Speaking of telephone operators and being in the dark ages for that time, when I came to North Carolina in 1963 I called home, collect, to let my parents know I was here and had found a place to stay. I had to make the call from a phone booth - remember those? So, I told ['Sarah'] the operator I needed to make a collect call to the town of Louisa VA and she asked for the number. I told her 7-5 and she said '7-5 what?' I told her that was it! I also told her the call had to go thru Richmond, so she called up Richmond, asked them to connect her to Louisa, and when she got it, she asked the operator there to "dial 7 - 5!" That operator told her "We don't DIAL 7-5 but I'll be glad to ring it for you!" so after about 5 minutes of finagling, I reached home! It was a few years later when dial service finally reached my home town and the charm of "Central" or "Operator" was gone forever! Oh, you could dial 0 and get the operator, but eventually that too became outdated. I guess maybe you can still do that but haven't tried for years! So yes, even in the 60s a LOT of people still had operators like Sarah to connect your calls! And Louisa, my hometown in VA, was just like Mayberry....laid back, easy going, a sheriff who didn't carry a gun but got the job done. What we now call "The good old days!" Welford the CameraNutttttt!!! _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.wbmutbb.com/
