Then and now
It was 1972 and I lived 20 miles outside a college town. There were miles of tall forest — until a cluster of homes appeared out of nowhere.
My house looked a lot like this, but not as nice:
We had one phone, owned by Ma Bell (Bell Telephone) until it was deemed a monopoly that was too big to exist and became ATT, etc. We had a party line, with a rotary phone, which was all I could afford: It meant that 2 homes shared one phone line.
Long distance calls were very expensive. I called my sister once, when she moved to Tulsa, and the bill for a 20 minute call was around $17.00. As a comparison, gasoline was 28 cents a gallon, which is about 7 times what it costs today. If that visual doesn’t do it for you, I was paid $90 a week as a secretary working for the school of public health at a local university.
Memories of that time are snippets of scents, emotions and mental snapshots. But I remember quite well the occasional irritated, muffled sigh, followed by a *click* after I said, “You can hang up now, it’s for me.”
Most of the time, the interloper would stay on the line and listen to our conversation. I’d preface the call with, “My nosey neighbor is listening in, so don’t say anything you don’t want to tell the entire town.”
My sister and I were tired of having to guard our conversation, so we used curse words and talked about sex, detailing all the different ways to have it that I’m sure Mrs. Nosey didn’t know existed.
I know it was a “she” from the gasp of horror just before she slammed down her phone.
I remember the house to the right of ours, rented by a doctoral student and his wife. To the left of us lived an older couple who had raised their children in a house that felt empty of love.
From the time I entered my car to the time I arrived at work, I didn’t fear what might happen. Most guys knew how to change a tire or do simple car repairs. I rarely had to hitch a ride.
This was before AIDS, when people believed that all venereal diseases could be treated with penicillin.
Today, I have my AAA card and a Galaxy phone with me at all times. If my car broke down, I’d call my better half so that someone would know I was stuck, and then I’d call the American Automobile Association’s emergency number.
Now, people are afraid of everything.

Karl, Karen and her friends Kyle and Kayla are in fear of the dreadful wallpaper.
I’d like to find the middle ground between THEN and NOW.
I’d also like to find that middle ground. I’m all for progress, but it can be disconcerting to see the world as you knew it disappear.
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Someplace between too trusting and too fearful would be nice.
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I’m retired from the phone company. Technically AT&T but I like to say Southwestern Bell. The breakup and reassembly of the Bell system was just corporate greed along with political graft.
But to get to the party lines, your lucky you were just on a two-party line. Since I lived in the city, we never had one (others did), but two-party was nothing compared to some rural areas. 4, 8 16, and 32 party lines were common in rural areas. If you were on a 32 party line and more than 2 or 3 snoops picked up to listen in, you couldn’t hear a thing because transmission dropped in the cellar.
Heaven help us if the politicians manage to privatize the post office.
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That’s how the break up of Ma Bell appeared to many of us — you confirmed it.
I believe I was near the end of the party line era. During childhood, my parents had their own phone line (they ran a business from home) and I hadn’t heard of a party line until I was on my own.
Years ago there was a big stink about the Post Office being privatized. The PO is supposed to be the one thing that IS run by the government. But I doubt our founders ever considered 2 day Amazon delivery when they created the constitution. 🙂
It used to be that having a PO box guaranteed privacy. Now, a lot of on-line retailers want a street address because FedUps insists on a street address a lot of the time.
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It is remarkable how much detail you remember. Thinking back those days look like we were living in another world
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We really were living in another world, one where adults and kids didn’t have their heads facing their phones.
We were supposed to have flying cars. Instead, we have 2-day Amazon delivery service. 🙂
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Yes, the future didn’t lived up to our expectations.
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Looking back, it really does seem like an age of innocence – and hopefulness. I still have one of those black, dial phones. Unfortunately, with so many calls requiring you to press a button for… it isn’t practical.
I don’t like this age of fearfulness.
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There were no area codes when I was a child — just 5 numbers and 2 letters (Like JK8-2222). Not as many people were living in the USA.
The last time I visited the home I grew up in, there were bars on small windows. When I was a kid, the windows were 4 times the size, we used to have the open, and mom left the doors unlocked.
That, more than anything else, points out what has happened — not just in this country but worldwide.
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I so agree things are so very different. I don’t feel like I belong anyplace these days. I’m having trouble distinguishing between children and adults on social media. Well, not all of the time, but so many sound like the immature bullies I went to school with. As you can tell, it’s making me a grumpy old lady lol. I’ve been not looking at Facebook so much these days, except for my friends and family for the most part. I am fearful a lot. I used to go places alone and now I’m too scared to take a walk by myself!
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Part of the problem is what you described: It’s hard telling the adults from the children.
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This is why I worry about humans. We go from one extreme to another without stopping in the middle.
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EXACTLY! Yes! I have no doubt we have both been saying that for decades. 🙂
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