The Old Party Line Gossip

                                                By kiki

I was 15 (1952) when we got our first phone; soon after, we moved to Pico. It was one of the old party line phones of the time; our prefix was OX (Oxford). In the Simons Brickyard, we, the people, didn't have phones and had to walk about one mile to the Greenwood Market to use the pay phone if you wanted to gossip. The party line phone was the bomb. If you wanted the chisme (gossip) of the day, all you needed to do was pick up the phone and listen to the Viejas ("ladies") with their chismes. When they would find out I was listening, they would scream at me, "cabron, get off the f^*king line." The viejas not only had the chisme of the day, but they also had a mouth on them that would make a sailor blush