The previous comment sure smells like spam.
1. Call phone company to see if offer still applies.
2. Buy a can of Spam, refresh my memory as to what it smells like.
When I was a kid in the ’50s, the big telephone building was just a block away from my elementary school, a convenient field trip. I went several times.
Repack Rider; Are you by any chance from Burlington, Vt.? Verizon still has the old phone company building across the street from Edmunds School.
Way back I had the good fortune to tour Ma Bellâ€™s switch in Dranesville, VA. All electro-mechanical relays at the time, a whole gymnasium sized room full of racks of ticking relays. Everything it did then probably now fits in a pizza box. Wonder what they’ve done with all the rest of that space.
I lived in California then and now. I’m sure such centers existed in every good sized city, and ours was conveniently located near the school.
I worked in the NJ state prison for 24 years starting in 1981. The first few years we had one of the OLD style switchboards. The officers had to know how to work it for after hours. What a blast it was when someone called for a supervisor and if he didn’t pick up we could just lean on the ringer switch! Good times, fond memories.
would be on duty on the local switchboard. Was very interested in the flashing lights and strange noises coming from the equipment.
she put a spare lightweight headset on my head so I could listen to conversations. It was all very memorably but sadly missed.
I have taken a deep interest in telephony and wrote a thesis on the Design and Implementation of the Telephone Kiosk in North London.