someone might really not understand how long distance is not really a thing.
I often wonder how people might cope if something like electricity/power went through something similar - where the abundance of solar and/or wind power backed by batteries and other improvements drove the cost down to such a point that younger generations will wonder why anyone ever rode the thermostat or agonized over leaving on lights…
LOL, we had some gathering at our house a while ago and it was a mix of Gen Y and Gen X and the concept of a “party line” came up. Some of us Gen Xers knew of it (I distinctly remember we had one with several neighbors - possibly 3 others?) and had to explain the concept. Basically, if you lived in a rural area and are old enough, you likely had no other choice. (Just searched, and it apparently was finally phased out by the late 90s.)
I experienced it as a young kid for several years and it still boggles my mind. We had a bored elderly neighbor who seemed to have the hobby of hogging the line a lot and picking up and listening when others were making calls. I remember many times where my mom had to tell her to hang up the line because she had to make an important call.
The fear of making a non-local call was an ever-present concern for sure. I remember my mom quizzing me over and over if a new girlfriend I had was a local call, since she lived about 20 minutes away and it was another prefix, but same area code.
Also, you had to basically rent your phone and the choices of that hardware were rather limited…but built like a tank. Ma Bell and the baby bells had a lot of control.
People have a tendency to sometimes “freeze” their experiences and I could see how someone might really not understand how long distance is not really a thing.
I often wonder how people might cope if something like electricity/power went through something similar - where the abundance of solar and/or wind power backed by batteries and other improvements drove the cost down to such a point that younger generations will wonder why anyone ever rode the thermostat or agonized over leaving on lights…