Before there were chat rooms: The Pipeline

[LittleJudy]

Looking for any Detroit Boomers who remember The Pipeline from the 1970s. I spent my grade school years in Oak Park, but I think it was also available in Southfield. Basically, if you dialed any of several 3-digit numbers [[511, 211, 711 were some of the combinations) you'd connect to what was essentialy a voice chat room and talk to a bunch of other kids or teens. This wasn't a commercial service or anything like that, it was something kids stumbled on accidentally and then spread via word of mouth.

I haven't been able to find anything about this elsewhere on the web...

[OsbornGirl]

I grew up in Detroit and remember pipeline well!! You dialed the "time" number and after the lady said the time, there was this dead air and you could yell out things before she told the time again. You didn't have much time but you could manage "any guys out there?" and "what school do you go to?" and if you wanted,your phone number and they would call you!! The sound was pretty bad...like you were in a pipe...Pipeline!!! What fun!!! Such innocence!!! But it worked and we would meet people!!!

[oldredfordette]

I remember the day they cut it off. That's when I knew I would spend my life fighting the Man. lol.

[gazhekwe]

I don't remember a particular pipeline, but had that experience a time or two waiting on hold for a DJ, all of a sudden there were a whole bunch of us talking to each other, then, whoosh, everybody else went away and it was my turn to make a request or whatever. It was cool, and I don't think it was something the radio station engineered, it was just serendipity.

[Wingnatic]

I remember yelling at people to get off my phone when I wanted to make a call , I think they were called '' party lines '' You could always ask over at Detroit Memories [[on Facebook) and someone may remember . Click on the Facebook [[if you already have an account ) icon here :

apparently Detroit Memories link isn't allowed here ? Look it up on Google

[oldredfordette]

Party lines were different. Two households would share a line. You would pick up the phone and hear other conversations. It was great when you were five, easy eavesdropping. Pipeline was like a telephone portal where young people could talk.

[Ravine]

Truth: I met a girl who turned out to be one of my very closest friends on Pipeline. I was 12 or 13. We were close for many years; her family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where I went to visit her for a couple of months. [[By that time, I was about 21 or so.) Her boyfriend was a Sicilian guy named Jack, who I did not much like, because he seemed like a shit-head. When her family moved, she stayed here, briefly, before flying to Anchorage "for good." Jack & I took her to the airport. Something about that mission bonded us, and we became great, great friends, so much so that when I was to be married, I would not choose between my only brother and Jack, so I had two Best Men.
And that is my Pipeline story.

[Leroy Hoard]

I believe they were open lines used by the phone company for their own reasons. Some kids found out about them and used them as the first chat rooms. "Telephone Chaos"