Gossip Girls

Cousins Nancy and Julia Carey have been established as the proprietresses of the Le Chapeau hat shop on Town Square. These young ladies are perfect for this business, with their flair for fashion, flirting, and femininity, but they also love to gossip about everything and everyone in town.

Just inside the door of their shop, you'll find this telephone. Of course, in this period few people had a phone, much less a dedicated line. Many of the phones of the day were installed in business establishments as an attraction to draw in customers, and most of those would have been "party lines."

With a party line, several customers shared the same telephone connection, resulting in a certain lack of privacy. By simply picking up the receiver while someone else was on the line, you could listen in on their conversation. No doubt, the Carey girls enjoy spending time between millinery jobs following what everyone else is up to... and carrying on about it to each other.

Next time you pay a visit to the town of Main Street, step inside and pick up the phone. You might just be surprised at what you hear.