On 12/28/2017 10:00 AM, wrote:

[snip]

I had a party line in 1984 in a rental house in Sanibel. I didn't live
there long enough to change it.

When I lived on the farm in the sixties, we were on a party line. You
could call someone in town by dialing only five digits, but to call
someone on the same line you'd dial a 4-digit code plus ALL 10 DIGITS of
that number.

Long distance calls required the operator. In the seventies they
introduced direct dialing, but you still had to have the operator come
on and ask YOUR number.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"The weirdest way to fantasize While frigid Solstice thaws Imagine-
Christless Christmastime! replaced by... "Jesus Claus"? [Gerald Tholen]