I live in Brooklyn and when I moved into my current house (30 years ago) the static on the line after a rainstorm was horrible. I'd call for repair and they'd delay for a few days until everything dried out and then give it an NTF.

One day the problem was so bad the gal at Repair yelled at me that she couldn't understand me and I should try to find another phone to call the problem in on. Then she hung up.

I went down the block to the Lutheran church, banged on the sexton's door and told him I was going up the pole in his back yard. (He looked at me like I was crazy, but nodded OK) I had put tone on my line in the house and found my pair without a problem. After cleaning all the bugs out of the box, I removed my pair from the binding post, restripped it, cleaned the posts, and re-terminated the connection. Clean as a whistle.

Then I did something that hadn't been done in probably 10 years.

I closed the box.

To be fair about 10 or 15 years later Nynex replaced all the plant in my neighborhood. (I hadn't had any problems in that time, but I guess other people did). The new plant was fine and worked well. I switched to FIOS a few years ago and the service has been excellent.

But originally...... The worst.

Sam

"Where are we going and why are we in this hand basket?"