The Party Line

In the 1930s and 1940s, the term soap opera became part of American culture.  This arose mainly from the fact that most women stayed at home and listened to the radio as they did their daily chores.   Doing laundry was not a quick, load the washer, change wet clothes to the dryer matter.  It was an all day job.  Women did not have Pledge, 409, Dawn, Tide, Downey,  and my personal favorite, Comet cleanser,was just hitting the market.  Things were harder, more time consuming.  It prompted soap companies and companies that manufactured "housewifely" items to sponsor the daytime radio  serials.  Hence "Soap Opera".

My mother said she was listening to, "Ma Perkins" when she knew it was time to go to the hospital with me.  She then blamed me for years that I caused her to miss an important episode of "Stella Dallas" .  So I grew up with radio programs, "Our Gal Sunday", the story of a poor girl from a mining community in England who marries a wealthy Count, Lord Sunday.  Your memory dims over some things but not radio soap operas. ESPECIALLY  when that was the only commercial entertainment until you went to town on Saturday afternoon and went to the movie. 


 "Helen Trent", the story of a reporter for a large metropolitan newspaper....  Admittedly this was difficult for a young girl to relate to.  The one paper in Greer County was the Mangum Star which came out on Thursdays.  Hard to imagine something interesting enough about a reporter to make a whole soap opera.  The headline news in the Mangum Star was that Miss Teddie Larson's niece and nephew visited last weekend from Oklahoma City and enjoyed dinner in the park after Church Services at the Nazarene Assembly. 

Kids had our sound version of Nicklelodean.  These programs came on Saturday mornings and you did not miss them.  Oh the excitement of "The Shadow".  Famous line if you play Trivia Pursuit, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, the _____knows" That was the lead in line from the Shadow.  Then of course, Jack Armstrong, All American Boy, sponsored by Wheaties , the breakfast of champions. The Lone Ranger, Spiderman, Brenda Starr (another reporter by the way, something related only to "up" north) As you grew you got to listen to more mature programs on Saturday morning.  "Grand Central Station".  Oh I remember it well.  There was a really big train station in New York City and it was full all the time and just plain ordinary citizens had stories that began and ended there.  Tried to equate that with the MKT railroad station in Mangum, Oklahoma, which was a one room wooden building  built on a concrete platform right next to the railroad tracks.  It was probably 20 x 30 feet in size and held some benches, two water fountains, but no bathrooms and a small area for the station master.  Two trains stopped there every single day.  Sometime someone got off or on.  Probably not enough to shape a soap opera around so no wonder they had to revert to Grand Central Station.

Sunday night was the biggest night of the week.  We lived out in the country, some 30 miles from Mangum.  We did not journey into town for Sunday night Church service. So at 6:00 we all gathered around the radio and listened to "One Man's Family".   It was sort of the Waltons, same time period, but with more income and living in the San Francisco area.


I seem to remember that we  did not leave the radio on all the time.  Only in the afternoons to listen to the news, and maybe Amos and Andy.  Then it was turned off.  No one stayed up for a 10:00 news program if there was such a thing.  I think we turned off anything electric when ever it was not being used.  Maybe it was thought that it would run out.  However, I suspect that my grandparents and parents generation just did not waste anything.  


That was our equivalent of television.


Then we had a phone and your line was shared by other families.  The "Party Line".  Everyone had one, rich or poor, you shared the phone line.  If you were going to make a call you quietly picked up the phone and listened to see if anyone else was talking.   I think there was some listening in for a while just to see what was going on.  The other parties knew someone had picked up and they would hurry, knowing someone else needed to use the phone.  I remember my grandmothers talking to two or three other people. because if you got on it was rude not to say  something which oft times led to conversation.  You took your entertainment where you found it.  


This would come to a surprise to the youth of today, but pre teens and teenagers in the country did not talk on the phone.  It would never have have crossed our minds to phone a friend.  Our conversations were held at school or at Church or in town on Saturday afternoon.  


When we first got phones there was no dial.  You picked up the phone and the operator came on and she (I don't know that there was such a think as a male operator back then) would get the number for you.  If you didn't know the number she did.  The operator in a small town was known by all and she knew everyone and everything.  If you wanted to know how someone who was sick and maybe in the hospital was doing you just rang the operator and she would know.  But  this was Mangum, county seat of Greer County.  Things were different in the big cities.    


The Party Line was our equivalent of Face Book.


 

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