General Discussion

Everyone had a unique ring tone: Ours was short-long-short, and the number was 151R23, meaning short-long-short on rural party line #23. Whenever anyone got a call, you would hear their specific ring. It was not uncommon for several other people to be listening in on someone else's calls. So, there was no privacy. That was good in cases of emergency, but otherwise, pretty annoying. There was one woman who listened in on everyone else's calls, and everyone knew it. If I recall correctly, we didn't get dedicated dial phones until I was in high school, which would have been in the '60s.