I had been wanting to be a telephone operator for sometime, and had
been badgering my mother about applying for a job there She
finally told me to go on down to the office and apply, knowing that I
was too young to be hired. Well Mother was right, and the
then-chief operator told me to come back later when I was older.
After
I graduated from Iowa City High School in 1918, I went to the
university for two years; however, I was not taking a full schedule of
courses . I had applied again at the telephone company, and in
1917 had been hired. Myrtle Wood was the chief operator of the
time; she was not the one who earlier had suggested that I come back
later.
I worked some late hours, and worked nights while
attending university classes for the net two years; sometime in 1920, I
think, I went on days. Working conditions were strict, as any
operator in the early days will tell you. I recall going over a
"busy" when I put up my first local call, and the next call the
subscriber made was to the chief operator. The customer said that
I had done her a favor by putting her over the "busy," she had been
plugged into a conversation where two women were talking about her!
The subscriber did not want me to be scolded for my mistake, but
the chief operator said to be more careful in the future.
I
remember the building at 227 East Washington very well; the business
office was on the first floor; equipment was on the second floor; and
the switchboard was on the third floor. There was one long
switchboard, with the long distance positions at the end near
Washington Street, and the local positions extending on toward the
opposite end of the room. The restroom and lounge were at the end
of the room, overlooking the alley.
During the influenza
epidemic associated with and following World War I, I remember one
occasion when I was the only Iowa Citian at the board; the few others
at the board were from out of town and had been brought in to cover for
the regular operators who were off with the "flu.". I will say that
although I had applied first to work for the telephone company, my
older sister, who applied later than I did, was hired first. She
was Hattie Goody, who after only six months of employment became part
of the management force; I don't remember her exact title, but I think
she was working evenings.
In about 1923, although I was a
supervisor, I happened to be sitting at the board with a full position
when the manager, Carl Cone, came into the operating room and told my
sister - by then the chief operator - that he needed a girl for the
business office. He looked down the row of operators, noticed me
and my full board, and said to my sister, Hattie, "I want that one."
Hattie remarked, "That's my sister." Cone said he did not care whose
sister I was, that was the girl he wanted. When I told Mr. Cone
that I did not know how to type, he said I didn't need to know - just
so I could hunt and punch.
So I went to the business office that
year. I do remember the day of the fire at the old Englert
Theatre; the theater was very near to the telephone company building.
I helped move some of the records out of the business office and
away from the danger posed by the fire. The fire occurred in
February of 1926 and was a headline event in the year. Of course
the operators on the third floor continued working while the firemen
were battling the blaze at the Englert.
The business office
moved to 302 South Linn Street; I believe this was in the very early
1930s. The company had built the first floor of their new
building at the corner of Linn and Burlington in 1929 in order to house
the business office and toll equipment. The company then had
added to the building to provide sufficient space for the new dial
equipment and of course, for the operators who now would be long
distance and dial assistance operators only. Iowa City converted
to dial service on the last day of July, 1932, and the operators moved
into the new building then.
I do recall one time when the
company thought that its employees ought to have some sort of
organization - actually a kind of union. We had regular meetings,
and the monthly dues was the grand sum of twenty-five cents. We
in the business office were required to send in monthly reports for the
organization, but we never had anything to report. Still, each
month, we would send in a report noted "nothing to report."
A
part-time student who was working in the business office said one
month, "What the heck, let's ask for more money." The four of us
present at the time thought that was a good idea; we felt this would
add some variety to the report, and was better than putting down the
usual notation of "nothing to report.". That report form only
took one day to get to the district manager's office in Davenport.
The very next morning after receiving the report, the district
manager arrived at the Iowa City business office; he was rattling the
door knob even before the opening time of 8:00 a.m.
The district
manager met individually with each of the persons who had signed the
report, and inquired of each one where he or she could go to work to
get more money than he or she was getting from the telephone company.
The district manager talked about wage increases causing
inflation, and gave a long story about a box factory caught in the
throes of inflation, and the unhappy consequences which followed.
One
of the persons who had signed the report was not yet at work, but the
district manager stopped by her home to ask if she were satisfied with
her job! The girl had signed the monthly report without even
reading it, and was quite unaware of the contents; she had simply
signed the report when one of the others had brought it to her at home
because her signature was necessary.
I retired in 1965 from the
business office; I had married, but that occurred after the "no married
women" rule had been dropped. My last boss was Roy Williams - a
great guy to work for.
Working for the telephone company was
very enjoyable, and the forty-seven and a half years I spent there
passed all too quickly. Like most retirees, I keep busy; I attend
many Pioneer functions, and take pleasure in visiting with friends from
my telephone days.