Wiretapping - It is certainly not a new word | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I know that many have been anxiously awaiting the next version of the Bobby Tony Dictionary series. Well here is another installment. Most people would start at the front of the alphabet. A and work towards Z, but since I'm dyslexic I'm going the other way.

   I have written about my childhood cowboy heroes.( Cowboys of the Fifties. )I think one of my first brushes with wiretapping was on Euclid Avenue in Little Five Points somewhere in the vicinity of 1955. I do not remember the exact date but I am pretty sure it was on a Saturday morning. There were two movie theaters in L5P. One played the westerns matinee, which was a sort of cowboy soap opera. We did not have a TV in 1955 so I did not know what a soap opera was then. The Saturday Morning Matinee featured, Red Ryder, Rocky Lane or Wild Bill Elliott, but the real draw was the Roy Rogers Riders Club. The club issued membership cards and had a set of rules. The other theater played the Adult Westerns of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. I no longer have my membership card but I found a copy on the internet and now have it framed in my Man Cave.
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    The club also had a set of rules, which every member was expected to follow faithfully.
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    Obviously, a quick review of the rules today shows the total naivety of the kids back then as well as their parents and the Hollywood movie stars. What a crock to expect kids to follow such an outlandish set of rules.

    I do not think that I saw my first instance of wiretapping in the Roy Rogers movies, but somewhere in the mix I am sure I saw a cowboy climb the telephone pole and tap into the Telegraph wires to either send or eavesdrop on the line. It really does not make any difference because as I understand it, that was before the Wild West became a part of the USA and there was no Bill of Rights in the Old West. Well, that is not exactly true, there was a right to own and carry a gun, rifle and that most dreaded of all weapons; a lasso.

    It was around that time that I also noticed the Lone Ranger's Partner, Tonto, (sidekick is probably not allowed but partner sounds modern now doesn't it?) could eavesdrop on the Injuns by intercepting their smoke signals.

   By the way the Lone Ranger also had a creed that today would be so unreasonable that it would be considered laughable. After careful review, I did not see any ban on Wiretapping or intercepting smoke signals, so I guess that was okay back then.

    Well, if we move forward quite a few years, I had several friends who went to work with the phone company. The installers and repairmen were issued a Rotary Phone Tester set. This allowed them to test the lines when they were on the pole or in the junction box.

    I am sure that this was not allowed but one of my friends would occasionally tap into the line of his girlfriend from the pole just down the street from her apartment. I am sure it was completely innocent and his intention was merely to check on the integrity of her phone line.

    He eventually moved to Wyoming because he really wanted to be a cowboy. He called me one day and while we were talking, I kept hearing noise in the background. It sounded like wind and traffic. I asked him where he was and he said, I am on a pole by the highway in a snow storm. We talked for relatively long time as I remember because the call was free or at least on someone else's dime.

    I don't know the current status of law but apparently it is no longer a bad thing to do even though it may be technically legal. Hell everybody is doing it now and some are even bragging about doing it. He was never caught or punished for his Felonious crime. That is of little comfort to me since he passed away in 2015. I repeated this story in my tribute to him in this post. Passing of Friends.

   Here is a link to that quaint old time of law and order circa 1986. Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. § 256-22.
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