telephone operators

It was late in 1922, I believe, when I applied for work at the telephone company and was hired by Hattie Goody, then the chief operator. I was still in my sophomore year of high school. You could go t work in those days at the age of sixteen years. I worked part-time during the school year, and full-time in the summers. Of course, it was always late hours such as six to ten p.m. while I was going to school, and one to ten p.m. when I was not. My sister, Freda, was already an operator with the company and that's what made me think about working for Bell. After I graduated from City High in 1925, I went on permanent full-time.

Perhaps I should mention that even before I started with the company I'd occasionally go up to visit my sister while she was working at the board, between, say nine and ten p.m. I'd stand at the board, behind her chair, and help her out a bit. That is, I would plug in the front cords for her. Of course she had to tell me where to plug them in. As you can see from this, things were sometimes much more informal in the early days than they were later.

As everyone did, I started out on the manual switchboard. We knew many of of the subscribers' voices and most people were very pleasant. But there was one who was not so pleasant. He was an utter nuisance and all the operators almost dreaded taking calls from him. We may have gotten rather used to him, but we certainly never liked him. He was always complaining and finding fault with the service he received. He was a real nit-picker if ever there was one.

In those younger days I did not mind at all have to climb up to the third floor of the old exchange building at 227 East Washington Street. I enjoyed working for the company and followed the usual progression of learning local first, then rural, and then long distance. I do not remember all the details of the work but I liked long distance best, though I did not mind working the information desk.

I had lots of close Friends who also worked as operators, Blanche Lukosky, Esther Bouquot and I often went to Danceland in Cedar Rapids. We usually drove rather than take the interurban. When we first started going there, the roads were really terrible - not even paved.

I'll never forget one time when six of us operators went by car to North Liberty to an ice cream social. While we were at the social, there was an absolute down pour of rain. As we returned to Iowa City, we had to make it up a steep hill near a bridge. Naturally, the road was a sea of mud- a very sticky clay - and our car got stuck. Most of us had to get out of the Model-T and push. We slipped and even fell down and in general got plastered with mud. We finally succeeded in pushing the car p the hill and in making it back to Iowa City. What an experience! We could really appreciate that slogan about getting Iowa out of the mud which was used to spark the campaign for paved roads. Incidentally, when I got home I threw my outer garments in the bath tub and I never did get all the mud out of that dress!

I remember when Emma Harvat was mayor of Iowa City. She was large of build, very forthright, almost aggressive and quite intelligent. We would see her driving around town in her electric auto. It seems to me that the city street were paved with brick then. We had electric streetcars running regular routes, but I walked o work most of the time, even when I lived way out on Evans Street.

Another sister of mine, Eva, started with the company after I'd been working a few years. There were lots of sister combinations in the office other than the Hills trio. For example, Boones, Bouquots, Goodys, Huffmans, Shulthises, Triskas, Wieses and Youngs, to name those who come readily to mind. I think that the company gained a lot of good employees in this manner, as sister followed sister to work for Bell.

My sister Freda and I were both working on the day of the big fire at the Englert Theatre. We smelled the smoke from the fire though we could not see the flames. All in all, we had a very busy and exciting day at the office. The switchboard stayed lighted up like a Christmas tree most of the morning. The board was busy at other times too; for example, on football game days, during bad weather, on most Fridays and Saturdays, and during university affairs such as dances at the Union or sorority and fraternity parties.

I remember Tony's confectionery very well. We telephone girls enjoyed his place immensely. We'd even go down on our breaks and get quick snacks. We loved his frappes and his roasted peanuts. Everything at Tony's was good. He had a great business going from just the people at the office. There was a little joint across the street which had the best chili I've ever eaten and good hot dogs.

We gals would do lots of window shopping on our lunch hours. It was fun to look through the stores. On Saturday evenings we would drive downtown, park along the curb, and watch all the people going by. The stores were open and there would be crowds on the sidewalks. I seemed to know almost everybody passing by - quite a change from today.

Iowa City was then really a small town, even with the university taken into account. The student body was nowhere near the size it later became. East Iowa City ended before you came to First Avenue, which I think was not even paved yet. There were vineyards and farms in the area of Yewell Street - where I now reside.

Supervisors were expected to stand up all day when they were supervising on the floor - no chairs for them then. I remember Esther Anderson Gram as an early supervisor. And I also remember Mabel Rabas who was a supervisor. She was so kind and gentle, and nice to everyone, as was Laura Peet, who was the evening chief operator when she left to marry Clarence Naughton. Finally the company put in chairs for the supervisors. I think this happened just a few years before we all moved to the new exchange building on Linn Street. I was, by then, a supervisor myself - but chairs came too late for me - a combination of the shoes of the time and standing up all day at work had about ruined my feet!

When Iowa City was getting ready to convert to dial, I was one of the instructors who helped train the operators for the new dial boards. I had gone to Cedar Rapids to learn how myself so that I could teach others. As I recall, two or three of our own operators decided to resign rather than learn how to work on the dial boards. I think they simply lacked confidence in themselves.

We moved to the new office late in July of 1932, when Iowa City changed to dial service. There were only two short flights of stairs to climb now. It was much nicer in our new quarters. We had more space but there was not quite as much of a family feeling among the operators as before - especially as the work force began to increase.

Hattie was a good chief operator, I think. Things at the board were very strict. You had to be on your toes all the time and you were supposed to keep your eyes on your own position. You were not to visit with adjacent operators but we were young and didn't always follow all the rules laid down. I still remember all the little fans we had hanging from the ceiling in both the old and new operating rooms - not that they did much good in the heat of an Iowa summer.

As I've said before, I liked best working on long distance.e It was the least monotonous and most enjoyable. There were a lot of small towns around Iowa City for which we did the toll work. The Lone Tree operator was rather crabby, to say the least. We hated to either take calls from her or to get calls for her. She always just snapped at the Iowa City operators. Unfortunately, she remained on the Lone Tree board for many years. I also remember Mae Williams, who was the operator at Sharon Center. She was related to the Boone sisters. There was also Hazel Barnes, the operator at West Branch. Both Mae and Hazel were very nice - as were most of the small town operators.

When I married in 1939 that was my resignation, after almost seventeen years with Northwestern Bell. I joined my husband, who was a southerner and we lived in Birmingham, Alabama. I applied for work there with Southern Bell. Since Birmingham was a large city, they had rows and rows of switchboards to serve their subscribers. There wan an opening in the ranks of the information operators, so I went to information. I did have a hard time understanding those Alabama accents. I can remember that lots of people getting me as their information operator would say "There's that Yankee again!" recognizing they'd had that Northerner before. They probably had as much trouble understanding me as I did understanding them.

I do recall one time when "Gone with the Wind" was playing in movie theaters in the area. I overheard some gals in our lounge talking about the show, and referring to "those damn Yankees." Unfortunately, I took such a remark rather personally although I also realized that they were still fighting the Civil War.

When I was expecting our first child, I resigned - this time for good - the year was 1941. The chief operator, who though I was doing a good job, wanted me to stay on. However, I wanted to remain at home with the baby. I never did go out to work again until both of my children were old enough to be in school; and even then I did not go back to the telephone company.

My family returned to Iowa City in 1954 and for eleven years I worked at Mercy Hospital and then for some two years at both Currier and Stanley Halls until my husband retired from his job in 1969. We then went back to Alabama to be near his relatives. In 1975 we returned to Iowa City because my husband's health was failing. He passed away the next year. Now that he was gone, I was glad to be living near my relatives in Iowa.

My years with the telephone company in Iowa City turned out to be the major part of my working life and I still see some of the people I met there.