Seniors

We had an assembly program where the prop was a large phone -- several feet across. Guy from Bell Tel was on stage showing how the dial would spin and how to make a call.

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Fast forward, 1964, New York World's Fair.

My uncle was living in California, seeking his fortune. Bell Tell set up a demonstration of the phone of the future, video telephone. The phone line was connected between the fair and Disneyland. Anyone who was on either end could talk to whoever was on the other end - no charge. So we agreed to coordinate on a given Sunday. Probably 20 of us got on the train in N.J., took the train to Hoboken where we got on the ferry and then switched to subway to get to the fairgrounds. We got to SEE and speak with Uncle Bob for about 1/2 hour. The attendant valued the call at about $2K.

Damn. That was some shit and we were proud of ourselves. After that, the next stop was the Lowenbrau pavilion where they served room temperature draft Lowenbrau in large mugs.

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2nd fast forward, mid 1980's. There was a strike of long distance telephone operators. My friend Ken, was a mid level employee at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J. He, along with many of his colleagues were flown to Tennessee where they were given quick lessons on how to process long distance calls. One of the stories he told about his exploits still strikes me funny today.

Ken: "Long distance, may I help you?"

Patron: "I'd like to place a person to person call to Irk ____, in ____, Wisconsin."

K: "Irk?"

P: "Yes, Irk."

K: "Please spell the first name"

P: "Eric."

K: "Oh, Eric."

P: "Yes, Irk."

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K: "I have a person to person call from xxx to Eric ___. Is Eric available?"

Home resident: "From who?"

K: "From Eric."

H.R.: "Who?"

K: "Irk."

H.R.: "Oh, Irk., yeah, he's here."