Being a Telephone Operator in Chanute, Kansas

“I was a telephone operator in Chanute, Kansas, in 1960 and ’61 when they actually went dial. And, it was very interesting, and I did night relief, so I worked from midnight to six in the morning by myself, and you ran the whole town’s telephone service, and it was the old days where you plugged in a number and said ‘number, please,’ and they gave you a number and you rang it. I also made long distance calls at night. There weren’t a lot but there were some, and that was quite interesting, living in a small town. I did that my senior year until we went dial. It was wonderful. You met a lot of people you felt like you knew even though you didn’t. Thank you.”

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