File:Being a Telephone Operator in Chanute, Kansas.wav

English: This story was collected in conjunction with the national traveling exhibition "The Way We Worked" by the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution. It is part of the "Be Here: Main Street" collection, intended to capture Americans' stories about their neighborhoods, waterways, towns, traditions, and personal experiences. #bHereMainSt “I was a telephone operator in Chanute, Kansas, in 1960 and ’61 when they actually went dial. And, it was very interesting, and I did night relief, so I worked from midnight to six in the morning by myself, and you ran the whole town’s telephone service, and it was the old days where you plugged in a number and said ‘number, please,’ and they gave you a number and you rang it. I also made long distance calls at night. There weren’t a lot but there were some, and that was quite interesting, living in a small town. I did that my senior year until we went dial. It was wonderful. You met a lot of people you felt like you knew even though you didn’t. Thank you.”