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Thread Number: 70425
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
The Life of a Telephone Operator in 1969 |
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| Post# 933460 4/20/2017 at 00:03 (2,562 days old) by Michaelman2 (Lauderdale by the Sea, FL) | ||
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This is a video created by AT&T in 1969. Technology has totally changed the human interaction that was so common place in years past.
Loved the cordboard.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO Michaelman2's LINK | ||
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| Post# 933464 , Reply# 1 4/20/2017 at 00:55 (2,562 days old) by funktionalart (Rison, AR) | ||
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Post# 933469 , Reply# 2 4/20/2017 at 02:50 (2,561 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy  (Oak Park, MI) |
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Those switchboards would have to really expand! | ||
| Post# 933478 , Reply# 3 4/20/2017 at 05:19 (2,561 days old) by toploader55 (Massachusetts Sand Bar, Cape Cod) | ||
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Post# 933597 , Reply# 5 4/20/2017 at 19:47 (2,561 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Post# 933600 , Reply# 6 4/20/2017 at 20:20 (2,561 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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My mother was an operator for MA Bell in the 40's. Money was good thru her Union, stress was not good, she said. I came along in '54 and she was adamant I never work for the phone company ever. But I got a very nice job with Verizon, it swapped to Fairpoint, then the layoffs happened and last in, first out, thanks union dues for not doing anything to help me.
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Post# 933604 , Reply# 8 4/20/2017 at 21:24 (2,561 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey) |
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Post# 933632 , Reply# 9 4/20/2017 at 23:54 (2,561 days old) by GusHerb (Chicago/NWI) |
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Ernestine Is my favorite! | ||
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Post# 933646 , Reply# 10 4/21/2017 at 05:01 (2,560 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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I explained the process of using telephone operators to make long distance calls to my nephew's kids (6th grade) and he looked at me like I was from the stone age, LOL.
Today's system is faster and more convenient, but, as with nearly everything else, you rarely have contact with an actual human being on the other end of the line. I don't have a home phone anymore, but can you even get an operator if you press '0'? And remember when you could call 411 (I think that was the number) and get Information service to find a phone number? | ||
| Post# 933648 , Reply# 11 4/21/2017 at 06:06 (2,560 days old) by washman (o) | ||
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Hi Frig! | ||
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Post# 933710 , Reply# 13 4/21/2017 at 12:48 (2,560 days old) by joeekaitis (Rialto, California, USA) |
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"The switchboard was in their living room. " | ||
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Post# 933714 , Reply# 14 4/21/2017 at 13:24 (2,560 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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| Post# 933716 , Reply# 15 4/21/2017 at 13:31 (2,560 days old) by Iheartmaytag (Wichita, Kansas) | ||
 Locally our phone system was automated by the time I came along in the 60s, but I do remember my mother making a long distance call to my grandmother in Missouri. It would have to go through several operators before the connection was finally made, and it was expensive in comparison to todays unlimited rates.
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| Post# 933752 , Reply# 17 4/21/2017 at 17:13 (2,560 days old) by ken (NYS) | ||
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| Post# 933755 , Reply# 18 4/21/2017 at 17:33 (2,560 days old) by ken (NYS) | ||
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Post# 933759 , Reply# 19 4/21/2017 at 18:20 (2,560 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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I still have 4 of those rotary phones. Green and a black desk model as just shown, brown trimline and white wall. Plus an orange trimline touchtone. The green desk and orange trimline are hooked up and work fine if the power goes out, plus their bells can wake the dead. Perks from working at the phone company that no one wanted.
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Post# 934026 , Reply# 22 4/23/2017 at 10:15 (2,558 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI ) |
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| Post# 934459 , Reply# 24 4/25/2017 at 12:04 (2,556 days old) by Michaelman2 (Lauderdale by the Sea, FL) | ||
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Movie with model crying over rotary phone I believe the movie referenced above is " In and Out". Circa 1997? Kevin Klein .... funny movie and if memory serves there is a model that is relagated to a motel with a rotary dial phone. She knows it is a telephone but has no clue as to how to make a call ( dial ) from it. Watch the movie it really is a fun film. | ||
| Post# 934476 , Reply# 25 4/25/2017 at 13:00 (2,556 days old) by Travis () | ||
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This is one example of technology removing thousands of jobs. Everyone with a modern phone, it's all YOUR fault! | ||
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Post# 934485 , Reply# 26 4/25/2017 at 13:30 (2,556 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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$0.02 From the CYpress Exchange So true Travis! One of these days all of those people whose crappy, choppy, delayed transmission -- not to mention highly vulnerable "smart" phones have become an appendage are going to wish they had access to the clarity, security and reliability of a land line with a telephone set built to last for decades, not just until next year's model is introduced.
