past continuous with the simple past tense : 

The past continuous tense uses ; 

 Was / were+ ( verb ) + ing 

It is used to show something that happened in the past and continued for a while . For example  : 

from 8: 00 to 8:30 I was taking a bath . 

 We use the past continuous tense with the simple past

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(When we want to show  that one thing happened in the middle of another thing ) 

* I was having a breakfast , the phone rang . 

*During a period of time ( 8: 00 - 8: 30 ) I was having a shower . at one time let's say ( 8: 17 ) someone called on the telephone . 

We can also connect the past continuous and the simple past together using when, while  , and as 

When I was having , the dog barked .

The dog barked when I was having a shower .

As I was writing my note , someone shouted .

Someone shouted as I was writing. 

Notice that ; If you use when , while , or as at the beginning of the sentence , you need to put a comma ( ,) after the phrase