01-26-15 06:56 TOM WALKER wrote to ED VANCE about Re: Time Zones Was: Older   
      
    TW> @MSGID: <54C6C94B.1246.windowsb@capcity2.synchro.net>   
    EV>I remember the time where I dialed 6 numbers to call a phone in my city   
    EV>and I remember the change over to 7 digits but I could still call a lot   
    EV>of the numbers using 6 digits even after the supposed ending of the   
    EV>period where either way the numbers could be dialed.   
      
    TW> I rembember when I was in high School up in Great Falls Montana   
    TW> their phone numbers were 4 digits.   
      
   Howdy! Tom,   
      
   Before there was a telephone in our house, if we needed a Cab to take   
   someone in the house somewhere, sometimes I would be asked to go next   
   door and ask the neighbor to use their telephone.   
      
   The first time I ever used their phone, I heard a voice saying:   
   "Number Please?", and all I could say was the name of the Cab Company   
   that I was told to call.   
      
   When we got telephone service it was a Dial Telephone.   
      
   It was the old bakelite(sp?) model that was used before the plastic 500   
   Series came out.   
      
    TW> There was a lot of grumbiling when they went to 5 digits   
      
   Just like I am grumbling over this Ten Digit Dialing.   
      
   I don't mind dialing Eleven Numbers to make a Long Distance call,   
   although the Cell Phone Users just dial Ten Digits for any calls that   
   they make.   
      
   I still fell that the Area Code for my area wouldn't have had a   
   shortage of available numbers to issue if the Cell Phone Users were   
   all switched over to the new Area Code.   
      
   But that's my opinion, others have theirs.   
      
    TW> Several years later I got a job with the Phone company and   
    TW> hepled double the size of their Switch Room.   
    TW> Being junior man I spent a lot of time crawling up on the cable   
    TW> trays lacing down the cables with waxed cord.   
      
   A friend let me visit him at the Exchange where he worked, so I can   
   understand what You went through.   
      
   One place where I worked at, the Operator Switchboard and Switch Room   
   was along side of the room I was at.   
      
   The telephone numbers for the building next to our building could be   
   dialed just by dialing the number 8 and then the 4 numbers for the   
   offices in that other building.   
      
   On a midnight shift sometimes I would hear one of the Step By Step   
   Relays (iirc that is what they're called) Start making a clicking sound   
   because someone from the other building wanted to make a call on a   
   outside line but all of the outside lines on their Telephone System   
   were in use, so they would dial 8 and then 9 to get a Dial Tone so they   
   could make their call.   
      
   Some of the time after they finished their call the Relay would hang   
   up in a intermitten position and some piece of equipment that would   
   start up whenever one of the Relays in the Switch Room was activated   
   would continue to make a Tick Tock noise that would continue all night   
   long until the Lady Operators came to work in the morning.   
      
   The Operator showed me that I could touch the bottom of the Relay that   
   was in the intermediate position, and it would let the rotating part   
   drop down, which would turn off the Tick Tock noise which I heard all   
   night long.   
      
   That was a blessing just learning how to stop that noise when it wasn't   
   needed for the Switch Room equipment to be making.   
      
   Not that it was driving me crazy, I am already crazy, in my own way.   
   Of course You and the Others who read my messages know that.   
   73   
      
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