I
attended a country school near Frytown, and after I finished there, I
stayed on at home; I worked around for various people, doing housework
mostly for neighborhood farm families.
Mrs. Brickey in Sharon
Center had the telephone agency; the switchboard was in a room right
off the store there. She called me in to run the board for a week
while she was away; the board had drops, not lights, and all the lines
were rural with differing ringing codes for the many subscribers on
each line. I just loved the work, and was sorry when the week was
over.
Then I had a call from the people who had the telephone
exchange near Fern dale; this was another rural board, with drops, but
not as modern as the Sharon Center one. I helped out for several
months, and I really enjoyed the work.
I did not know anyone who
worked for the telephone company in Iowa City; however, I was always
interested in their advertisement in the paper which showed an operator
with her headset on. I thought that she looked so nice!
One
day when I happened to be in Iowa City, I walked up to the third floor
of the telephone office to see the chief operator, Miss Hattie Goody,
about coming to work for the company. This was, of course, at the
old building at 227 East Washington Street - later occupied by Larew
Plumbing and then by the Goodwill Store. After I had filled out a short
application form, and had talked with Miss Goody, she said that I could
start anytime and "How about Monday?" So I went to work as an
operator for Iowa Telephone Company on May 3, 1920 and I was really
thrilled! Incidentally, Iowa Telephone became Northwestern Bell
Telephone Company in December of that year.
In those early days,
you learned the job by listening in with the older operators; I often
plugged in with Etta Shulthise. She was indeed a patient woman,
and so sweet. Of course the older gals would also listen in with
you as you worked. You learned the local board first, then the
rural board, and finally long distance. I do remember that the
rural board was one of the busiest positions, especially in the
mornings; pay station signals also appeared at the rural board.
Working
for the telephone company was considered really steady work, and people
had a good opinion of the telephone girls. Things were strict at
the office; there was no visiting with the adjacent operators, eyes
were to be kept on your own position. If you couldn't r wouldn't
do the job, you did not stay; in general, the operators knew their jobs
and did them well - as they were supposed to.
Of course, things
were more lenient during the evening and night hours when there was not
much to do. Subscribers would get lonely and place calls, and
talk to the operators in the process; you learned to know many of the
customers by their voices, though you would not be able to recognize
them on the street.
There was one subscriber's voice we all
recognized; he positively bellowed at the operators, and if you didn't
say "Thank you" just right he would immediately call the chief operator
and complain. At first I was frightened of him, but the older operators
took him in stride and eventually so did I. I will say that he
could be very nice whenever he met you on the street!
Lots of
the operators went to Danceland in Cedar Rapids, or to one of the local
spots, especially the dance hall on the third floor of the Paul-Helen
Building. I was not interested in dancing, but had lots of fun at
the many parties we telephone girls had. I remember the nice
dinners at the Mayflower, and the Christmas parties at Youde's Inn;
there were also some parties held right in the telephone building.
Tony's
confectionery store was right downstairs from the office and we would
go there even on our reliefs to get some of his wonderful treats.
There was also a little restaurant right across the street, and
we would dash over for one of their delicious hot dogs.
When I
went to work for the company, I moved into town and lived with
relatives on Rochester for a while. But after my sister, Marie,
graduated from City High School in 1925 and went to work for the
company too, we got an apartment together in the downtown area.
We shared that apartment - in the 200 block of East College - for
some eleven years. When Marie married a Western Electric man in
1936, that was of course, her resignation from the telephone company;
in those days married women could not continue in their jobs.
Incidentally, Marie and her husband live in New York and visit
here quite often now that they are both retired.
After Marie's
marriage I stayed on in the apartment for the rest of my working
career, and even beyond. But several years after I had retired,
the apartment building was slated to be demolished to make way for a
large parking lot, and I moved to another apartment on Burlington
Street - where I still reside in the winters.
Lillian Grissell
was night chief when I began working as an operator; it happened one
day that a night operator was sick, and Lillian needed someone to fill
in. Hattie asked me if I would like to work the all-night shift;
I did not know if I would like that or not, but Hattie suggested that I
try it for the one night. As things turned out, I liked working
nights; after that first night, I was happy to fill in whenever a night
operator was ill or on vacation.
I only worked days for a couple
of years before I went on night full-time; I had discovered that I was
a night owl, and I never had any trouble staying awake. Night
work was so different from working days; we night operators had sort of
a family feeling among ourselves.
