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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WHATS THE BIG DEAL?

Last year at this time, i posted this and this year i do so again.  Happy Birthday Jimbo

You know as you get older, you realize things you considered BIG are really LITTLE in the scheme of things.  For instance: you will recall that Mate and I ran off and got married.  Boy was that a BIG thing!  After 57 years the actual planning and doing it was not at all that big.  It was one of many defining moments in our lives and certainly the living together is BIGGER than the actual running away.   The finding a way to buy a home across the street from the Colleys  was really not such a BIG thing.  The BIG thing was living and forming lasting memories and friendships together  for over 30 years.    In 1967, our family consisted of a Mom, Dad and 14 year old daughter.  Our lives were just peachy.  Our wants were not much.   Daughter was doing okay in school, we were  content.  Had just what we wanted.  Fusses every once in a while but they passed.  All in all....... GOOD life.  God blessed us.

1968 proved that indeed God has a sense of humor. 

 If you live in Wichita Falls, Texas, you know that usually on the last Saturday in January each year, the Kiwanis Club has a pancake breakfast and it is almost mandatory to attend sometime during the day.  We always did.  After all you got to visit with people you didn't see much during the year, and every politician who was running for office or trying to stay in office would be there and back then they gave away pencils or  rulers.  It was, you might say,  festive.  Plus all the bacon and pancakes you wanted.

In 1968 my doctor's office was open on Saturday mornings.    I had  made an appointment.  Told no one.  In my mind I had decided I was going to have a baby.  Don't have the slightest idea why (maybe that sense of humor thing again).  Dr. Richard Bates, my doctor for everything.  I loved Richard Bates.  No personality,  seldom ever joked , just down to business.  Office on Brook Street.  Told him what I thought, and he laughed.  That was a BIG thing.  I had made Richard Bates laugh.  Had to do what was called a rabbit  test back then. Had nothing to do with a rabbit but thats what it was called.  He said he would let me know Monday.  Told him I would be a maniac before Monday.  Nurse, friend of mine,  said she would run the test and he would call me in a couple of hours.  Feeling better I went home.

Mate and daughter ready to go eat pancakes.  I stalled and I stalled.  Phone rang.  I answered.  Simple statement from Richard Bates.  "You're pregnant."  His next words, "Are you Okay?"  I think I must have weakly said "Yes".    How do you  tell  two unsuspecting persons that three people's lives as they know them are about to change and change dramatically, when they have no clue what is going on?  When in doubt, barrel in. "Lets go eat pancakes and by the way, we are going to have a baby,"  I said as I walked toward the door.  That my friends was a 'BIG THING'.

Needless to say we did not leave right away, we had a family discussion.  Daughter wanted immediately to run tell the neighbors.  Mate said, do not leave the house.  I think it took a while for it to sink in.

Well 1968 had come in like a lion.  We adjusted.  Daughter was ecstatic, Mate happy, I stayed in shock.  I was the practical one.  I thought about things like, PTA again, bottles to sterilize, diapers to wash.  Now along about three-forths of the way through I began to do some investigation and found that things had come a long way.  Bottles of formula could be bought and all you had to do was to put a nipple on the top of the bottle. Pampers were introduced some 7 years earlier but had not caught on.  They had a long way to go and still used those huge safety pins with the little ducks on them.  However, at this point in time, unlike when Daughter was born, we had a washer.  No dryer yet, but a washer that you did not have to stand over and operate.  It did it on its own.  Still almost every back yard had a clothes line. One good thing about the pregnancy is that I never felt better in my entire life, before or since.  Didn't gain but 14 pounds, was able to get really cute maternity clothes and best of all people made over me all the time.  They thought it was wonderful. I was not certain of that.  Selfishly I kept thinking about how my life was going to change.    I worked until 2:00 on the afternoon of September 9, 1968, and went home got my "stuff" together and Mate, Daughter and I journeyed to the hospital where I was scheduled to deliver a baby the next morning at 9:30.  Well, it was almost fun.  I had a large room, flowers from bosses, whatever I wanted to eat that evening.  It wasn't til Mate and Daughter left that I assessed my position.  There was no way to get out of it, no way to say, "I changed my mind", nothing to do but plow ahead and wonder if it would be a boy or girl.    So the next morning,  I bade my family a teary see you later and was wheeled into the operating room.  At 9:36 on September 10, 1968 ,  Dr. Bates  announced, "You have a fine looking boy here." 

That folks is a 
          BIG, BIG, DEAL Happy Birthday Son.  Thanks for coming into our lives

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