Flipside: What is the worst city you ever visited and why?

[jmowreader]

333. There are three towns in south Idaho that still have one telephone line for the whole community

In the very earliest days of the phone system, the wiring used was called "open wire." Imagine two bare wires with little ceramic things spaced out along their length to keep the wires separated, and you know what open wire is. When the Civilian Conservation Corps was active, one of the things they did was run open-wire phone lines to the remotest areas in Idaho. And to do it, they had to walk the wire reels through the woods--and as you probably remember, "the woods" in Idaho means mountainous terrain.

Three of the towns so served (I saw the names once, but have forgotten; it's one of the things no one would be interested enough in to put online) still have these wires because it would be too expensive to run modern wiring. There aren't enough people up there to justify a radio-link solution like satellite, terrestrial microwave or troposcatter, so there you have it...one phone serving the whole town.

Nowhere else in the world does this wire still exist.