When it became known that our
night chief operator was going to marry Herman Wolz, we knew this meant
she would be resigning. When Hattie scheduled me for the twelve
to nine shift for the four months just before Lillian was to leave,
evidently so she could monitor the quality of my work, I knew what was
in the wind. Hattie must have been satisfied, for then she and
Mr. Black - the traffic manager - asked if I would like to be the new
night chief, and I accepted; in March of 1929 I became night chief
operator.
Football game days were terribly busy in the manual
office, what with all the extra people in town; late evening could even
be busy. After we moved to the new building when dial came in -
this was 1932 - I think that we night crew had our busiest times during
World War II, particularly when the navy preflight school was in
operation.
I remember well when we moved from the old building
on Washington Street to our new building at the corner of Linn and
Burlington StStreets. We night operators went on duty at ten p.m.
at the new building, since the cut over to dial was to take place at
midnight; there were quite a few management people present, including
Hattie, of course. All went smoothly, and Iowa City was one of
the first dial exchanges in the state.
Originally, the night
crew worked from ten p.m. to seven a.m.; this included an hour off for
"lunch." Later, the night shift was shortened to eleven p.m. to
seven a.m.; so we all gained an hour to call our own. No matter
how busy with calls we were at nights, the tickets from the day still
had to be corrected and counted, and prepared for mailing the next day;
this was all done manually, and took considerable time.
Bessie
Chambers was housekeeper for many years; she would come in at four a.m.
and clean the switchboard. Then she would move on to dust the
lounge, and then to other duties. When she came in, you realized
that your night of work would be ending in a few hours; for the
earliest day shift would start at six a.m., and then in another hour
you would be off duty.
I remember many of the women with whom I
worked through the years at Northwestern Bell; to name a few, Anna
Dvorsky, Laura Peet, and Ferndell Sims. And of course, I
especially remember those who worked nights with me; for example, among
others, Lillian Grissell, Etta Shulthise, Lillian Vrana, Virginia
Ribble Sook, and Mary Holland Donohoe. They were a great group of
gals. Incidentally, many of the girls who worked for the
telephone company in the early days still live here in Iowa City.
We
night girls always had our own Christmas party at work; we would wait
until after midnight, when business would be very slow. There would be
a potluck meal, and we'd have our little gift exchange; we enjoyed our
parties and had a great time.
During the strike of 1947, many
of the evening and night crew were men, though we did have
a few women in from Des Moines. I would come in early, and work
as needed; however, I would always work in the evening in order to do
the tickets. The men got the job of working all night during the
strike. I can remember Ira Stover and "Connie" Conover - who were
picketing outside the building - meeting me as I was coming to work in
the evenings and escorting me to the entry door, seeing that I got
inside safely. I will say that everyone was pleasant while the
strike lasted; I was glad when the strike ended, and I went back to my
usual hours.
When Lillian Vrana and I were working nights
together, we would drive up to Cedar Rapids right after we got off duty
at seven a.m.; we would do this on paydays, cash our checks up there,
eat breakfast, and shop around the stores. Then, finally, we we'd
drive back to Iowa City. We also took a lot of little trips in my
car, and in Lillian's when she got her car. We did many things
together for a number of years, and had great fun. Incidentally,
Lillian made great potato salad, as those of you who've eaten any will
know.
In early 1962 I began to think about retiring, though I
had not reached the mandatory retirement age. My father had died
in 1940, but I was helping look after my mother - who lied with my
brothers, Adolph and Harold, on our farm near Kalona. It was a
bit of a strain to work full-time, and try to help out on the home
place as much as I thought I should. I decided to retired in
February of 1962 so that I could be at home more with my mother.
Just think, I had the same chief operator, Hattie Goody, for my
entire working career with the telephone company! That is hard to
believe in view of the later practice of routinely transferring chief
operations every so often.
My mother and I would go for rides in
the car; we had a good time on the home place. She lived until
1970, when she died at the age of ninety-five. My brother Adolph
died in 1978, and he is greatly missed; we did depend on him a lot.
I
felt sad when the Iowa City switchboard was closed, and the operators
were gone; it was always nice to know that the operators were there, in
your town. Then you knew they were familiar with local conditions
and, somehow you felt that they cared. I'm sure that many people
were sorry to see the Iowa City office close.
In the summers
Harold & I are on the home farm, and in the winters we are in the
Iowa City apartment. Neither of us drives anymore so we are
dependent on a neighbor for transport; I now have to use a walker, due
to my arthritis, and it is a bit difficult to get about. So it is
hard to get out to Pioneer events, though I would like to.
I worked for Northwestern Bell for almost forty-two years, and I can truly say I enjoyed every moment.