Published: August 23, 2008 12:18 am            

Operator

Americans are always connected today, talking on the phone at home, while driving down the road and while shopping for groceries.

But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago people had to go through an operator in order to get connected with the person they were trying to reach.

In fact, it was only 45 years ago when Illinois Consolidated Telephone Co. changed from switchboard connections to dial-up service, quite a celebrated change for residents who were used to needing an operator to make a connection.

Earlier this week, several former switchboard operators reunited on the 45th anniversary of Effingham’s switchover to the dial-up system. The women — there were no men operators — met at Joe Sipper’s Cafe on Fourth Street, the building where the telephone company’s switchboard site for the city was located on the top floor.

According to a 1963 edition of the Effingham Daily News, Illinois Consolidated Telephone Co. switched from the switchboard system to the dial system at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, 1963.

Thirty miles of cable buried 24 inches deep along state right-of-way along U.S. 45 and 30 inches deep in other areas supported the new high-tech system. It took six men and two splicers four weeks to lay the telephone lines that allowed Effingham residents to directly connect to each other through the telephone.

But before the dial-up system came into existence, switchboard operators were integral in making the connections that allowed two-way phone conversations.

Those operators, who formed a special bond while working the switchboards, reunited 45 years later Monday, Aug. 18, in Effingham to catch up with each other’s lives and reminisce about old times.

During the reunion, the former operators shared stories and lots of laughter as they remembered standing for long hours at a switchboard connecting area residents with friends and relatives via the phone.

Unlike many old movies that show a loan switchboard operator sitting at a desk, the switchboards in Effingham were operated by several women standing shoulder to shoulder in a line in front of long boards where lines were plugged in. Hour after hour, they took calls, plugged in connections and kept the phone lines humming with conversations.

When dial service was implemented in 1963, most of the women lost their jobs. Switchboard operators were no longer needed.

One woman at Monday’s reunion even remarked it might seem a little strange to be celebrating an anniversary that ultimately meant the loss of their jobs.

Prior to the dial-up service, the women who were selected to run the switchboards had to meet certain physical requirements before getting hired.

The operators had to be able to physically stretch their arms a specific distance, said Barb Willenborg, a former operator.

According to former operator Anna Mae Gibson, the stretch was needed in order to reach the ends of the switchboard, which ran about four to five feet on either side of where the operator stood in the center.

In addition to needing a long reach, operators also had to be available to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since the telephone company didn’t shut down its telephone system, said Grace Boldt.

Operators had to be able to work nights, weekends and holidays, she said.

And supervisors expected punctuality and precision from the operators. added Gibson.

“If you were supposed to start at 8, you better be at the boards at 8,” she said.

While manning the switchboards, the operators were expected to write down everything — who was calling who, what towns were involved, etc., — on a paper ticket, Willenborg said. Those tickets were then turned in at the end of a shift.

Operators worked under the assumption the customer was always right, said Boldt, adding no matter what the customer said, operators were expected to respond with courtesy.

Even when the customer was cussing the operator out, the woman operating the switchboard had to respond in a respectful manner, said Boldt.

There also were strict restrictions on dress, even though operators dealt with their customers via the phone lines. According to the women gathered at the reunion, the operators had to dress up for duty and were required to wear a skirt or dress and high heels.

The only people who saw the operators were the other women working the switch board, said Gibson, but they were still expected to dress professionally.

Thus, they often went home with soar feet and tired shoulders.

Working the switchboard had its advantages, however.

Both Gibson and Eileen Cunning said they met their husbands while working as operators.

Cunning was a supervisor and the man she eventually married was a splicer at the Champaign site. She said he called her up one day, and they started going out after that.

Gibson told a similar story.

She became acquainted with the man she would marry because she had to walk past him every day in order to get to her post. Her husband was a tester for the phone company at the time.

The women were more than co-workers. They became good friends and were willing to help each other out when they could.

Gibson, who worked the 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift would walk over to the Dairy Queen to purchase buttermilk for another woman who didn’t get off work until 11 p.m.

And sometimes co-worker Alice Curry would make waffles with pecans for the other operators to enjoy during their breaks, said Gibson.

“It was like we were one big family,” said Gibson. “We were all really close.”

Jackie Gorski can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 136 or at jackie.gorski@effinghamdailynews.com.