Landline Telephones

[pdub]

My first real job

was working for Pacific Northwest Bell as a TSPS operator. Here is a pic of a typical TSPS operator office although this one was taken in New Jersey. Lots of interesting stories and memories.

 

[pdub]

more trivia

Here's another pic of a small cordboard office in pre-cutover mode. The TSPS (Traffic Service Position System) consoles had been installed and were being tested while the cordboard was still in service. This would have been in the late 60's or early 70's.

 

[rp2813]

Extensions

Patrick is that one of those round NEC phones on the shelf over by the chime boxes? That's one of my favorite non-WE modern phones!

Re: extension phones, my dad bootlegged phones in all over our house. He rigged it so none would ring, as that was a way Ma Bell could tell if you had more than one phone connected. He used alligator clips on the terminal box to connect the bootlegged extensions and next to the box had a dummy porcelain bare bulb fixture attached to its box with one screw. He ran the additional wires through the empty electrical box and if a service call was ever necessary, he'd unclip the wires, flip the porcelain fixture out of the way and shove all the wires into the box.

I've been told by some people who have worked for the phone company a long time that back in the days prior to the breakup of the TRUE Ma Bell, AT&T (not SBC masquerading as AT&T which is what we have today) if you had a 25' long cord on your phone, that was considered an extension and you were charged accordingly. So Laundress is right, when they were a monopoly they nailed you for every little thing. But service and equipment were second to none.

 

[pdub]

Ernestine

just for sdlee, here's Lily Tomlin.

 

[fnelson487]

Patrick

Boy do those pictures bring back memories. I worked semi-automatic toll boards in Park Ridge, 0+ dialing (PPCS) with cords for hotels, coins and others. When I worked at Continential Telephone in DeKalb, IL we started with cord boards and switched over to the toll service desks and had the same setup as your switchover picture above. That would have been about 1972. Boy did I mourn the removal of those cord boards, they were fun!

Fred

 

[pdub]

Ralph, The round phone is a Northern Telecom phone in the mocha color. They sold them here in the Bell Phone Centers during the Design Line period. I know what you're talking about on the extra charges for extensions. I once had a Princess phone that was not legal plugged in and got a call from the phone co. saying they had detected a phone that was not being charged for. They said either disconnect it or report it and start being billed for it. I told them I would disconnect it and then just unhooked the bell.

Fred, Glad you enjoyed the pictures. I have noticed in the past that you have almost the same PBX that I have. Mine is a model 555. It works well but I keep it unplugged unless I'm demonstrating it for someone. Please hold on now while I get the Route and Rate operator on for charges!

Patrick

 

[launderess]

Trivia Question

What rock song features at the end an overseas operator trying to connect a call, but keeps getting hung up on?

Bonus points for the name of the band.

L.

 

[oldhouseman]

Is it

an E.L.O. song, "Operator" I think, or something on that order?

 

[launderess]

Those Poor Women

Both making the phones and working as operators.

Both were pink collar ghettos, until court action and unions made for better working conditions and pay.

MaBell flat out refused to hire women either from outside or promote from within to the better paying jobs such as linemen and techs, on the grounds those were jobs for men, amoung other things. Giving such a high paying job to woman would deprive a man of a job, and after all he had to put meat on the table for his family. Finally a woman who applied for such a positon (she already worked for the phone company), and was turned down, sued MaBell, won and got the job.

Operators had it TOUGH. Like every other mainly female occupation such as nursing, it was a job with silly rules about conduct (both on and off the job), dress, (like anyone sees a phone operator), bathroom breaks, time off, and so on. Some old gals told me some places were like convents, with supervisors on their a**** all the time. Pay was horrible as well, but there weren't that many jobs for women in those days, so one took what one could get. Once the operators started to union, things got better.

Actually took the NYEX exam to become an operator when just out of high school. Let me tell you it was NOT easy! Out of huge auditorium full of people, only about 20 or so made the cut. Suffice to say the exam is NOT about routing telephone calls and bore little to no relation to being an operator, at least to my mind.

 

[oldhouseman]

Remember

Does anyone remember the "Telephone Man" song from the late '70's??

Hey baby, I'm the telephone man.
Show me where you want it and I'll put it where I can.
We can put one in the kitchen, we can put one in the hall, we can do it in the bathroom or I can hang it on the wall.

So we did it in the kitchen and we did it in the hall, we did it in the bathroom and he hung on on the wall......

Singing hey lollie lollie I'm the telephone man.

It was a fun short little ditty about getting a telephone installed. Real sing-song rythm.

