Great things were happening in our lives back in 1965. Our first child born in 1962 and I was building our first house on 5 acres of land my wife's parents gave us so we could qualify for a home loan. We had lived in a small trailer after our marriage and soon bought our first house a little 2 bedroom with one bath.Working for my father who was a builder taught me my early trade. Our new house would be my first to build on my own. A great challenge and after 3 months our new brick 3 bedroom 1 bath with garage was ready to move into. Our loan payment was all of $60.00 a month for 30 years at 4 percent interest. We also had bought a new 1965 Mercury car. A neighbor told everyone that we must have hit a gold mine. Fact was we had gone deep into debt. Both of us worked hard to pay for what we had.
We will need a telephone my wife said. We lived in a rural area and all that was available was a phone which shared a party line. Yes we got our first phone but it was an 8 party line. That's 8 different people had the same line. You could go to use the phone and there was always someone using it. Everyone eased dropped on others I guess. Once while I was on the phone a guy on the line asked if he could have the line ,it was an emergency. OK, I hung my phone up to let him have the line. Soon I picked up the phone to see what the emergency was. Man what an emergency he had. He was calling to see if he could have his mare breed.
Things got better with our phone, soon we were on a 4 party line later a 2 party line and finally after about 5 years we had a private phone. Man what progress??Look at all the technology in the world today with phones and computers. Yes we have a computer but this family hasn't seen the need for a cell phone. We are probably the only ones around that don't have a cell phone. Times have changed
Great story my friend... :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
~ Hugz....
yep, those were the good old days..Jerry and I built our first house in 1960.. A 2 bedroom brick with a fireplace, Wow...total cost was around $12,000... Payments were $84 , I think... to pay off in 1980, so only a 20 year mortgage.. That sounded like forever to 2 young kids.. We wondered if we would live long enough to pay it off...And a terrible monthly payment since we were used to maybe $50 a month for a rental...Those were the days...., Thanks for the memories...
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get a phone till the late 70's - can't remember exactly when but I think I was about 10 at the time - I was so excited! up till then we used to use the neighbours!
ReplyDeleteLoved that man's idea of an emergency! lol
Not to disappoint you but in '65 I was 7 years old. But I do remember our first "color" TV. I remember that it was delivered on a Sunday afternoon. And the first thing my mom had to see was the NBC peacock spread it's tail feathers in colors. The first show was Walt Disney.
ReplyDeleteI remember similar things. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteNice stories,man!
I was in high school during the 60's and plain ole phones were lots of fun. Nowdays I can no longer even use any type of phone, so certain types of technology still does not impress me much. I enjoyed this blog and most of all your friendship complete with great memory stories.
ReplyDeleteI barely remember a two party line, but then I am a city girl. And when I was a little girl I had no need for a phone. Even as a teenager, I was rarely on the phone. Back then nice girls did not call boys. When my daughter was a teenager she was never allowed to call a boy unless it was to break a date because she was grounded or had to work.Now I can not leave the house without my cell phone, for both business and personal reasons.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog. My first house payment was $54 a month and we made $45 a week with insurance paid by the employer!
I think our first phone cost us about $3.50 per month and no installation fees... So we are paying dearly for all this great technology aren't we? Press 1 for English...
ReplyDeleteWe still had those party lines out here until the mid to late 80's. I hated them because we had this yacky old woman down the road and she lived on the phone. No mater what time of day or night we always had to ask her to get off the phone so we could use it. She always knew everyone's business and soon died after we all got private lines. I think the gossip and snooping was all she lived for. So happy with cell phones and e-mails of today tho. These are a bit easier when they work! LOL
ReplyDeleteMy dad was working for 15 bucks a week in the building trade in the 60's and 60 bucks must have seemed like millions each month .........