LAST EDITED ON Jul-30-18 AT 03:06 PM (EDT)
 
>>Try explaining party lines. I double-dog-dare you. :)
>
>"You know the General tab on an MMO's in-game chat window? Whole
>towns' phone service used to be basically that, except usually without
>as many Nazis and Chinese gold farmers."

That's an excellent example. Except the last video games I played were on an at Atari 5200. In the late '80s. (No judgement; video games just aren't my thing.)

>Less flippantly, party lines have been featured as either plot hooks
>or comedy props in so many movies and TV shows that they have a
>certain cultural staying power, at least among people who willingly
>consume media older than they are. :)

You'd think so, but party lines are a conversation The Wife and I have repeated multiple times. The "media older than they are" is a big hurdle for those punks, who won't. get off. my LAWN.

(Explaining 50 years of Iron Man history over breakfast to my boys this morning might have me inna mood.)

<SNIP phone number historical tutorial>
Interesting; I knew some of that, but not all of it.

The Yooper town I grew up in only required using the last four digits of a phone number to dial within our prefix until at least '91.

(ETA: Spelling. Always spelling.)