The first social media — our party line

Rebecca Sue Kracht, AKA Becky was my closest neighbor and friend from birth. This is her high school graduation photo from 1978. With beautiful naturally blonde hair, she wore the typical senior photo outfit, neat, nice and complete with a senior key necklace. Those necklaces were very popular items in those days.

She was born on the summer solstice, June 21, 1960. I always thought that was so cool, entering earth’s orbit when the seasons change. I was born soon after on July 17, 1960. We were summer babies and I have no idea when we first met. Her parents, Herbert (Herb) Kracht and Iva May (Cole) Kracht were farmers living about 1.5 miles away. Easy to get to their farm. Go out driveway, turn left, go over the south hill, take the first left on gravel, and their farm that they rented was the only right hand turn, almost to the end of the mile. Their home was hidden by a tree lined driveway that eventually curved to the right and there it was, barn on left and across the big yard, the sidewalk led up to a 2 story white frame farmhouse.

We grew up together, yes we did. At some point our Mom’s became very good friends and neighbors. What that meant in the 50-70’s was they talked on the party line phone a lot (sharing phone lines with about 2 to 3 other neighbors). We were on a different party line, so often you had to wait to call each other, especially ours, because we had the Barnes Rodeo Company on our line and they did a lot of business through the party line. I am pretty sure that’s why Mom and Iva May talked so long sometimes. They weren’t sure when they would get the line again! They talked nearly every day.  And remember, everyone on the party line could pick up the phone and listen in.  Party lines were a bargain, compared to a private line!

What did they talk about? Dad used to say if Iva May and Mom were on the phone, just get ready to wait to use it. They had a lot to say…They were extremely busy outdoor farm wives, including walking (weeding) beans, planting and harvesting help, livestock assistants, (milk cows/beef cows/hogs/chickens/cats/dogs), repair part runners for tractors and implements, indoor farm and family household managers, gardeners, cooks, food/garden preserving and canning, laundry doers, house cleaners, church members (Women’s Guild-Fellowship), crafters, 500 community card players, soap opera watchers (when possible), community clubs (Rushing Brooke and Celebrate-A-Birthday, AKA C.A.B.). And of course, their role as mother’s taxi service, driving us to piano lessons, 4-H club meetings at the Afton Township Hall, School Marching and Concert Band, and various school events. And how could I forget?  They added just a little gossip. Not a lot, and not mean stuff, just keeping up to date on what’s what in the neighborhood. (Remember, there was no social media, no cell phones, no internet, no email, just newspapers and land line chatting).

So, they talked about nearly everything on this list and more! When I think of the activities we all did together and the conversations they had, it makes my head swirl…Here’s a sample from my memory bank.

Topic: Raising laying hens, gathering, cleaning, and selling eggs.

Chat: “How are your hens doing? How many eggs do you get every day now? Maybe they are going through a little molting? What type of feed have you been using, Moorman’s? We had an owl come and kill some at sunset, so we’ve had to set a trap and make sure we get them inside every night.”

Topic: Raising hundreds of chickens, from day old chicks brought home in cardboard boxes, from the Linn Grove Hatchery, Linn Grove, IA, (called broilers ready for butchering after about 8 weeks.)
Chat: “How are your little chicks doing? Have you lost a few? Is your brooder house heater working well? It’s been cool, so they’ve really needed that. Ours are starting to lose those fluffy down feathers, What are yours weighing? When do you think they will be ready for butchering?”

Topic: Weather

Chat: “Well, we got some rain last night. How much did you get? Maybe 2 tenths, enough to give the crops a little drink. We could use more, that first hay cutting was mighty skimpy”

Topic: Women’s Guild, St. Johns’ Church

Chat: “Say, I was thinking, when we go to the Aurelia Nursing home to give a prayer service, maybe Becky and Nancy can play the piano, one of those duets they play so well? The older folks always enjoy that. Let’s ride together if that works and we’ll get them out of school just for the service.”

Topic: Becky and Nancy piano lesions at Mrs. Gilbert’s Home in the country, Larrabee, Iowa

Chat: “Sounds like Wednesday is still the best night for all of us for piano lessons, I think Gerri Tigges is going to join for a while. So we can take turns picking up and dropping off after school. Mrs. Gilbert is such a wonderful teacher. She is very patient and kind and a great piano player herself.”

Topic: Cats
Chat: “Well our girls sure do like their cats. Nancy counted 23 around the place, with names!  I don’t think we need any more right now. …Becky has at least that many and she is just cat crazy. Well they sure help keep the mice population down.”

Topic: Canning Garden Produce
Chat: “I think I will have the most tomatoes that I have ever had this year. I am getting a little tired of canning!  But it always comes in handy and you never know what the next year will bring. Waste not, want not”

Topic: Gossip-News
Chat: “Did you hear that there might be a change in girls basketball coming? (Now that we have girls sports (1972-title IX passed as Education Amendment to the Civil Rights Act -We were 12!).  Some people think the girls can run the whole court and should have the same rules as the boys.  We may be changing in a few years to 5 girl BB. Wouldn’t that be something? The 6 person game is pretty slow sometimes vs the boys, with that 2 dribble-pass rule and only half the court available.” (The IA girl’s athletic Union rule didn’t officially change to 5 girl ball until 1993!).

I could go on and on with our Mom’s dialogue. But it influenced Becky and I greatly and we both miss our Moms dearly. They showed us the value of talking things through while expressing your opinion openly. They taught us the value of being a part of the community in which you live, whether it’s church or social functions, or just helping out a neighbor in need.

We stayed at each other’s homes countless times growing up. We loved it, I thought that it was so cool that they milked cows and we had rich creamy milk at the table all the time. You had to stir that heavy cream back into the quart jar, before you used it. We shared meals in their small kitchen, smelling so good with home cooking and feeling so cozy. We sort of had to shuffle into our seats in order with her brothers, the younger, David and the older, Jim.

We learned so much together, how to garden, care for animals, be a good steward of the land, take time to pray and say thank you. And just to “be” who we were becoming. As we entered the teenage years, we’d talk about our crushes on older high school boys that didn’t even know we were alive! We played the piano always, as we learned music together from the same teacher and played together in the same venues and truly enjoyed playing those piano duets, and later in our musical journey’s, played piano/organ duets at St. John’s on the beautiful Hammond organ, Transistor type, called the King of Instruments, an instrument popular today in many professional musical groups.

On the back of this graduation photo, she wrote the following:  “Nancy,
Where to start? We’ve been friends for so long! Although there were a couple times where I wasn’t so sure! Have fun the rest of the year and in the future. (I know you will make the most of it). Don’t be too rowdy! Good Luck, A Friend Forever, Becky, PTL”

I treasure this photo and the message from back in time. I treasure our friendship to this day and we always seem to pick right back up where we left off when we get the chance to connect. I don’t know why she wrote that she briefly doubted our friendship, but high school is often a fickle age. We continue to connect even though we don’t live 1.5 miles away, now it’s about 200+ miles apart. But during our coming of age years we have connections rooted in farm labor, laughter, and telephone chats that are part of our very being.  It is an honor to call Becky my friend.