Hey, I remember that!

I was thinking of rotary phones and party lines today. I'm sure that every one who reads this knows about rotary phones, although I haven't actually seen one in a while, other than in movies, but I'll bet a lot of people who read this have never experienced a party line! (Coral? Rhiannon? I KNOW you guys haven't!)

When we lived in northern Quebec, back when I was a kid, our small village had party lines. There were usually about 10 or so families on one line. In other words, we all shared the same phone line and if someone else was using the phone and you picked it up at your house, it was like picking up the phone in the other room today, you heard them and they heard the "click" as you picked it up. You would hang it up in a huff, and hopefully they would quickly finish up their call so that you could use the phone. Of course the phone etiquette wasn't always followed and sometimes people would chit-chat for ages, rendering the line unusable for any one else.

Everyone had their own ring, a combination of long and short rings. I think ours was 2 long. You eventually knew who's ring was what, and you knew who was getting calls, and when. Phone etiquette also dictated that you not phone people during the night or early AM since everyone on that line would hear the ring.

Us kids would think it great fun to listen in on other calls, if you heard a ring, you would try and pick up the phone at the exact same second as the real recipient, thus they wouldn't hear the "click" and you could eavesdrop. I don't ever recall hearing anything exciting, but one just never knew....

It was hard to chat to your friends for any length of time since your parents would always be hollering to "get off the line...someone else might want to use it!", so we would tell each other what time we would call, we would then synchronize our Timex watches and then pick the phone up at the exact same second, and voila! Conversation in a whisper until we heard someone else harumphing and clicking as they hung up.

Now I see my neighbours hop in their truck and start to talk on the phone. What? You haven't even been out of your house and you need to talk on the phone? Within 15 seconds? What cold be so important that you couldn't have used the phone in the house before you left, you know, 15 seconds ago, or, what could be so important that you need to drive and talk on the phone when you have your children in the back seat? What happened to "paying attention" when you drive? I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

~For a list of all the ways that technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3.
~Alice Kahn