I
was living in Lebanon, Ohio, had just graduated from high school, and
was looking around for a job. My father was with A T & T. He
had worked in a number of towns, including Iowa City. He was
going to be transferred to New Jersey, and I had decided that I didn't
want to go to New Jersey. I'd rather work in either Indianapolis,
Indiana, or in Iowa City.
I wrote a letter to Hattie Goody - the
chief operator in Iowa City but she did not respond. On a trip to
Nebraska, I stopped in at the telephone exchange to see Hattie.
In inquired about the lack of an answer to my letter. She
said she had not answered because I was so far out of state that she
didn't think I'd make it all the way to Iowa City to work.
However, after I talked with her, she hired me, and when I came
back from Nebraska in a week, I went to work in the Iowa City exchange.
This was in August of 1945.
I trained for toll and, as I
remember, working conditions were strict. You were not even
supposed to cross your ankles while you were at the board. Also,
you were always to dress neatly and appropriately for work. Of
course I was at the bottom of the seniority list and worked late hours
so that I overlapped with the night crew. They were really
helpful. I especially remember Clara Young and Lillian Vrana as
being so nice to work with.
In working for the telephone company
I felt that I had found steady employment. I enjoyed the work and
meeting the challenges which came in each day's shift.
My first
headset was the old type which not only had the headpiece fitting over
the top of your head but also had a separate mouthpiece on a sort of
triangular plate which rested on your chest and was held in place by a
green strap around your neck. This contraption was rather heavy,
and you could never forget you had it on. Since there was no air
conditioning in the office, I about roasted in the summer. At
that time the management said that the building could not be
air-conditioned because the equipment couldn't take it. That
thing hanging around your neck did not make you feel any cooler either.
We operators were all glad to get the new type headsets where the
mouthpiece was attached to, and curved down from the earpieces.
I
was content being a long distance operator. I learned the inward
position and also learned information, intercept and rate and route and
how to file the tickets. Blanche Lukosky and Esther Bouquot were
two with whom I often worked on the information and rate desk.
By
the time of the 1947 strike I felt that I'd gotten a very god start at
work. Everything was going well for me. I was living in an
apartment on South Clinton, near the university campus and had just
bought some clothes and other items. The strike came, though not
too many thought it would, and then everyone said it would only last a
little while. Well, they were wrong. Finally, I ended up
having to get some help from my parents though I will admit to having
eaten a lot of cereal before I asked for help. I was glad when
the strike ended and I went back to work.
Lots of funny things
have happened while I was working at the switchboard. I have seen
operators who had difficulty staying awake at the board and I've had
subscribers who've asked me some weird questions. It has all been
very interesting.
Hattie Goody was quite strict, and certainly
all business at the office. I know she was not universally liked,
but I found her to be fair and she was always good to me. She and
I got along well.
When I married in 1950, my husband and I moved
away from Iowa City so I resigned from the company. In the
interim before we returned to Iowa City, my two children arrived. I
think that we all were back in Iowa City in the autumn of 1961, the
year before Hattie retired. She re-hired me as soon as I went up
to the office and applied. I started to work almost right away.
Most
of the supervisors were nice, and I remember Esther Franklin from the
time I started with Northwestern Bell and I remember Coletta Hoye
Eisenhofer toward the end of my working life. I really think that
all the supervisors tried to do a good job. And I also think that
most operators tried to do a good job. I can recall the time when
operators were supposed to take so many calls per hour in order to meet
standards. We did notice a bit of pressure about that.
Still, I think that we all tried to do our best.
Time went
quickly. My children grew up, and I kept on working at the
switchboard. My hours varied. I worked every sort of shift.
However, toward the end of my working career I had mostly day
hours. By then those hours worked out best for me at home.
When
we were told that the exchange would close in January of 1981, we could
hardly believe it. I kept hoping that something would happen to
prevent the closing. However, the employment office began to hire
operators as "temporaries" only. I never thought I'd see the day
when the company would hire male operators but, of course, under EEO
this had happened. We had quite a few male operators in the lat
year or two.
In the last months of operator at the
exchange, i was common for operators of both sexes to wear shorts at
the board, and about anything else. Any sort of dress code had
long since vanished. I do not think that Hattie Goody would have been
too pleased about this.
Finally, we were told that it was going
to be March when the exchange closed. The rigid discipline we had
always lived with at the board had already gone out the window.
But now in the last few months, you could read at the board, do
needlework, or about anything else, jut as long as you kept up with the
signals. However, there was not much business by then.
First, the Iowa City subscribers were cut away from their own
operators. This happened in January of 1981. Then, one by
one, the tribs were cut away and of course the work load fell with each
cut. Toward the end there was only one, or possibly two of the
tribs to be cut away.
Patricia Olsen Miller had started with the
company as an operator in July of 1964. She had become a
supervisor and later a group chief operator. Of course management
titles in traffic changed several times through the years; therefore
when the last chief operator, Kathy DePhillips, left in June of 1980,
her title had actually been that of manager in operator services.
After Kathy's departure, Pat became the acting manager in Iowa
City. Pat was there that last day, as was Coletta Hoye
Eisenhofer, a group manager in operators services. Marian Alwine Brown,
the only clerk still working, was also there. I was the only
operator at the board on that final day. The other woman who had
been scheduled to work had been called and advised not to come in.
The
last call ever answered at the Iowa City switchboard came in on a
Washington trunk and didn't even require a connection! I think this was
about mid-morning, sometime between nine-thirty and ten-thirty on March
31 of 1981. I believe the last trib to be cut away was West
Chester.
The repairman, who was standing behind me, said that
this would probably the last call through the board. I sat and
watched the board for a while, but no more signals appeared. Then
Pat, who had also been standing there watching operations, said that I
could go home now since the cut overs were all completed. I
pulled out my plug from the board, stood there for a time, and then
left the room.
It was a strange feeling to know that I'd never
come in to work there again. I felt very sad when I left the
switchboard and the building on that last day. It was also sad to
think that in all of Iowa only three cities still had operators - Des
Moines, Davenport and Waterloo. Eventually all operators in Iowa
will be centralized into Des Moines and I suppose some day, who knows,
into Denver, Colorado!
I was just short of twenty-five years of
service when I left Northwestern Bell. I had enjoyed the work,
and had made lots of friends. Since then I have stayed at home
and I have enjoyed that too; but I may decide one day to return to the
work force.
Page Created 1 Jun 2016