Everyone had a unique ring tone: Ours was short-long-short, and the number was 151R23, meaning short-long-short on rural party line #23. Whenever anyone got a call, you would hear their specific ring. It was not uncommon for several other people to be listening in on someone else's calls. So, there was no privacy. That was good in cases of emergency, but otherwise, pretty annoying. There was one woman who listened in on everyone else's calls, and everyone knew it. If I recall correctly, we didn't get dedicated dial phones until I was in high school, which would have been in the '60s.

Talking to Mabel sounds like a lovely idea!

I do talk to Alexa a lot.

I mentioned to my wife that I posted a snarky comment about Siri. My wife replied that I shouldn't have done that snarky Siri thing. Then Siri (from my wife's computer) just said "I don't understand".

I still live in the country. I remember a lot of those changes.

Until a few years ago, we did not have 911. We had a lady in town named MaryLou. MaryLou had the fire phones and ambulance phones in the front part of her apartment. MaryLou knew everyone in the area, whether they lived in town or the country. She knew me from the library. She knew every member of my family.

One evening after I came home from the library MaryLou called. She asked me if my husband was home. He was not. She asked, "He works with animals, doesn't he?" I said yes. We still farmed then, and we had cattle. He was familiar with all sorts of farm critters. MaryLou told me that my neighbor to the south had had a mishap with her horse. Something had spooked her horse and she had been injured by the frightened animal. A passerby had called an ambulance for her, but was unable to do much with the horse other than shoo it into the barn. MaryLou asked if my husband could go down there and take care of the horse. Of course he did that easily.

My husband came home and sat down at the kitchen table. Our dog sniffed his boots and pants so vigorously that she almost inhaled them. My husband said, "Yes, dog. Now you know what a horse smells like."

My husband has a gift with animals. MaryLou had a gift for solving almost any local human emergency, whether it required an ambulance, law enforcement or neighborly cooperation. We have 911 now. Sometimes I wish we still had MaryLou.

Anyone who thinks country living is not interesting just needs to get out more.

aprone my great-aunt had. PHONE 2! on yard sticks i hoard too. and my rotary phones. stupid digital landline.

Before answering because that's how you could tell who the call was for.

At my grandma's in West Virginia that's how it was.

Some days, the World is turning too fast, and everything is too wrapped up in complexity.

Now, I'm thinking about consulting some 8 year old to help me navigate a cell phone.

To hell with Smart. give me Simple.