Phones bring town into 19th century Rural area will finally get Bell's handy invention

Houston Chronical (NYT) ^ | Dec. 18, 2004 | RALPH BLUMENTHAL

[bayourod]

MINK, LA. - It's no secret what the 15 householders in this tiny settlement want for Christmas: the same thing they have always wanted year-round — telephones.

Not bag phones, the primitive portable stopgap often carried around in a canvas case, which send residents out in their pickups searching for service "hot spots," but real telephones wired to a land line.

Alexander Graham Bell's invention of 1876 never reached Mink, a onetime trappers' paradise in the Kisatchie National Forest in east-central Louisiana, although neighbors just down the road on Highways 117 and 118 were wired for telephones in the 1970s.

The telephone also never reached the hundred families of Shaw and Black Hawk, hunting and camping communities across the state along the Mississippi River, some of the few and untabulated places around the country lacking telephone lines. Yes, the telephone is not everywhere. In fact, televisions are more common in American homes today.

But now the 19th century is catching up with Mink and other isolated areas. Pushed by the state's Public Service Commission, BellSouth, at what it says is enormous expense, is wiring Mink for telephone service scheduled to start by March. Shaw and Black Hawk, where the geography defies wiring, are to have cellular towers.

"I'm so excited, I can't hardly contain it," said Louise Bolton, 83, a widow in Mink who, like her neighbors, relies on a clunky analog bag phone the size of a flat desk model that transmits the voice on a radio band.

"It works, but it's not reliable," Bolton said. "All last night and this morning I had a busy signal."

Last February, Foster Campbell, a state senator elected in 2002 to represent north Louisiana on the state's Public Service Commission, came here for a community meeting and got an earful.

"I said, 'What, you have static?' They said, no, they never had a telephone," he recalled. "I said: 'Wait a minute. You never had a telephone?' I had to sit down."

[bayourod]

Now we can poll them.

[TexasTransplant]

West Central Louisiana

[patriot_wes]

"It's no secret what the 15 householders in this tiny settlement want for Christmas: the same thing they have always wanted year-round — telephones"

just what they need - their next meal interupted by some immigrant sounding voice on the other end saying ..."can I esplain you about our new long distance service???"

[stylin19a]

Pushed by the state's Public Service Commission, BellSouth, at what it says is enormous expense...

um......isn't that what the Universal Fund (and it's predecessors) is for ?
The Fund, to which the phone companies must contribute and are allowed to pass the cost on to us ?

http://www.researchedge.com/uss/dev.html

[bayourod]

I don't know why they just didn't use theri broadban cable? Dumb northernors.

[Fiddlstix]

[Billthedrill]

These people have also never heard of telemarketers. I hope they don't end up killing somebody...

[My Favorite Headache]

you know the drill

[bayourod]

When I was young I used such a phone. It was a miracle to be able to direct ring a number instead of having to go thru an operator. A complete turn of the crank was a long ring, a half turn was a short ring.

If you wanted to call Irma you turned the crank two full turns and one short. Ned was one short, two long and one short.

If there was an emergency call, you simply told the parties using the phones that you had an emergency and ask them to hang up. They would always listen in to make sure you weren't just calling a friend with some gossip.

[since1868]

I wonder how they were able to order a pizza.

[eccentric]

I thought we were 'backwoods' when SBC can't get the town's name right (or bills are sent to a town 7 miles away) and we can't get call-notes.

Cell phones? "No, I can't hear you now."

[Fiddlstix]

LOL. I grew up out in the sticks too. I remember it well. The old party lines. 8-10 people on the same line. One long ring got the operator. (Our ring was two shorts and long if memory serves). You knew who the call was for by hearing the various rings. Almost everybody listened in.

Those were the days.

[bayourod]

You must be older than dirt.

[mhking]

The mind boggles....

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Fiddlstix]

You must be older than dirt.

LOL. Almost J

[Loyalist]

I had a party line at my house in rural Nova Scotia until I was about 12, and I'm only 29. Heck, my area didn't even get cable TV until I was 18.

[bayourod]

"Heck, my area didn't even get cable TV until I was 18. "

That's so sad. I hope you are coping with it OK now. I hope you have a merry Christmas and Santa brings you a 87# flat screen TV.

[stylin19a]

Thanx for filling in the gaps with that info....

[groanup]

They can have my cell phone. They can have my land line. I'll communicate by computer (if I need to).

[Paleo Conservative]

But now the 19th century is catching up with Mink and other isolated areas. Pushed by the state's Public Service Commission, BellSouth, at what it says is enormous expense, is wiring Mink for telephone service scheduled to start by March. Shaw and Black Hawk, where the geography defies wiring, are to have cellular towers.

Why wire POTS? Why not all cellular? It would make more sense to use VOIP over cable TV than to put in old fashioned twisted pair.

[groanup]

One of these days they're going to figure out how to make televisions with color. Just watch.

[CajunConservative]

I remember having a party line in 1980 in the rural part of Beauregard Parish, about 50 miles south of Mink. The only reason we got the phone in the first place was because my mother knew James David Cain's secretary and needed the phone for work. It took knowing someone to get phone service in certain areas then.

I did not realize though that there were still some parts of the state without phones still.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

Our family had a crank phone that required the operator to connect you with whom you wished to speak. Then we got dial phone service in the late fifties. I still have the phone that was installed in our house and it worked just fine for forty years.

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL. Almost J

[Moonman62]

Why wire POTS? Why not all cellular? It would make more sense to use VOIP over cable TV than to put in old fashioned twisted pair.

The government is involved, that's why.

[CajunConservative]

As soon as we could get a private line we did because of the nosy old bitty who was on our party line. She was something else lol.

[whereasandsoforth]

My grandmother had one of those cast-iron desktop rotary dialers from the 1930's. It got "retired" when she died in 1987. The thing weighed 13 pounds. And it work up until the day it was disconnected. She also had a gas refrigerator that never stopped. I think it's still running in the next door neighbor's garage.

[Paleo Conservative]

The government is involved, that's why.

No one would build the phone system from scratch today using twisted pair wire. Even with legacy twisted pair wire, many commercial customers are getting their voice over DSL with VOIP.

[UnklGene]

My grandparents phone number was:"two longs-and a short." Yup, you cranked it.

[rdl6989]

Now for the bad news.

[glorgau]

Also, why lay copper? Many, many parts of the world are bypassing that step completely and going with wireless local loop. Lines in the ground or strung on poles are expensive. A couple more years and WiMax is going to remove any last reason for laying lines.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

Yep. That stuff was built to last a lifetime. Maybe three or four lifetimes.

[Paleo Conservative]

You're preaching to the choir.

[mplsconservative]

Oh geez!

I also had an old biddy that tied up our party line for hours on end.

Not a good thing when I was a teenaged girl waiting for the boys to call.

In retrospect, it was probably lucky!

Yes, she would pick up the receiver and "lurk" on my phone calls - creepy!

[Recovering_Democrat]

ping for later read.

[Bogey78O]

Wireless as always has acted a s abridge till a wire found a way to connect.

[RansomOttawa]

I had a party line at my house in rural Nova Scotia until I was about 12, and I'm only 29.

So far as I know, my grandmother in Nova Scotia is still on a two-party line.

[AppyPappy]

What's Sam Drucker's number?

[JLO]

Oh - and I thought I lived in the sticks - yikes!