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| Post# 934495 , Reply# 27 4/25/2017 at 14:19 (2,556 days old) by ken (NYS) | ||
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Honestly I hate talking on a cell phone whether Im on another cell or land line on my end. I find the delay very annoying. I guess I take for granted Im simply talking on a phone. I guess I still have the mindset of the speed and quality of a landline call. At the point Im saying my next thought the reply of the other person to the first thing I said is just being heard so I stop talking mid sentence. Then they hear the broken sentence of the next thing I was saying so they stop talking. So I start to repeat what I was saying and then they also start talking again! I then realize give it time. Talk slower. Pause. Listen carefully so I can understand what the other person is saying because the sound quality is crappy compared to our old landline service. Im glad I have a cheap LG flip phone that I purchased for $28.00 and also that my service costs only $10.00 a month with TracPhone. It serves the purpose for what I need a cell phone for. This morning when I was across the street getting the mail at the post office the 20 something year old girl waiting on me took her phone out of her smock and set it on the counter. She must have received a text so she just had to answer it immediately which is what she proceeded to do while waiting on me. At least she showed she can multi task very well.
Here's an ad I just came across for some old rotary phones. hartford.craigslist.org/app/6090...
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Post# 934579 , Reply# 29 4/25/2017 at 22:20 (2,556 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Yes, international calls is possible, I don't know. But for calls within the country telephone traffic was fully automatic in 1962. Dialing a zero wouldn't give you an operator. The zero was the first number for the number before the local number. For instance our phone number local was 2003. People from outside our town had to dial 05190-2003.
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| Post# 934612 , Reply# 30 4/26/2017 at 03:12 (2,555 days old) by Stan (Napa CA) | ||
My 
House phone
Ringer box below. This was original phone to the house, however even though it has a dial, there was no dial tone til about 15 years later. The old number was 805J
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Post# 934674 , Reply# 31 4/26/2017 at 13:01 (2,555 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Stan, I had that exact same arrangement (1931 D-1 set with 1931 box) when I was serving as householder in a 1937 home back in the mid '80s. I loved hearing the "brrrrinnng" sound from the bell box. Upstairs in that same home I had a 1938 metal 302 model in the hallway on a 25' cord.
These days, that phone and box rig is in the guest bedroom. I disabled the ringer for a couple of reasons: I don't want to disturb guests, and the old ringers draw so much current that my '60s chime box in the den stops chiming. I have three vintage phones that are set to ring in addition to the chime box. Any more than that and the chime reverts to a loud clang. | ||
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Post# 934706 , Reply# 32 4/26/2017 at 15:23 (2,555 days old) by Gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA) |
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Stan I remember when my father's desk had two of those. They made great doorstops later on as they must have weighed 25 pounds. | ||
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Post# 934795 , Reply# 33 4/26/2017 at 20:07 (2,555 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Michaelman, need to agree with Louis. What you're saying is true for the NANP (North American Numbering Plan), but not necessarily for the rest of the world. 0 for operator is common, but wasn't standard in smaller countries with less of a concept of "long distance" like the Netherlands. They certainly had a way to get an international operator (may have been "11" or "12" or ...). I've been in the phone business since 1992...one of the more interesting museums I've been to was the Telephone Museum in Stockholm...Ericsson is to Sweden as AT&T is to the US...very interesting to see the development at their museum (similar technological steps as the US had, but what we see as "exotic" was the norm for Ericsson...they did a much greater portion of their business overseas than AT&T (which didn't really operate overseas except for licensing their stuff to Canada...IT&T was the US company which was more engaged internationally.
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Post# 934858 , Reply# 34 4/26/2017 at 23:05 (2,555 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Actually it was 0018. It was an information number for international telephone traffic. You could call it for an international telephone number. If you were able to call it yourself, you would put the phone down after you were given the number and call it yourself. If you would let them connect you to it, there was an extra charge. Calling to countries that you couldn't call yourself was more expensive anyway.
There was also an information number for national telephone traffic. It was 008. They didn't connect you, just gave you the number. Only in later years you could let them connect you as an extra service, but there was an extra charge too. We also had numbers for a time signal (002) and for the weather forecast from our national weather institute (003). There were more such numbers, they were all listed at the back of every phonebook. BTW, every phone cord had four wires, I don't know if that was different than in other countries? | ||
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Post# 934871 , Reply# 36 4/27/2017 at 00:07 (2,555 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Through a good friend, in 1980 I met another friend who lived in Napa, CA. At that point in time, he said it had only been about a year since Napa exchanges no longer required dialing Operator for long distance. In the more populated parts of the SF Bay Area, direct dial long distance was widely available by the mid '60s.
In Crockett, CA, not too far east of the SF Bay Area, they didn't have dial phones until the mid to late '70s. That exchange may have been the last in the state to transition to dial service.
While I was working at Pacific Bell, the old timers would often say that Pacific Telephone had always been Ma Bell's ugly stepchild. We got everything last. Even the heavily recycled 302 type telephone sets, introduced in 1937, were still being deployed for residential service into the early '60s, a good dozen years after the modern 500 models had been introduced east of the Rockies. There was one mechanical switch still remaining here in this city that was closing in on population 1,000,000 back in the early '90s. Subscribers in that exchange couldn't even get Call Waiting over a dozen years after most others in the area had been using it and other features, which became available with upgrades to electronic switching equipment. Ma Bell's legacy was a tough one to shake for Pac Bell until the Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed the telecom game forever, and not necessarily for the better. | ||
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