Telephone Marathons
Back in 1961, the fad of holding marathon telephone calls swept college campuses. The girls dormitory would call the boys dormitory, and then people would take it in turns to keep the phone call going for days, or weeks. Of course, the dormitory phone would be tied up that entire time... so too bad if you had to use it for an actual call.
The longest telephone marathon I can find a record of took place at Southern Illinois University in 1965, where they planned a 2½ month phone call. Though I don't know if the full call was actually completed.
The longest telephone marathon I can find a record of took place at Southern Illinois University in 1965, where they planned a 2½ month phone call. Though I don't know if the full call was actually completed.
(above and below) Dec 1961: Western Michigan students talked on the phone for 504 hours.
Southern Illinoisan - June 30, 1965
Comments
What are those strange devices they're using?
Where we lived some ten miles out of town, we were tied to a party line service by the local phone company. For those of you not familiar with the term it meant a shared line among subscribers where you needed to be sure another customer wasn't using the line at the time you wanted to use it. It also allowed one to surreptitiously listen in on conversations of the other subscribers. For us kids it was a great source of gossip - other kids, and their mothers, would talk merrily away while we listened.
Where we lived some ten miles out of town, we were tied to a party line service by the local phone company. For those of you not familiar with the term it meant a shared line among subscribers where you needed to be sure another customer wasn't using the line at the time you wanted to use it. It also allowed one to surreptitiously listen in on conversations of the other subscribers. For us kids it was a great source of gossip - other kids, and their mothers, would talk merrily away while we listened.
Posted by KDP on 04/24/17 at 08:10 AM
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Category: Fads | 1960s | Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia