Sepia Saturday 151 Phones and party lines

I have so many thoughts and memories about phones  that I had to stop pondering and post...such have been the changes over the past 50 years.   

I still recall 748R, our home telephone number back when we had party lines, a number I memorized at about age 4.  That was a time when the phone exchanges were growing.  Party lines were predominant in our town for some time.  Mom knew  the folks on our line and sometimes they would just talk, to each other,  if a conversation was in process whoever picked up felt free to chime in or to ask for the line to make a call.  This photo from 1975 is of the last party line telephone operator in  Minnesota.  Wow, I thought they were long gone by then but this was in Cotton, a rural northern part of MN,  beyond Duluth near the Iron Mountain Range.  

1975 January  Miss Gellerstedt  

"Hello Cotton"  answers Miss Sigrid Gellerstedt, chief operator of the Cotton telephone exchange, the last hand-crank system in the state.  The late evening sun poured in the windows of her cozy little white house in Cotton, about halfway between the Iron Range and Duluth on Highway 53 where the system was set up.  Miss Gellerstedt sat at the massive old oaken switchboard, a headset crowning her curly hair. On top of the board and the closet full of circuits behind it were a picture of her parents, a plaque with the opening lines of the 23rd Psalm on it and two small American flags. 

The old switchboard in her home, looked very much like an upright piano and she “played” it with the skill and artistry of a true virtuoso.   But it’s all part of history now. She was the Cotton operator for more than 30 years, starting her career in the communications industry on May 4, 1944. At first she had it all alone and worked about 15 hours a day, seven days a week, although her mother helped out.  After many years she had two assistants, local women to fill in and take over. 

When Cotton’s hand-cranked telephones were disconnected the 200 subscribers joined the outside world’s dial system in the form of Arrowhead Communications Corp.  The party lines with up to 17 households on them became historical lore, with installation of automatic dial phones.  Sig and her  assistants, were replaced by a small windowless building filled with automatic dial equipment on County Road 52 about three miles east of Cotton.”  “It’s the end of an era,” said the independent company relations supervisor for Northwestern Bell. He had mixed feelings about the progress that comes with the discontinuance of the crank telephone.  “These people don’t know what they’re going to miss,” he predicted.  The operators, particularly Miss Gellerstedt, recognized many callers by voice. That’s personalized service you probably won’t find in other places.  And if you were lonely or bored, they were glad to discuss local events, give evaluations of the weather or chat about anything you cared to mention and had the time to talk about.  They were a social service and a news medium all rolled into one."  

This is courtesy of a site, attic voices at this link  where you can look for more about the last party line story. http://attic.areavoices.com/2011/10/26/minnesotas-last-party-line-phone-system/

That reminds me me of a passage in Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days, ( a Minnesotta writer) in which he writes about a former switchboard operator for whom it seems Sigrid Gellerstedt could have been a model. Here are a few lines:  "The pantry off her kitchen holds the old switchboard, still in good condition, and also the steel cabinet with the switching equipment that took over from it when they went to dial telephones in 1960. … If someone doesn’t answer their phone by the fifth ring, she does, and usually she knows where they went and when they’re expected. … If you do reach her instead of your party – say, your mother – she may clue you in on things your mom would never tell you, about your mom’s bad back, a little fall on the steps the week before, or the approach of Mother’s Day, or the fact that when you were born you were shown off like you were the Prince of Wales"

This 2011 photo is of the vintage, old and  very heavy immobile dial phone that my late uncle Carl kept on his desk in his home; he had a special arrangement with the phone company to accept and translate  the dial sounds. I tried to convince him to convert to a new push button phone but he was not having it. I bought a new phone with big push buttons for him, he made me return it.  This black dinosaur  had worked well over the years and he saw no need to change.   We sold it in the estate sale when he passed.  It limited him all the times when one was asked to push a number for different choices, but he would patiently just sit tight until a live person  finally came on line. If no one came on the line, he would hang up and be done with whatever he had called about.  This frustrated me and I asked him once, "well how will you finish that...."  he grinned and replied, "not a problem, it's their turn to call me..."  I suspect this black behemoth dated back to about 1952 when they built the house, it was used until 2010 when he went into assisted living.

I close with "Party Line" written by Coleman Lee Williams,   late father of our friend, Tom who graciously shared many of Coleman's works. Can you see the women talking....

Hello! What are you doing today?
Well, I just called up to say ---
What's that? She DID? How'd you hear?
No! Wait, this line's not very clear.

Did you say she ---? That's what I thought.    
Well, that's the first she ever bought!
What time was that? I mustn't forget;
Hold it 'til I get a cigarette.

Why, they were here until after eight.
Well, gossip's one thing I simply hate,
But I told her more than a thing or two.
O - Oh! Someone on the line, or was it you?

Of course! I know just how you feel,
(Quit clickin' this phone, you lousy heel!)
No, not you, but the way some act,
It's a pity they don't use a little tact!

I'd like to see it. How's it made?
But where did you put the rick-rack braid?
Bet it's cute. I'd like to see her in it;
Oh! Before I forget, have you tried Pinit?

