When Wayne and I first got married we were on a party line with about ten other families. We had a rural line and a central office in Byron. It was run by Mrs. Maggie Deveney in her home with the switchboard in a corner of her living room. We were on line F-47 so our phone number was 151 F47. The 151 represented a short crank ring for 1 and a long crank for 5. It is amazing how many different 4 sequence combinations numbers you can make out of the two numbers 1 and 5. The longest phone number on our line was 4 numbers, such as our neighbors who had 1511. When this number was called, one would have to listen to when the rings would stop to know if it was going to be 15, 155, 151, 1511 or 1515.
A well trained ear was essential or you might miss a number. Wayne's aunt Merel Sluder would ring a long ring for the 1 and a very long ring for the 5, so we had to be on our toes for that one. Each person had their own style of cranking a ring. You soon learned who was calling whom. A single very long ring meant for everyone to come to the phone as there was either a public announcement or maybe an emergency such as a fire or a needed medical assist whether human or livestock.
We had many eavesdroppers. One could answer the phone and hear the sounds of the receiver being raised. The more people that listened in on conversations, the more the audio lessened. I got upset enough several times while trying to hear an important long distant call that I asked the eavesdroppers to please hang up their receivers. Of course, some did. I was never an eavesdropper, but did understand that some of the people both men and women had little outside connection with the neighborhood and this was a source of entertainment for them. Woe to the ones whose gossip came from someone with bad hearing. Many stories could be confused there.
We had tell-tale sounds on our phone line that let us know who was eavesdropping. Wayne’s aunt cleared her throat constantly, one family had a bird that sang most of the time, another had an old wall clock that ticked loudly and often chimed and another person ground the palm of her hand on the speaker when she listened, which was very annoying. Most of the time people did not care if people eavesdropped, other times it was an annoyance to have someone listening to what you would like to be private.
A workday was set aside where the men gathered and worked on the lines that needed repairing. Often the poles rotted and had to be replaced. If lines were old and broken or repaired too many times, it reduced the sound quality of the phone system. Windstorms broke many of the poles over taking the lines with them. It did not take the men long to get them back in working order. I am sure some pressure by the women helped speed things up.
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