 

[launderess]

Madam, Tone Her Down! This Is A Toll Call!

MaBell made her money on long distance, overseas, and toll calls. It is amazing how cheap it is to call long distance today, or even overseas. Cheaper still with all those free night and weekend minutes for cell plans. Years ago one didn't chat for ages on long distance either. If someone called, and one of us children started chatting away, we'd hear "give me that phone, that is long distance and costs money", from an adult.

.

 

[oldhouseman]

Talking loud

My grandmother used to shout on long distance calls. Once I asked her why she yelled into the phone when it was long distance. She said she had to in order for them to hear because they were so far away.........

We had an old crank phone in the barn when I was little. My cousin rigged it with two wires hanging out. We took it fishing. He would place the wires down in the water and I would turn the crank. Any nearby fish would get a mild shock and float to the top and my cousin would scoop it up in a net. We came home with a hughe basket of fish. We called it "telephoning for fish". I really caught it when my grandfather found out.

 

[washabear]

Answer to Launderess' trivia question: I think that may be "Young Lust" by Pink Floyd, from The Wall?

 

[launderess]

Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner!

Give that man a cupie doll. Or, his bevy of choice!

L.

 

[rp2813]

L, you would be surprised at how little has changed regarding treatment of operators and service representatives. Actually, these days they are SALES representatives. Customer service stopped being a priority at every baby bell SBC swallowed up. Regardless, every last second of activity is monitored. I have heard a true story told about a male operator who needed a health break but was not allowed to leave his console. So he stood up and relieved himself all over the console. You would be surprised at how many robotic supervisors are still treating their employees this way.

 

[launderess]

Verizon no longer calls itself a "telephone" company when you call, but "your information and technology" company. Verizon is also fast dumping it's landline phone service in areas where it is not profitable and possible.

 

[rp2813]

No question that wireless has become the cash cow for the former wireline-only telcos. However, after the recent 5.6 earthquake here, nobody could get signal on their cell phones while landlines, of course, had no interruption other than a bit slow on the uptake regarding dialtone in the first couple of mintes after the shaking stopped.

Landlines will probably never go away but the services we recieve over them will certainly be changing. Voice service will likely end up being an add-on rather than the actual reason people have a landline connected, which will be for DSL or its successor technologies or for video services. I just don't see Ma Bell or Verizon ripping up all of that infratructure after all of the recent legal fights with re-sellers where the telcos maintained that they built it and had the right to charge competitors to use it. It strikes me that the cost alone of undoing over 100 years' worth of cabling and wiring installations across the globe rules out any such thing happening in the forseeable future.

 

[launderess]

In major urban areas like NYC, landline service is still popular and earns money, especially now that the phone companies bundle everything together. However rural service, which never was profitable to either wire or serve (MaBell had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the Feds to wire these areas, and until rather recently a tax was levied on phone bills to pay for it), is another story. Verizon is making noises about selling off it's landline service in upstate New York.

 

[launderess]

Pink Floyd Young Lust Ending

(Phone Ringing)
[Man:] "Hello?"
[Operator:] "Yes, a collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd.
Will you accept the charges from the United States"
(Phone is Hung Up)
"He hung up. Is this your residence, sir?"
"I wonder why he hung up..."
"There must be someone else there
besides your wife to answer."
(Phone Ringing)
[Man:] "Hello?"
[Operator:] "This is the United States calling."
"Are we reaching?"
(Phone is Hung Up)
"See he keeps hanging up."
"But it's a man answering."
(Operator cuts connection)

 

[buffster]

Patrick and Fred N....

Glad you two connected. As I was reading about your experience Patrick, I thought "boy these two need to chat about their days with the telephone company." I'm sure you'll have many interesting and similar stories to share. If you two ever need a ghost writer, I bet there's a good book or two waiting to be written about your experiences.

Patrick, I love the assembly line add. That is just too cool for words. And, I'm sure you have a few "souvenirs" left over from your days with the telephone company. I had three great uncles who worked for the phone company. They had all retired by the time I knew them--this was well over 30 years ago. (Gulp. I'm really aging myself.) I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask them more questions about the company, what they did and whether they had any goodies hidden away in their basements. I'm sure their estate sales must have been like hitting the mother load. Oh well.

Please do send me an email when you have a few free minutes. I'd love to talk more about your collection and share resources. I've found a few good reputable firms that sell NOS, NIB, and reconditioned phones. I think Fred N. even has an NOS Trimline wall phone in his kitchen from one of the sources I recommended.

Looking forward to chatting soon.

Mike