[at-l] Sit back

[Art Cloutman]

My mother was a single parent.  She often left my brother and I to 
work for part of the day.  If we had a problem, all we had to do was 
lift up the phone and the operator - childhood friend of mom's - 
would recognize our voices and ask us what we needed.  There was no 
dial or buttons on that phone. If my mother was needed to talk with 
us or rush home the operator contacted her for us.  The town was 
pretty small in those days.  Everyone knew evryone else in town.  We 
walked everywhere - didn't own a car.  There was a train line into 
Boston and neighboring town and bus lines.  I grew up in Marblehead, 
Mass.  I was born in the town.  My mother was born in the house that 
we lived in.  And my  maternal grandfather was born around the corner 
from where we lived.  Actually the house we lived in was converted 
from and old barn to a boarding house.  My granfather bought the 
boarding house and the farmhouse next door.  Eventually, he gave the 
house to my mother and sold the farmhouse.  He and Gram moved into an 
apartment in Boston but spent their summers living in a 6 car garage 
near the beach.  You see, Pup was a chauffeur.  He drove for a very 
wealthy family that had a huge house on the ocean.  The also own 
property in Boston and Florida and they had a 200 ft yacht that was 
moored at their private dock.  My grandmother was their head house 
keeper. Eventually my grandfather had to stop driving because he had 
Huntington's disease.  His employer covered all of his medical 
expenses for the rest of his life and paid him a full retirement.

My mothers family was established in Marblehead before 1650. Actually 
several branches of her family which I guess would have to be in 
order for the family to grow.  My father was also born in Marblehead 
and so was his father and grand father and great grandfather.  I used 
to take care of cemetery plots with him.  There is a plot on Old 
Burial Hill with a headstone carved with the family name of a sea 
captain who died back in early 1600's.

Man, how did I get into this conversation?  All I wanted to mention 
was using operators in the old phone system.




>Operators are too far back for me unless we were calling outside our 
>exchange. If we were calling someone on the same exchange just 
>dialed and the switch did the ringing. The ring codes (if I remember 
>correctly) were 1 short/1 long - 2 short/1 long - 2 long - 1 long/2 
>short, etc. There were eight combinations so that everyone on the 
>exchange had their own ring code. Sort of like a proto-cell phone 
>ring tone but you didn't get to choose it.
>
>On Nov 16, 2007 7:51 AM, Art Cloutman 
><<mailto:Art at crystalacresnh.com>Art at crystalacresnh.com> wrote:
>
>Using the operator, you would let her know  how many rings for the 
>person you were calling.  As the system became automated, your phone 
>number included the number rings you needed for you to pickup.
>
>
>
>>In a message dated 11/15/2007 7:57:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
>><mailto:jim.bullard at gmail.com>jim.bullard at gmail.com writes:
>>
>>You told who it was for by how many rings
>>
>
>
>-------------------
>
>
>
>How do you do that?  Someone calls, lets it ring  for 4 times, as an 
>example, and  then calls back with the right neighbor picking up?
>
>
>
>Sly
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>See what's new at 
><http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170>AOL.com and 
><http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169>Make AOL 
>Your Homepage.
>
>
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>
>--
>
>Life is Good!!!
>Art Cloutman
>
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>--
>Jim Bullard
><http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/>http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/


-- 

Life is Good!!!
Art Cloutman
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