Posted on 11/13/2019 8:44:46 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
So did you use a Cap’n Crunch whistle or a Commodore 64?
We had a four party phone line in Juneau, Alaska in 1983.
My parents still had a party line in the early 1980’s...
I believe that the number I dialed for time is still active for the CT 203 area code: SPRINGS
I can remember when I was very young back in the early 60s and we had a party line.
I just tried POPCORN and got “The number you dialed is not valid.” I’m in the Silicon Valley area.
“When I was about 13 in Ithaca, NY, word got around about a special number you could dial that would patch you into sort of a community group conversation!”
Yes, there was actually several numbers like that for every 3 digit telephone prefix, that was kind of a phone company secret. Anyone who called those numbers would be connected in a conference call with anyone else who also called that number.
Back in the late 70s-early 80s, phone phreakers (hackers) figured that out by reading purloined Bell telephone manuals and spread the word around. By like 1985 all the kids in my neighborhood knew the trick.
Growing up (poor) in the 1950s we did not have a phone until around 1959 or 1960. When you think about it for a bit you will realize why it was easier to be poor in the 50s then it is today.
Phones cost money. Cell phones cost a lot of money. Was not an expense in the 1950s
Television - did not have a television until around the 1960s, they cost money, today cable cost a lot of money.
Private car - junkers were available. You could buy a old junker for $50 to $100. I know we had one car where there was no floor. Gas 25 cents a gallon. Old cars were also easier to repair and most men knew a little on how to keep a car running.
Eating - seldom, and then only when travailing and then only when the food you brought was all gone. No fast food (for the most part) in the 1950s.
Health insurance - none. There was a county hospital you could go to if something serious.
Schools - free. In the 1950s the schools provided all the supplies. They were not feeding kids back then but even being poor we managed three meals a day (oat meal, corn meal and miss a meal).
Play - the world was our playground. A vacant lot was our ball park. The only rule was be home when the street lights came on. Kids in the 1950s did NOT spend time inside the home.
Movies - 25 cents - another quarter for a drink and pop corn. For this you got two movies, a serial, coming attractions, cartoon and news reel. In the theater I went to they has a drawing. The winner could go up on stage and stick their hands into a big jar of change and get to keep all they could pull out. Of course the opening was small and most of the coins were pennies, still it was money.
All in all the 1950s were a great time to grow up (until you hit the 1960s and our world changed)
Hah! I had forgotten about the Cap’n Crunch whistle!
We were the first on our block to get a touch-tone phone back in 1960-something. I was 3. And apparently it was so easy to use that I made an international call.
My favorite wired phone prank as a kid (once we actually had a phone...) was to dial 5-7-9-dial tone-6-dial tone and hang up.
That was the test code to ensure the phone would ring...
Party lines are gone and the knowledge of them is fading. Used to have 4, 8 line splits with lines being given from 2-5 digits then a letter (four letters each distinct phonetically) and then a number. The letter and number told the operator how many rings to give for distinct notification. Some would use the ringing length to denote which line.
Eventually automated mechanical switches took over from the operators.
“Play - the world was our playground. A vacant lot was our ball park. The only rule was be home when the street lights came on. Kids in the 1950s did NOT spend time inside the home.”
“Movies - 25 cents - another quarter for a drink and pop corn. For this you got two movies, a serial, coming attractions, cartoon and news reel.”
“All in all the 1950s were a great time to grow up (until you hit the 1960s and our world changed)”
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Yeah, sounds like you grew up in my neighborhood.
AS far as staying in the house. If it wasn’t raining, snowing or sleeting, we were NOT permitted to stay in the house (I am not kidding)
We figured out a different way that worked without the tone.
There was a 1-800 number in the area that if you called them and just stayed on the line without saying anything, they would hang up, and then after about 5 seconds, you would get a dial tone. Then any numbers you called would get charged to the 1-800 number, so it was free long distance, even from a pay phone :)
In the ‘50s, early ‘60s we had a party line. I think it was a 6-party line, but it could have been a 4. I remember being envious of my friend whose family had a 2-party line. Her dad was a dentist. I don’t recall knowing any individual who had their own line.
If it wasn’t raining, snowing or sleeting, we were NOT permitted to stay in the house (I am not kidding)
—
Same here - Actually if you showed up around the house someone would put you to work ;)
DUnkirk as in DU6-9358 or 386-9358...
If this subject is of interest, I highly recommend the book “Exploding The Phone” by Phil Lapsley (w/foreword by Steve Wozniak), published in 2013.
This book confirms something I already knew, as did Dr. Johnny Fever, there really WERE phone cops back in those days.
An interesting read is “The Cuckoo’s Egg” authored by Cliff Stoll.
It has to do with the whistle as well as blue-boxes and also hacking into the AT&T system.
It is so thorough, it goes through when unix became popular how it was used and how hackers
were tracked down as to if they were Unix trained on Bell Unix
or it’s BSD equivalent solely by watching the options they would first invoke using the “ps” command.
The difference in options the hacker would use they would know if to start looking on the east coast or west coast.
A fascinating read.
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