It’s another one of those quaint ads reminding us of how things used to be. In this case, the subject is party lines – and the illustration does a good job depicting how with a 4-party line, four different phone company customers had to share the same line.
The ad suggests replacing a 4-party line with a 2-party line for $5.90 a month, or a private line for $7.00 a month. That’s fifty bucks in today’s world, using one of those online inflation calculators!
This Wiki entry for party lines reveals that hogging the line, and even eavesdropping, were common complaints of party line customers.
Today, you don’t have to be a party line sneak to eavesdrop. Many people are more than happy to yak on their smartphones anywhere, oblivious to the people around them.
Party line sneak.
ReplyDeleteHaHa.
I worked at several phone and old analog phone companies, we could listen to any line we wanted and the customer could never tell when or who jacked into the line. FBI andd other law agencies can tap any line they want.