You forgot to mention the short and long rings as well as the party lines. All phones were connected to a telephone exchange and often it was a sevice of the family to run to get the person who is being called. The family who ran the exchange amy have lived in the building. Telephones were indeed a luxury item. My family did not get a phone until the 1960's but then we didn't have indoor toilets until the year after we got a phone. I still think of long distance calls being an expensive conversation. Bev ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nelson Denton" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 2:41 PM Subject: Re: [Grey Co.] Phone # in 1934, and 1948 > In early years phones were in short supply and were expensive luxuries. It > was not uncommon for people to share a phone with others in their > neighbourhood to save money. People didn't phone each other very often, mail > was cheaper and often faster to get a reply. - there were no answering > machines or *69 auto call-backs. > "Party Lines" where everyone on the same street had their phone ring as one > was very common even in the 1960's > > 2 - 4 digit phone numbers were very common in the early part of the century > with longer numbers being added as towns got larger and more folks got > phones. After a while it was changed to 5 digits then 7 with the first two > digits being letters FRanklin 61566 or PEnnsylvania-65000 instead of > numbers so people could remember then easier. > > Now we're are up to 10+ digit numbers :-(( and Owen Sound is still Long > Distance. > > Somewhere I have a very old business paper which list our company phone > number as being "58" or some such 2 digit number. Way back in ~1910! > > Nelson Denton > R. A. Denton & Son > Pipe Organ Builders > > Sucessors to > Walter and David Spencer > Organbuilders and Furniture Makers > Owen Sound ~1862~1870 > Walter Spencer in Hamilton > 1870-1910 > > > > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 19-May-03 > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >