re: #335 MsJ

Party lines.

That’s why our number was “12” - one long ring, two short rings.

If there was an emergency in town, the switchboard operator would plug in the whole first bank of phones, take a yardstick and push all the switches eight times, wait a bit, then tell everyone what was going on.

She’d then unplug the first bank and plug them in the second bank (rinse and repeat for the third bank).