Old Telephones

I hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as I did. It is so good to be with family and friends. And, the feast was fabulous. We went through a turkey, turkey breast, curried ham and vegetables, salads and desserts of every variety. The day was complete with shared memories.

One memory shared was a story about how the telephone system operated long before our time in Dandridge.

It seemed this story had been passed down to our generation. I’m assuming this was the way of every small community. In the beginning there were party lines. When a line was already in use, if others on the line picked up the phone, they could hear and participate in the conversation. You can imagine the eavesdropping and gossiping this created. I was told that someone was on a party line of ten people. A single operator in Dandridge was responsible for all call connections. In order to distinguish who was to answer the phone, a different ringing cadence was given to each person on the line, such as two short rings, two long rings, or one short ring followed by a long ring. Each household heard the ringing sequence and recognized their own, to answer the call. I can only imagine the phone rang often, which would be annoying.

As the story goes, receptionists were not necessary to handle calls when someone left their office, they simply called the operator and she took the calls down until they returned. Obviously this single operator had access to everyone’s lives, as she could hear the conversations. The operator in Dandridge was Pet Swann and she was known by all. Later, the service improved, adding more operators that covered a wider area, basically the county, located in Jefferson City, and eventually moved to Knoxville. Now the operator may be in another state or country, and only needed for information.

Wow, we have come a long way in phone communication. With cell phones, staying in touch is fast and easy. I personally like it this way!