Our household didn’t have a phone in
my early childhood. My father didn’t apply for a phone line until 1945.
Although WWII had ended materials were still in short supply and as a result,
we had to share our line with 3 other parties. AT&T was the company that
supplied the line (the only company since they had the monopoly). It wasn’t
until 1984 that the US Government broke them up into 7 smaller regional “Bell”
systems.
We were assigned certain rings so we
would know that it was our call. It was an honor system where conversations
were meant to be short in duration and no one was supposed to listen in on the
other parties’ calls. In my young persons’ mind (I was 10 at the time) those
were the rules for adults not necessarily for children.
I would wait until one of the other
parties picked up the phone then gently pick up the cradle covering the mouthpiece
with my hand. I felt like a detective listening in to other peoples’
conversations. I wasn’t good at it since before long I would hear (“Get off the
line this is a private call. The nerve of some people”) I hung on anyway until
their anger got so that they stopped talking.
Within the year we got a separate line which pleased my parents no end. For me I
lost a form of entertainment.
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