View source for A private phone company


They set up a party line system where everyone was connected to the same line.

The phone was a wall mount with an earpiece on a cord,

It had two large batteries inside to supply power,

and a crank on the side.

Everyone had a special ring. Two shorts and a long, two longs, 

a long and a short etc.

Uncle Joe owned the phone company in Ringgold, 

and they had a line run there

and they called it "central."

I think it was quite a problem to keep the line repaired,

and the phone bill was 50 cents a month.

That may not seem like much today, but a dollar was worth a lot more

in those days.

I remember getting a phone call from Edward, 

probably when he was coming home from the army. Maybe 1945.

He came home in a taxi, and the money he had was in silver dollars.

Later, I am not sure, maybe 1946 or 47, 

the phone line was on the ground

and my dad ran over it with his pickup 

and the wire got caught around the tire

and it pulled it down completely.

Then phone never worked again.

If we had continued the system, we would own the local phone company.


One time we were in Ringgold 

and my mother needed to make a long distance phone call.

We went into the phone company office 

which was upstairs on the South side of main street.

The room had several phone booths around the walls, perhaps six or so, 

and the operator had headphones and a patch panel. 

The operator could make the call and then patch it to one of the phone booths.

When the operator found out our last name and it was the same as Uncle Joe's, 

she did not want to charge for the phone call, 

but my mother insisted on paying for the call.

Uncle Joe had been killed years before, 

so it was really Aunt Tennie that owned the phone company.

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