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SW Saskatchewan | Post below reminded me of the days before long distance. Local groups of neighbours would string wire on the fence line and run from farm to farm. With any luck there was a farmer where two lines overlapped and if the stars were aligned right, messages could be relayed further afield.
The phone system on the homestead had used large speakers rather than telephones when first established and you would scratch on the speaker paper to get attention. As they had an electromagnet they would work(barely) without batteries. They were turned to the wall when not used to give some privacy, something my father was not too good at doing in his bachelor days and the family story goes that the poker party he was hosting kept interupting the prayer meeting his sister had at her house-maybe they were praying for him!
In 1968 we got hooked up to the provincial system but it was still party line up to about 1990. The previous year(1967) required a trip to town and sitting in the parlour at the phone exchange to call Saskatoon if I to court the pretty young lass who became my wife.
No sexting in those days, pretty prim and proper as any conversation had to pass the approval rating of the listening gallery.
It was a blast from the past in 2012 when we visited Big Bend park in Texas and there was an old fence line phone connecting two ranches! Brought back memories.
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How many have used a "barb-wire" telephone?
