In article , bud--
writes

Phone wires were clamped to ground before the 1960s?

It was common to earth one leg of the incoming pair to either the house
ground or to its own rod. An earth connection also allowed "party
lines", where two houses could share one physical phone line pair, each
house with its own number. Disadvantage was that both lines could not
be used simultaneously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony)

My previous house still had its telephone earth rod and earth wire,
though it had not been connected to the phone line for many years.

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