JOHNSON COUNTY IAGenWeb Project  

Telephone Memories

From 

Lillian Vrana

I started work for the telephone company on May 18, 19256, as a local operator on the old manual board in the telephone building at 227 East Washington Street.  After completing two years of high school, I had decided it was time to get a job.  Hattie Goody, then chief operator, interviewed me on a Saturday and told me to report for work on the coming Monday.  My salary was to be ten dollars a week, and I think that was for the usual six-day, forty-eight hour week.

My aunt, Lillian Grissell, had worked nights for the company for a number of years and had become night chief operator.  That had given me the idea that I wanted to be a telephone operator.  In fact, at times, during previous summers, my aunt had allowed me to watch her at work on the switchboard.  That had made me somewhat familiar with the multiple and many of the board markings.  My aunt worked for the company a total of twelve years; then she married and of course had to resign in accordance with the "no married women" rule of the day.

The training of operators in those days consisted of plugging in with an experienced operator and watching her work.  Then she monitored you at the board.  Etta Shulthise was the operator responsible for training me on the local board, and she was a bit puzzled by how quickly I learned the work, especially the board markings.

After I had worked a while, I was trained on the rural position, which had drops instead of lights as signals on the lines.  You had to learn all the code rings and be careful to do them properly.  Anna Dvorsky was the operator who trained me for this position.  In addition, hotel and pay station signals also appeared there, and at times the rural operator could be very busy.

The next step after rural was the toll board.  We used the old paper tickets and had to write out everything by hand.  We also used the old circular calculagraphs for stamping the tickets.

Myra Groh was the service observer.  She sat at her own board, just at the end of the toll positions, right by the windows overlooking Washington Street.  I remember the men who worked in those days too.  Art Pudil worked nights and Sig Brysch and Warren Norris worked days.

I also remember that at Christmas time the operators used to get lots of fruit, flowers, and candy from the merchants of the town in appreciation for the service we gave them, But somehow, after the flow of good things had gone on for several years, the company must have let it be known that such bounty was not necessary, and the flow came to an end.  Too bad!  Still, once in a while an especially appreciative customer would send in a box of candy to the operators.

On July 31, 1932, when Iowa City converted to dial, the operators moved to the new building at 302 South Linn Street.  I remember the date well because that was also when I bought my first car!  I trained on information at the new building and I worked twelve to nine p.m. for a while.  Then my sister, Elsie, who was still in high school, came to work as a part-time operator.  She was working six to ten p.m.  I then took a one to ten p.m. shift so that we would be working evenings together.

After I had been at the new building for about a year, one of the night operators, Helen Machovec, became engaged and planned to marry.  This meant that she would be resigning and Hattie asked me if I would like to work nights.  The arrangement was that I would try nights for a week.

I almost forgot to mention that I had worked some nights at the old office, filling in for vacations and in case of sickness.  I learned how to check the toll tickets and get them ready for mailing.  So I'd had a taste of night operating before Hattie suggested the week's trial to see if I'd want to go on nights permanently.  Well, I tried nights, and I liked them so I continued working nights for the rest of my telephone career.

When my aunt left the company, Clara Young had been appointed night chief operator and she came to the new building in that capacity.  Her sister, Marie, had worked quite a while for the company at the old building but had resigned on marrying a Western Electric man.

Two points of interest about the old building.  I do remember the little fans - which hung from the ceiling - above the board.  One summer it got so hot that tubs were brought in filled with ice and floor fans were put behind the tubs in order to blow cool air toward the operators.  Rather primitive air-conditioning, but it did help.  I also remember that there were a lot of mice in the third floor lounge at the old office.  The night girls were a little afraid to take their breaks in the lounge because of the mice running about.

I believe that 1933 was the year I became a regular night operator.  Virginia Ribble and Etta Shulthise were the other two night operators at the time.  When Clara Young retired as night chief in 1962, I became the night chief operator, following in my aunts footsteps.  Over the years many different operators worked during the night hours.  Short hour tricks such as five to eleven-thirty p.m., six to midnight, seven p.m. to one a.m. and eight p.m. to two a.m. were put on the schedule, and proved very popular with the operators.

When Hattie Goody retired as chief operator in 1962, Mary Kay Huseman replaced her.  Mary Kay was followed by Mary Knudson who was in turn replaced by Rita Lynch.  Rita Lynch - who later married Tom Osborn, an assistant plant manager - was the last chief operator with who I worked.

After Mary Kay Huseman became chief operator, I had to work three p.m. to midnight every Thursday so that I could be briefed on any new practices at the afternoon management meeting.  The evening chief and the group chiefs all attended the meeting too.

I remember one Thursday evening during the time of the student riots in Iowa City street.  For some reason I happened to look out the windows on the west side of the building and saw a mob of people coming down the street.  Rather soon I heard the sound of breaking glass and I called the police.  They refused to come.  I also called the chief operator who advised me to remain calm and to call Dean LaMaster - the plant manager at the time.  She also advised me to call Frank Bowers - the traffic manager - who lived in Cedar Rapids.

LaMaster did not come down, but he said to tell the girls in the lounge to stay well away from the windows because otherwise they might be hurt by the breaking glass.  Bowers, of course, was too far away to have even been able to make it to Iowa City before the rioters left, though I did call him.

The rioters broke the glass in some of the windows, as well as in the employees entrance door.  After the crowd left,someone was sent in to board up the employees entrance door.  You cannot imagine the feelings of the people inside the building that evening when the rioters showed up to vent their anger against the telephone company.  Those of us in the operating room and lounge could hear the noise of the mob, and the sounds of breaking glass.

During the strike in 1971, I came in at eight p.m. and worked until at least eight eight a.m. the next morning and sometimes later.  A management man named Maycock, from Des Moines, and I worked the night shift.  The strike must have been in the spring, for I recall Maycock bringing wildflowers to work.  He had picked the wildflowers in a ravine near the motel where he was staying.

Every morning Maycock would tell the day force as they came in to work that he and Lillian had had a great time last night.  I will say that he learned fast, and was a good worker.  We noticed that those working during the day while the strike was on made lots of errors on the tickets and there was really no way of correcting most of the mistakes.  So we simply had to send the tickets in as they were and hope for the best.

For those of you who have heard of Lillian's potato salad, I'll mention the small business which kept my brother, Ray and me busy for about seven or so years, until 1967.  Ray and I were making up potato salad in bulk and providing it to a number of the small groceries then in town.  We began by making a little batch for one grocer on Church Street - Winslow by name - to try out in his store and ended up also supplying Pecina's on Iowa Avenue, Pipal's on Linn Street and Means' on Dubuque Street.  We even had an order from the First National Bank for their picnic.  Some weeks we made well over a hundred pounds of potato salad for the stores.  And all this was done while Ray and I were both working at our regular jobs.

During the last few years at Northwestern Bell, things went along in the usual pattern.  In September of 1975 I retired as night chief operator with forty-nine years and four months of service.  I had a great time working for the telephone company and the years really flew by.


Page Created  8 Apr 2016

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