HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemories of the Telephone Company It came to me quite recently that quite a few of us worked in only one of the"rooms" at the telephone company.
I'm the only one I know who adhered to the'Peter Principle'- I reached my own level of incompetence in each of
my jobs,then moved on to master another. Don't get me wrong, I loved my job, it paid my bills, raised my kids,
and many others', and I had more energy than the law allows—holding GTE contract/volunteer jobs. It's been a
good ride for this old cowgirl. I recently told my chiropractor that I've spent more time falling off horses and
motorcycles(and let's skip that)than I did riding.
P.O.T.S. (Plain Old Telephone Service)-Ok, here's telephone work. It starts in the bowels of that tall building across
from the courthouse, or it did back in the 60s... in the cable vault with just two wires negative/positive that we
called tip/ring running off 48-52 UHS DC supplied one floor up from aforementioned cable vault. Moving on up,we
had a big old Detroit Diesel.Jimmy Scarpincto and I were assigned to fire it up at 3am Saturday Morning and check
the fluid levels(it was a backup)after we maintained batteries(big as me)which kept us all going.There were
certain temperatures, electrolyte levels, etc that must be maintained—we did that.When I first saw'the frame', I
said it looked like'patriotic spaghetti', a mesh of red,white and blue wire(again, negative, positive, ground)which
lead from aforementioned tip/ring cable pairs to line finders to connectors,with corresponding switches.When
you'd take your phone off the hook, it'd lay a short on the switch,giving you a dial tone,then moving on line finder
switch. If you remember in old movies,clack clack,containing a bunch of clam-looking relays which had
operate/non-operate paths which operated relays—which were regulated by feeler gauges—variegated strips of
aluminum foil strips.They progressed through paths of similar switches then out on poles down in holes to outside
your house. If you look up at the pole,those purse-looking things have GTE(Verizon)wires inside.Just higher are
TV Cable then BTU wires.Just outside on your house is a box—the demarcation point—phone company stops
there, unless you pay insurance-it's yours to maintain.What is inside your house is yours...and the same two
wires.Just thought some of you who didn't know would enjoy my impression of telephone service—some of which
may be incorrect—but truth as I know it.
-KK