No, I didn't. Never said a word.
Well, that's not the first, so I've heard.
That's what I say --- like an open page,
It's a wonder she wouldn't act her age!

Well, just thought I'd give you a buzz;
Wish I knew who that guy was,
Didn't you hear him try the line?
Yeah, been doin' it since almost nine!

Where were we? Oh, now I remember,
Didn't you hear? Nine, next November!
I thought so last week on the street.
Yeah, everybody thought her so stinkin' sweet.

You don't mean -- ? That awful clown!
Well, I did hear he left town.
You know that other, -- yeah, skinny legs,
Looked like a dog caught suckin' eggs.

Did you see --- Oh! That makes me mad!
If that guy needs the phone so bad
Looks like he'd get another line,
I pay this bill so this one's mine!

I guess that'll hold HIM, -- now, where was I?
Oh, if you're gonna be home, I'll drop by;
If there's any one thing that'll make me balk
It's some guy cuttin' in when I wanta talk!

Bye, see you in a few minutes!                Written by: Coleman Lee Williams  4/28/1900 - 5/5/1988

Short on photos long on words, today.  Click here to  the Sepia host site where others
share responses to the prompt...

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2012/11/sepia-saturday-151-10-november-2012.html

Two more reads Pontoon and Overton Window

I always get a laugh out of Garrison Keillor's writings even though  I absolutely disagree with him politically.  He does it again with "Pontoon" published in 2007, which I picked up somewhere and decided it was a good light read for  travels, the trouble is  there are so many funny passages I had to read them out loud to Jerry too as we drove along to southern IL.  "Pontoon"  really hit my giggle buttons because now we live in MN, the site of Lake Wobegon and among Norwegians and Lutherans, the folks in his writings.  "Pontoon"  is vintage Keillor especially the final funeral scene, I laugh out loud recalling it. Sometimes I wonder what he's drinking or smoking when he writes; share that secret please!  Here is a very over all  summary because there is so much that happens to so many characters, that I can't cover it all here. 
When Evelyn dies, her daughter, Barbara discovers  that her wishes are  cremation, to be stuffed into her bowling ball and dropped into Lake Woebegone!  There, you see what I mean about what does he drink while writing.  While Barbara proceeds to carry out these wishes she gives up alcohol which has been a problem for her but a coping mechanism; she enlists her  bedraggled excuse of an adult son to assist; he hooks up with an Elvis impersonator and things really start to gel.  Meantime Deb Detmer, a local girl who went to CA where she made a fortune  specializing in  veterinary aroma therapy returns home for a celebration ceremony (not a wedding) to marry Brent,on the Lake in a pontoon  presided over by Misty Naylor, from the sisterhood of the sacred Spirit.  Enough happens to call the celebration off but not some of the arrangements which collide with the funeral.  Then there are the visiting Danish Lutheran  ministers,  agnostics, shipped  away from Copenhagen to get out of their Bishop's hair and who Fred must escort.  The Danes cannot wait to leave for more exciting Western states, but little can they begin to  imagine what they will encounter as they feast on giant shrimp kabobs at Lake Wobegon and imbibe too freely.  Enough, it makes me laugh just trying to describe it.

 He adequately describes lutefisk which is something I have tasted here only once and cannot fathom anyone eating, but they do.  Pg. 185, " Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution.,  It looks like the dessicated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and lye is washed out and it's cooked, it looks more fish related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small.  It can be tasty but statistics are not on your side.  It is the hereditary  delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays in memory of ancestors who ate it because they were poor.  Most lutefisk are not edible by normal people." I am vindicated because I finally here in MN found a fish that I cannot eat, lutefisk.  Before I met it I would say that given a choice I'd always opt for fish, but now at these dinners I opt for the Swedish meatballs right away. 

There are references throughout to the statue of the Unknown Norwegian in town, other characters including Evelyn's sister, Flo who want the  traditional church wedding, and Evelyn's secret lover Raoul.  You gotta read it to get it! 


I borrowed "The Overton Window" by Glenn Beck from a friend and wondered  when it would get better.  It is vintage Glenn Beck with lots of far out ranting.  If you ever see Glenn Beck on TV you can hear him reading this novel  about Noah Gardener successful businessman in his father Arthur's PR firm.  Trouble begins when Noah meets Molly Ross, a revolutionary subversive.   I would have waited a long time to read this and not missed a thing.  It is far out, shades of political nonsense such as we are now living and yet beyond that.  I hope this does not forecast our future.  I have a  2nd cousin who is an LDS church member and way more conservative than I am.  I remember hearing her views years ago about this New World Order plot.  Well the Overton Window is just like that, New World order and beyond, where do we run, where do we hide.  Fortunately I'd had a good laugh with Pontoon before reading this.  Typical Beck where at times the writing stimulates  thought, one memorable  part, on page 7 "..people think about age and experience in terms of years but it's really only moments that define us.  We stay mostly the same and then grow suddenly at the turning points."