Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1956-10-05
e OUR
"a lf0WN
GOODBYE. CENTRAL

and specialized instrument OF
communication brings an end
to an era of laughs, tears
and sometimes maddening con-
sequences some of which we
will record here. We are go
ing to miss the familiar num-
buh-pleeuse" and the clipped
"thenk-yuh" both of which be-
came accepted telephones.
No more will be heard the
iargon of the telephone girl.
The electric age has come to
Madison county.
Time was when they CALI
ed the girl at the telephone
office Central. They even
wrote a song about her years
ago called Hello, Central,
Hello. Many of you will re-
member the old crank-up tele-
phones that hung on the wall.
These ancient instruments
were replaced by the social
ed French" type phones and
if you didn't have one of these
babies you just weren't in the
know. Small children used to
sneer at their neighbors' kids
il they didn't have one OF
these. But the French tele-
phones had. at least one dis
advantage since they made it
impossible to put the receiver
up to the mouthpiece to pro-
duce the most ear-splitting
screech ever heard anywhere.
No one in these parts was
ever considered to be tone
deaf after a single treatment.
The Romance of the Tele-
phone" must include the
pranks indulged in by way
ward youths wherein we would
call such stalwart businessmen
as Tom Lanigan and ask If he
had Prince Albert in cans.
Tom would always answer
yves" in order to make the
sale and we would then let him
have it by saying "let him
out!" This caper would pro-
duce gales of laughter by all
us little meanies.
Another favorite pastime
would be to call various peo-
pie around the county saying
that we were testing the
phone equipment. Most people
would fall for this and we
could usually get them to
grunt, gargle and groan be-
fore they caught on. The re-
sultant mirth was devastating.
But back to the telephone
girl or operator as they soon
became known. Our particular
favorite was Maggie Rose
CORY who put the importance
of the telephone girl on a ba-
sis which will never be equal
led. On one occasion we called
our mother from Chicago
where we lived at the time
and found that mothers num-
ber didn't answer. This fact
posed no problem in those
days since Maggie Rose
quickly cut in and informed
us that mother was playing
bridge with friends. Shall |
ring?" asked Maggie Rose.
"Yes please" we said. And
that was that!
OF course, there were many
funny and irksome incidents
which happened over the
years which are worth repeat
ing and we are sure that these
same wonderful telephone
girls will take the fun and
the criticism in good spirit.
Our own favorite story
concerns an operator who was
no doubt new on the job at
the time. We had a friend in
Mt. Carmel hospital and had
noted the number of a pay
phone in the hallway over
there. Upon the occasion of
the call in mind we asked the
local operator for a number
which began with Adams"
Adams 1904" we'll say. At
any rate the operator said
"Numbuh pleeuse" and we
said columbus Adams 1904.
Whereupon the operator said,
What City are you cali
ing?" We repeated "Colufn-
bus. She again asked what
number we wanted and we
told her again. Then came the
blow. she asked us if we
wanted to talk to Mr.. Adams
personally!
But 1t was when disaster
struck that the operator be-
came a friend and benefactor
of the high order. The effort
expended by these girls in an
emergency should have been
rewarded with a medal of
some sort. 1t was then that
they really showed their wor-
th and their help at such times
far overshadowed any prev
ious inconvenience. Wen miss