I remember party lines; was just a kid but I distinctly recall getting told to hang up the phone numerous times because someone else was using it.
We had a woman on our line who would talk for hours on end. She would talk to one woman from just after breakfast, about 7am, until around 11:30, when her husband came in for lunch. She was back on the phone with another woman around 1 when her husband was back out working until about 6pm when her husband would come back in.
She was the local gossip queen and kept more crap stirred up than the National Enquirer.