https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuYPOC-gCGA

Right before we met the Cleavers

Our exchange was OLive. When we made direct-dialed long distance calls in our small town the operator would come on the line and say, Your Number Please. When my dad would say OLive 4-2122, the operator occasionally would not get it. Finally he'd say, olive as in martini, which closed the deal. Later it became 654, and those problems ceased.

He'd make business calls from home, and give the business number. An operator found out about this one time and (as Lily Tomlin would) informed him this was misuse of the telephone system, and that he should dial O and bill to a third party (at considerably more expense). Needless to say, he went right on direct dialing the business calls as always.

I think our little town had this antiquated phone system until 1974. The telephone office equipment before that was called a community dial office...no touch tone, just dials, as in the demonstration.

Ah those were the great old days. No party lines today either. We were Walker 2 as in 922-0000. The whole state had the same area code so you just dialed 7 numbers. Are there any operators anymore? We laugh at that video but dialing phones were the greatest invention. My great aunt had a black phone just like that. I actually enjoyed dialing a phone.

In the late 70's we had something in the office called a telecopier a forerunner of the fax machine. A girl thought she had to whack the machine to start it up. LOL

He'd make business calls from home, and give the business number. An operator found out about this one time and (as Lily Tomlin would) informed him this was misuse of the telephone system, and that he should dial O and bill to a third party (at considerably more expense). Needless to say, he went right on direct dialing the business calls as always.



So there was a separate billing for a business call? How would anybody know it was a business line?

In New Jersey we had 2 area codes, 609 (south) and 201 (north). Community dial offices had to dial 1 before any long distance call, but some of the towns around us were more modern, and as you say, you could just dial the number within the 609 area.

So there was a separate billing for a business call? How would anybody know it was a business line?

He was in the real estate business and made a lot of calls related to that, from home. When the operator came on asking for his number (to bill the call to), he'd just give his business number to her (they were all "her" back then). I guess you were ALWAYS supposed to give the number you were calling from.

What he could have done is just give the home number to the operator and turn in business calls to the real estate office for reimbursement. A lot more hassle though. I don't remember how the operator "found out" he was doing this--maybe he told her one time, or something.

That reminds me about a month ago I saw What’s My Line in the 70’s or 60’s. There was a man and a woman who worked for the same company. The twist was that he was a telephone operator and she was an installation technician.

I missed it somehow. I watched the video/scanned through it, but I do not get the connection to June?