In Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon Days," there's a passage that describes the fictional Minnesota town's telephone operator, who was the go-to person to hear about news, gossip and goings-on around ...

If my family ever shared a party line phone, I do not remember it. What I do remember is a big black rotary phone that hung on the wall. Every phone was rotary then. No, it did not have a crank on the ...