Party Lines



Did you ever have a party line?  Those were the days!  My first experience with a party line was when I was in 2nd grade and living in Aguanga, CA (pop. 50).  I attended a one room school house just like you see in the movies, with a bell on top and everything.  Of course I did not realize how cool that was in and of itself, I was just fascinated with the black telephone at the back of the school room and the party lines that I eventually found out were connected to it.  Actually I was fascinated with all telephones and I paid particular attention to any that I came in contact with.  This phone in my classroom was no exception.  It was located at the very back of the room near the pencil sharpener.  Our classroom had six rows for grades 1 through 6 that beautiful red-haired Miss Rusk taught.  She would go from row to row giving assignments to each grade and then start again from left to right answering questions from each grade level.  When she was at the 6th grade row, she was about as far away from the pencil sharpener and the phone as she could get and that is when I would decide that all of a sudden my pencil needed sharpening.  I would walk to the back of the room quickly, put my pencil in the sharpener and then slowly and carefully lift the receiver up to my ear and listen...... 

I had accidentally learned of the party line when I was laying on my mat during recess one day.  I must not have felt well, so Miss Rusk allowed me to lay down inside and she then split her time between checking on me and checking on the kids outside.  During one of Miss Rusk's absences I decided I needed to call home to tell my mom to come get me.  I don't even think I knew my phone number but when I picked up the phone there was already a conversation going on.  I interrupted and asked them to please get my mom.  I guess I thought this conversation must being going on at my house, or that these ladies must know my mom.  One of them said, "Young lady you get off this party line right now!" and about that time Miss Rusk returned and I had some 'splainin' to do.  I remember thinking that the phone was connected to a party and I needed to know more about it, thus began my all too often treks back and forth to that pencil sharpener.  I'm really not sure that if someone had taken the time to explain the party line concept to me that it would have changed my behavior.

During the year or so that I attended that school, I had the sharpest pencils in the room.  At least once or twice a day I would wander back to the pencil sharpener (aka phone) and stealthily lift the receiver to my ear to listen to any conversation that might be going on.  Sometimes there was just a dial tone.  Often I was accompanied by another girl or two, but usually Miss Rusk broke up that plan by announcing that "only one person can sharpen their pencil at a time".  I don't remember a thing that was said in the conversations that I overhead, I don't even think I was really listening, I just knew I was getting away with something.  Most times one of the people on the line would know that it was a kid from the school on the phone and they would yell at us to hang up. 

Nowadays I would venture to say that some 7 and 8 year olds have their own phone.  They probably could not concieve of a party line but I'm sure they could text me and tell me how to set up three-way calling (STILL can't figure that one out).  To try to tell a teenager that they would have to actually wait until a total stranger finished on the phone before they could use it would produce outrage I am sure!  But back in the day it sure provided fairly innocent entertainment for a fascinated 2nd grade girl!