Yesterday's post about "snail mail" led me to another memory of a long ago form of communication. When I was a young girl, Daddy owned the local "Western Union" station. Daddy's primary vocation was an insurance agent for all of the locals in Famerville. As an additional income source, he also had the telegraph station for Famerville. When thinking about this, I remembered how much Daddy loved drinking coffee with all of the local cronies and keeping up with the "latest news".
During these years in the late 50's not everyone had a telephone (SHOCK!). There were those that did have telephones, but were on "party lines". This meant that several families in the same general locale were all on the same telephone line. Don't ask me how this worked-I DON'T HAVE A CLUE! I do know that all those on the same party line had different rings to signal the call was for their household. This means that every time the phone rang for anyone on your "party" it also rang in your house. You only answered when your special ring came. A Long Ring and a Short- or Two Short Rings-you get the drift. This also means that when one of the "neighbors" was on your party line, you could not use the line. There were some on the "party line" that abused their fair share of time and spent hours gossiping on and on. There were those on the line that loved to pick up and eavesdrop when you were on the line. In general, it was a nightmare At BEST.
Since there were so many problems with "party lines" and even some who had NO phone, urgent or joyful messages could be passed along by sending a telegraph to your family or friend. Daddy or his secretary were the ones to see the "news" first and thus they became "The Bureau of Information" for all the big news. A telegraph machine was something like a letter sent over the wire-sort of like the first fax. The message came on a long strip of thin paper and was "typed" out by the telegraph machine. This long strip was then pasted on the yellow western union form and hand delivered to the recipent. You could also "wire" money to someone via Western Union. The recipent just had to show up and the western union office gave them the dough. PRETTY NIFTY for the "Horse & Buggy" days.
I am not a big Keeper of stuff, but my cousin gave me the telegram her parents, my Aunt & Uncle, received when I was born from Daddy. Pretty Nifty! I also have a telegram Daddy sent Momma during World War II. HISTORY, INDEED!
I believe Western Union is still around, but in this electronic age of e mails, cell phones, faxes, and bank wires, they are a dying business. There was a day though that when you got a telegram it was a "Big Deal"-even better than getting a letter! As the old commercial said-"We've come a long way, Baby!"
6 comments:
Never knew that- how cool!
Good story. Growing up, we always got excited when dad came home from work because he had the mail from the post office with him. I always loved when I got mail. It wasn't very often, though.
I missed all the party line stuff but do remember people listening in on the Andy Griffith show.
How special to have the telegram of when you were born....I can tell you adored your Daddy. I am jealous.
Isn't it nice to get something besides a bill!! Adrian, is right; growing up we did not get mail at the house, living on the outskirts, as we did. he must have felt great that when he walked thru the door, we bombarded him for any mail we had instead of actually saying hello!
Those southern women love to call their fathers "daddy" hahaha.
What are you, a dinosaur?? western union, pony express, square wheeled stagecoaches on the oregon trail....perhaps you have been nippin' in the snakebite too much???? *snicker snicker*
Perhaps the Yankee girls use the term of endearment of "Father", but the girls from the South do indeed Love their Daddy!
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