We’re going to spend some time this week talking about the internet and how we connect today. But long before Facebook, Twitter, or “Group Chats,” we had the original social network.
The Party Line.
If you grew up on the Prairies like I did (or really, anywhere rural in Canada back then), you know exactly what I’m talking about. You didn’t have a private line; you shared it with three or four neighbours.
We all had our own distinct ring. Ours was “one long and a short.” The neighbours might have been “one long, two shorts.”
Technically, you were only supposed to pick up when you heard your own ring. But human nature hasn’t changed much in 70 years. If the phone rang for the neighbours at 9:00 PM on a Tuesday, you knew Mrs. Miller down the road was probably “carefully lifting the receiver” to see what was going on.
We didn’t have “privacy settings”—we had to trust that our neighbours wouldn’t listen in (even though we knew they probably would).
And there was an etiquette to it. If you picked up the phone to make a call and heard two people talking, you politely hung up and waited. Unless it was an emergency—then you yelled, “Get off the line, I need the doctor!” and the line would clear instantly.
It can be annoying to look back on now—the lack of privacy, the waiting to use the phone. But in a strange way, it connected us. You knew your neighbours’ voices. You knew when they were home and when they weren’t.
We’ve traded the Party Line for the Internet. The connection is faster, clearer, and more private. But sometimes, I miss the simplicity of knowing that if you really needed help, the whole neighbourhood was just one long ring away.
Did you grow up with a Party Line? And be honest—did you ever listen in?
**Bill Gould** spent 43 years as a long-haul truck driver before trading the steering wheel for a keyboard to help fellow Canadians navigate the road of retirement. A freelance writer, published author, and editor of over 50 books, Bill co-founded *Canadian Senior Moment* with his wife, Marilyn, to provide a trusted space for seniors to find clarity, safety, and connection in the digital age. When he isn’t troubleshooting “tech gremlins” or sharing childhood memories of the Prairies, he can be found in his woodshop or working on his latest novel.