General Music Chat

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Im probably one of the most disorganized people you could meet. But after being in business 6 years Ive learned to get as many phone numbers as I can from anybody that calls me so I can bug the hell out of them till they pay me. Too bad I still get a lot of assholes that think I work for free.


But its another day in Paradise !!!

I'm gonna sound fogeyish now, but when I was a kid I only needed to dial 4 numbers to call next door. When they "upgraded" the system, I had to dial 7 digits. Now, of course, I hafta dial 10 on my cell, & 11 if I'm on someone's land line, after you add in the 1, even if it's just next door.

Doesn't look like anything's gotten either better OR simpler, as our technologies have "advanced," to me!

When I first moved to Kilgore we still had a party line. And no I am not talking about cocain or hey baby want to party?
I mean a party line, you picked it up and if anyone else in the area was on the phone you were in their converation. If you needed an ambulance or fire / police you whould have to beg the gossiping old biddies of the line before you could call out.
It was like living in Mayberry. Aunte Bee get off the damn phone Barneys been shot !!

I remember party lines too. My grandparents were on one when I was a kid. Mostly back country black folks except for us, and they all had known each other for a long time.

One day the phone rang, my uncle was a great prankster and he knew the lady was out of town visiting relatives. (each party had a distinct ring, I think my grandparents' ring was two short ones). So he picked up and answered the phone, mimicking the lady's voice. He knew her and could do a pretty good job of it. After a few seconds, he realized he knew the lady who was calling too, she and the other lady were both in their late 50's or early 60's. So he talked to her for several minutes, all of us practically rolling off our chairs trying to laugh really quiet, until he finally couldn't keep a straight face either (quite an accomplishment for him, he was really good at this) so he laughed and told her who he was, finally using his natural voice.

He told us later she said "OH James Thomas, you crazy fool", and laughed with him, then they talked for another 5 minutes or so, and he promised her he would tell the other lady she had called.

I can't remember what all he told her, but it was really funny. He was a clown and a natural prankster, able to keep a straight face and pull anything on anybody, I was one of the few people who could tell, and I really don't know how but I almost always knew when he was up to something. Yes, he got me a few times but not often, I almost always knew when he was trying to pull a fast one on me somehow. It really bothered me when he was the first of my family to pass away, the one who had the greatest sense of humor, one of the few true christians I've met, music director in churches for 20 years, never smoked or drank, and stomach cancer got him before he was 45 years old...Life is just unfair sometimes...and he was the one who taught me my first 3 guitar chords at age 5.

Party lines were pretty cool, and the people on that one were all very nice about sharing the line, if anything happened or you just needed to call someone they were always polite about it and cleared the line for you, and we made sure to do the same.