Now that's a Phone!

When I grew up in the ‘40s on Peaks Island, ME, these were the telephones found in the homes of those who could afford them. In a small shed-like building, an older woman sat all

day wearing primitive earphones and had a speaker-horn hanging around her neck. In front of her was a large board, full of “holes,” and when a call came in for a family on the island, she would insert a prong into the hole containing a wire that went to our phone.

Each circuit served eight homes, and were referred to as “parties.”, our home phone was an “eight-party line”, each having a specific number or rings. (ours was two full rings). Typically, when ours rang, the other seven “parties” could all hear the ring, and Nosie-Nellies would pick up their receiver and listen in. There were no secrets when “whispering a juicy tidbit” over the phones. So much for Island Life! When you wished to “make a n outgoing call,” you vigorously twisted the crank on the side of the box to alert the little lady in the shed!