Party Line Courtesy

from the April 1945 Neenah-Menasha Telephone Directory

 

For those of you too young, a party line was a telephone circuit that was shared by multiple phone service subscribers.  Largely, they've gone the way of the dinosaur, existing only in the rarest of occasions nowadays in rural areas.  But when I was growing up, my house had a party line, and if we picked up the phone and someone was talking, we had to wait our turn.  Can you imagine that today, (assuming you even have a hard wired telephone line to your home)?  Anyway, in the spirit of cooperation that was prevalent during World War II and due to wartime shortages, I bring you these courtesy guidelines, brought to you as a service of your local phone company.