luv my dayton
362 posts
Aug 24, 2013
5:07 AM
|
Not too sure when the party line met its demise but do remember us still having it in the late 50's. Think there were 3-4 on our party line and am sure with three girls in our family we must have driven the others crazy as I could be on the phone forever myself. You were placed on a waiting list to get your own private line and when we got ours it was sheer delight as now no one could listen in on our calls. Another thing we used back then were exchanges depending on area of city you lived and a couple I can remember are WA,and BA. I know there were more but those are the only ones I can remember as we had both. It was in the late 50's early 60's when we went to all numeric. The oldest of us on here would still remember these times but am sure the younger would have no recollection of any of this.
|
cilla46
177 posts
Aug 24, 2013
6:11 AM
|
I remember our party line ring,two long and a short.We had the same digits and several different exchanges over several years at the same address in east Dayton.We were Lincoln 1090,Clearwater 1090,Clearwater 4-1090 and I believe 254-1090.
|
rdebross
77 posts
Aug 24, 2013
3:04 PM
|
From what I remember there were several types of party lines. If it were a four party line, you could listen in on the conversation and I think that you had to listen for the ring sequence to pick out a call to your particular home. We had a two party line in the early fifties and if the other party was using the line, you would only hear a busy signal when you lifted the receiver - no listening in. Likewise on the two party line you only heard the ring for the calls to your own phone, not the other party line member's rings. Private lines became easier to obtain in the second half of the fifties. My mother obtained the number 4190 at her childhood home on Clay Street after WWI from the Home Phone Company. Automatic dialing, probably sometime in the late 20's or early 30's, brought on neighborhood exchanges. My mother's early exchange was OLive4190. This number transferred as my home phone number on Xenia Ave. in 1950. Also after WWI, AT&T consolidated many of the independent city phone companies into the Bell System monopoly. All phones in Dayton became part of Ohio Bell Telephone Co. AT&T initiated the area code system along with new neighborhood exchange names and a fifth digit in the very late fifties or very early sixties. My new number was CLearwater 6- 4190. AT&T moved to get rid of the exchange names in the 1970's because the use of letters was too limiting for growing demand for new phone numbers. The all digit format provided more number combinations.
|
rdebross
78 posts
Aug 24, 2013
3:09 PM
|
Speaking of party lines, it seems to me that it was a little tricky trying to call someone who was a member of your party line. Perhaps someone else remembers the formula.
|
supersix
141 posts
Aug 24, 2013
6:29 PM
|
It seems to me that the phone company would give you a four digit number to use in calling a particular person on your party line. I believe it would also give a different than normal ring sequence.
|
JJCofMAINE
33 posts
Aug 29, 2013
1:32 PM
|
Luv: Was WA = WAlnut, and BA = BAldwin? Sounds familiar to me.
My wife and I were married in 1965 and lived in Kettering. I'm certain that we had a private line by then, but had an interesting episode with our phone, one late evening, that almost made me feel I was on a party line.
I had to make a phone call, somewhere around 11:30PM, and had the radio on, near the phone. As I started to dial the number, I heard voices - a young man and girl were conversing (nothing "X-rated"). I listened for a short while, as I couldn't believe that someone was having a conversation on my phone. After a short while, the girl asked the guy what station he was listening to. He said something like, "I don't have a radio on. Where's the music coming from?". I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I said, "...this is God, and I'm listening to "The Music Professor", Jim Labarbara, on WLW". With that, following a couple of "OMG's", they both said a hasty "good-bye", and I was free to make my phone call.
|
Ared60
64 posts
Sep 25, 2013
5:47 PM
|
On a completely different subject but still within the topic (stretch) was the start of the ZIP-code in 1963. Prior to that date everyone was assigned a postal zone. Ours was 16. The zone was incorporated into the ZIP-code
Here's a good bit of trivia for younger people. If the song 'Return To Sender' by Elvis is playing mention that he talks about the old postal zone in the song. The line is;
No such number, no such zone...
The song was released in 1962, one year before the start of the ZIP-code.
|
Nile
90 posts
Sep 26, 2013
3:24 PM
|
There was a time when kids, via word of mouth, began to find out about dialing a certain number which was a mistake of some type by the phone company whereby people could call and get on a "real" party line. There might be as many as 30 or 40 kids at any time. Conversations got garbled but late at night you could talk anonymously. I talked with girls from Kettering, Belmont, Dayton proper, Riverside; just all over. I lived in Upper Dayton View, Near Good Samaritan Hospital. My mother kept saying, "You're going to get in trouble". But, I kept doing it. Then, there was a notice in the paper that the Dayton police was going start monitoring it. I quit then.
|
donw
359 posts
Sep 26, 2013
3:45 PM
|
Nile, that sounds like the "beep line" which has been discussed here in past threads. The way we did it was to dial our own phone number, which always results in a busy signal. You could hear people yelling between the busy signal beeps.
I'm repeating myself on this board. Here's the thread about the beep line: http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/board/board_topic/1550893/462309.htm
Last Edited by donw on Sep 26, 2013 4:35 PM
|
Nile
91 posts
Sep 27, 2013
10:44 AM
|
donw, thanks for that info on the "beep" line. I read it and that sounds like it. I talked to so many people on that. We had some fun back then and all without cell phones, video games, air-soft, texting etc.
|
Calhoun
220 posts
Sep 27, 2013
12:28 PM
|
Hey Nile:
I must be missing something. Why would DPD monitor the beep line? Surely dailing a busy phone line wasn't a criminal offense. Was it a case of people making drug deals or some other such illegal activity they were looking to stop? I don't remember anything like that. All I ever heard was, "Are-there-any-girls-on-this-line?".
|
Susan63
16 posts
May 21, 2014
4:58 PM
|
When I lived in Belmont in the mid 70's, we briefly had a party line. The other people were always on the line and would tell us to get off the phone....or we told THEM. I can't remember.
|
