Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

As a teenager in the 1950’s, things were not as convenient as far as making phone calls as they are today with smart cells.

Our family did not even have a telephone in our home in the early 1950’s. Only the manager of the oil company had a telephone in his home. Everyone else depended upon him either relaying a message or having someone come to take a message on the phone in case of an emergency or notice of a death in the family. There simply was little or no need for a telephone or didn’t seem to be.

When I was old enough to date, in the summertime I would have been working and if on weekends I had a date on Saturday, I would get home, shower and change and then drive in to town. There, I would use a pay phone to call my date who l about as far out in the country on the other side of town. I knew this was a multi-party line and expected to have eaves droppers listening, but there was no other choice.

Well, years pass, I graduate from college, complete my military obligation, married with children, and am working and have just recently moved to McAllen, TX which is almost 500 miles away from where my parents live in North Texas. We had just moved, had not had time to unpack from the move when I got a call that my father had died. We immediately return home to attend to all the affairs of his funeral and burial.

Back at my parents’ home, we have a lot of folks in and out of the house as expected. That morning, up around 10:00 AM, we got a call from the funeral home for us to come up and make final arrangements. Well, I tell my mother and sister, “It’s time to go.” Well, in this melee of folks, and such, another woman, Belle Cable, who was an old friend of the family comes along with us. I assume mom had asked her, and she assumed that I had, but no one asked Belle to go along.

In my car on the way to the funeral home, Belle regales us with stories of her listening in on the party line of when I was dating a girl out near where Belle lived. She said, “Why, when Bob would call and talk to his sweetheart, why the little birdies could not fly away from the phone lines, their feet were stuck by all the sugar!”

Now, I am all at the same time, thinking her comments were totally out of place and inappropriate, seeing that we were planning Dad’s funeral, I had a ton of different feelings, I felt mad, angry, embarrassed, and at the same time thought it was quite funny. I don’t know that I’ve ever had anything in my entire life that caused me to have so many conflicting feelings all at once. You can bet I was glad to get that trip over as quickly as possible.

Now, in retrospect, I have wished many times I had thanked Belle for her story. It has been a story I have repeated at least a thousand times. It fits so many different situations. While I am the butt of the joke, so to speak, and had wished she had not told those stories at that time, it was still, and even now, a situation which I found my self being in a strange, uncomfortable. and embarrassing role, and yet highly amusing, if you know what I mean. Stories last after all else has passed away! I am the only survivor of that occasion! Just Sayin... RJS

BadFisherman Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Thanks for sharing, RJ. As your posts display, our lives are pretty much a series of anecdotal tales.

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Thanks for the story RJ, when I was very young we had a party line also.I was the eavesdropper listening to the neighbors calls. Don't remember anything good however, only getting a beating when I got caught.LOL

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Yes, my grandfather had a party line that he owned, and this line connected sevral of his sons (my uncles) and two or three neighbors. As a five or six yearf old, I would sneak a listen. I thought if i raised the receiver very slowly, it would not be detected by others. Of course it was, and that is why i had an aversion to calling my date. i did not have any other choice. Just Sayin...RJS