Grain Valley News
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Voter Resources
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Kindness Awards
    • 2023 Garage Sale Directory
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Voter Resources
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Kindness Awards
    • 2023 Garage Sale Directory
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form








​news

Looking Back: Number Please...

11/5/2020

 
by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
​     48, 61, 22, 102-N-5. Aunt Opal, Grandma Rumbo, Loring Hardware, Grandma Napier. Those were the number I committed to memory in my childhood. Those were all of the “important” numbers I needed to know besides my own, 102-N-4. In case of an “emergency” those were the numbers I could call after I first called the telephone operator.
     If you had lived in Grain Valley prior to May 20, 1956, then you would have been familiar with the old bell ringer phones. But, do you remember your phone number?
     My family lived in the country, just north of town. People in the country had “party lines” which were shared with the neighbors. There were 4 families on our line, including my grandparents who lived next door. When the telephone rang 4 short times it was someone calling us because the last digit of our number was 4.
     My grandparents were N-5; five shorts. Our party line also included the Becks (N-2) and the Coopers (N-3) who lived further north on Buckner Tarsney Road. In the early 1950’s there were no homes between Duncan Road and Pink Hill road with telephones. In fact, the phone directory had fewer than 280 listings for Grain Valley and the surrounding area.
     As a young child I loved to call my aunt or grandparents on the telephone. But, there was one call I always dreaded.  In the evenings when my dad would end up at our hardware store talking, my mother would tell me to call and let him know dinner was waiting…it was time to eat.
     I would ring the phone and on came the operator, “Number, please.”
I would give her the number I wanted to call, “22.”
And then came her dreaded reply, “Is the train coming?”
     It would make me so mad! She never said that to my mother, or my older brother.  Just me.
     I was sure it was her way of telling me I was just a little kid and not nearly as grown up as I thought I was. I was nine years old when we got dial phones in Grain Valley. What a joyous day!
     And then, of course, there was the whole party line problem! Any conversation that lasted longer than 3 minutes would be interrupted by others on the line. Sometimes they would hear the line was busy and hang up immediately. But, some people would stay on the line and listen to your entire conversation. Do you wonder how “gossip” started?
     In 1956 dial phones came to Grain Valley and Blue Springs complete with instructions on how to use them. It wasn’t many years before we got push button telephones.
     Maybe we should hang on to the instruction book. I’m sure the present generation of young people have never used a dial phone either. Do you think they understand the term “land line?”
 
Picture
Picture

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Burton Kelso
    Business
    Cathy Allie
    Celebrations & Transitions
    Census
    City Of Grain Valley
    Columnists
    Community Profile
    Covid19
    Covid-19
    Economic-development
    Education
    Elections
    Financial-health
    Fitness
    Food Inspections
    Good News
    Good-news
    Grain-valley-assistance-council
    Grain Valley Fair
    Grain Valley Historical Society
    Grain-valley-partnership
    Grain Valley Schools
    Health And Fitness
    Health-and-fitness
    Home And Garden
    Jackson County
    Kindness Awards
    Ld
    Letters
    Local News
    Looking Back
    Lorne-meinershagen
    Missouri House Of Representatives
    Missouri Senate
    Musings From The Middle
    Neighborhood View
    On-the-job
    Pets
    Police Blotter
    Quick-news
    Rdn
    Recreation
    Sally-whitaker
    Seniors
    Senior-send-off
    Sports
    State Of Missouri
    Technology
    Tracey-shaffer
    Transportation
    University Of Missouri Extension
    Waynes-world

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018

Grain Valley News

Grain Valley News is a free community news source published weekly online. 
(c) 2023 Grain Valley News

Contact Us

PO Box 2972
​Grain Valley MO 64029

Privacy Policy
Picture