The party line

Remember when the telephone hung on the kitchen wall and you had to stand right there to talk? Ours had a long curly cord that got stretched out around the corner so we could have a little privacy. Out where we lived it was a party line, shared with a few other houses on the road. Each house had its own ring, so you listened for yours. If you picked up and heard a neighbor talking, you hung up quietly and tried again later. Most of the time, anyway. And dialing a long number on that rotary dial took forever.