Don't recall exactly when, but I was on one well into the 80s, until the phone company no longer offered them. Toward the end I was the only party on the line, but still paid the party line rate. I also had measured service until the mid 90s when I got a computer (with modem...dial-up internet ate up those message units in a hurry!). I didn't (and still don't) use the phone all that much and that was one way to keep the cost to a minimum.
I had the $16.74 electronics kit. Notice the phone amplifier, where I could tap the phone line and record the conversations. Not a real big seller today.
The oldest part of our house was built 1734, and then a much larger structure was built over that in 1775. When I moved in, there were three our four red shale stones on the edge of the woods that backed up our property, which looked an awful lot like the very old (1700's) head stones you see in our local churches. I always suspected they were actually for pets, as it seemed all of the prior residents (since at least 1775) used a local church cemetery, but they got plowed under when our new neighbor was clearing the lot to build his house. Makes you wonder...
The author of the lyrics, FS Key, is an uncle of mine. We have one of the few original photos of him hanging in our living room, a very small picture in a very large frame.
My grandparents didn't get rid of their party line till around 2000
That Flavor Aid was some nasty tasting stuff. Came in a little bottle like a tall airline liquor bottle IIRC. Saccharine?
Would love to see a picture of it! It must have a great historical significance; FSK, according to Wikipedia, died in 1843...photography was very new at that time, and only a few photos exist prior to that period. I'll bet there are museums that would love to get it or a copy!
Thanks for asking, mostly because you made me realize I have no digital backup of that photo! My sister had it mounted years ago, as a gift for me, before we bothered with digital photos. Gonna have to pull it out of its mounting and scan it for safe keeping, sometime soon.
Quoting myself now, but looking online at drawings and paintings of FS Key, I'm beginning to wonder if my sister or some prior relative hadn't mixed up photos, somewhere along the way. It can be hard to match up a photo taken later in life with a drawing or painting made during one's early life, but the eyebrow ridge seems all wrong, in matching this photo to any known drawing or painting of FS Key. The nose and hair are easy to imagine from known paintings to this photo, but I just can't get past the difference in eyebrow ridge. The age also makes it suspect, as the quality of this photo is remarkably good for 1840's.