My Mis-Adventures As A Long Distance Telephone Operater

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Back in the dark ages, say the early 70's, before computers, cell phones, iPads, etc. I worked as a long distance operator. My daughter was just a few years old and I had just left my abusive husband. I put in for a job as a long distance telephone operator and got it. It was great fun and probably one of the best jobs I ever had. We worked in the telephone building, about one block away from the capitol building down town. The job was great. We all worked in a big, long room with switchboards on either side. There was a big picture on the wall of a woman in ancient garb(long black dress as I recall) on roller skates in this same room. The job comprised of picking up calls on the board as they came in from residences, hotels, coin phones, etc. In those days you could pick up your land line, dial '0' and get an operator. The operator could connect you to directory service if you needed a phone number or place a call for you. If you wanted to speak to someone in particular you would make the call person-to-person and either pay for it yourself or make it collect. Many people would call person-to-person to let some family member know they had made it home okay or to signal them to call them back direct at a lesser charge. Alot of kids in college did this or on Mother's Day so they didn't have to pay for the long distance call. I loved to place conference calls. We got a list of names and numbers, called each one and put them on hold. We would get them all on the phone and then put them all together for a conference call. I enjoyed these because many times they were calling Ireland or some foreign country, which I loved, and I liked to listen to the different languages. So, I would ask to do these type of calls. Then there was also Rate & Route which were hotel calls. We would have to look in these huge books for the correct rates to different routing in the US. We would have to look up the area code and prefix they were calling to and then match that with the prefix they were calling from and then figure how much it would be for however long they had talked. Then we called them back with the charges. We also did coin calls. People calling long distance from pay phones. They would have to put in so many coins for so many minutes. Then at the end of the call we would call them back if there were any more charges. Each coin made a different tone and we would listen for them to insert the right amount each time. I worked at the Mountain Bell Telephone Company from the early 70's to the early 80's. It was a manopoly then. No other companies, just Ma Bell in that area. In 1973 there was a strike. Worker's demanded more pay. There was a union then called the Communication Worker's of America. So we operators didn't go in to work. I was a single mother and was beginning to worry by the end of the first week. But, luckily they were able to come to an agreement on a sum to pay us and we went back to work with only two weeks lay off. I had decided I'd have to cross the picket line and go back to work if they didn't settle in two weeks. Luckily I didn't have to. In either 80 or 81 the divestiture took place. AT&T took over and Mountain Bell was no more. AT&T was all computerized where Mountain Bell had been only partially.