[TheForge] Shop Communications

[Jerry Frost]

From: "Larry Brown" <lp.brown at verizon.net>
>
> Lived in WV years ago and had a line into one house 
> on the farm. Sometimes we would have a few neighbors 
> waiting to make a call on the porch in the morning.
> LB
>


I remember the party line though I don't recall what 
our ring was. We had one at first, then somehow the 
phone just figured out who's phone to ring. We never 
listened in on the neighbors and I don't think they 
listened in on us but I was really young.

My grandmother used to say they were lucky as their 
farm was only a half hour ride from the farm with a 
phone. That was after the phone came to the Ohios 
though, before that it was a half day ride into town to 
fetch the doctor if he was there.

In 69' the whole family was sitting in the living room 
glued to the TV as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. 
I was so excited I blurted out, "Isn't this the 
greatest thing you've ever seen?!?!" About 10 minutes 
later Mom, (that's what we called my maternal 
grandmother who lived with us. Mom or Suzy I have NO 
idea where Suzy came from, her name was Alice.) Anyway 
after about 10 minutes or so she pipes up with, "No. 
No, it isn't."

I turned to her in complete bafflement, I'd forgotten 
I'd said anything and I say, "what?"

She replies, "No, this isn't the greatest thing I've 
ever seen. It was either the first telephone or the 
first electric light. Before the phone, if anybody got 
hurt or sick you had to hitch up the buggy drive into 
town and hope the doctor was in town. If not you had to 
go looking and hope you could find him before it was 
too late. But, before the electric light he had to wait 
till day before he could operate and hope for a sunny 
day. No, the greatest thing I've ever seen was either 
the first phone or the first electric light." Of course 
you had to go to the closest home with a phone and get 
the injured person to the closest house with 
electricity but it was still a huge imropvement.

I sat through her answer to my question in total 
disbelief. What in the world could she be thinking? How 
could a phone or light be better than a man walking on 
the moon?

Of course once I thought about what she'd said I 
realized she was exactly right. To be able to call for 
help over great distances and beat the darkness is a 
great thing indeed.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.