A Reunion of Maine Switchboard Operators Recalls Old Era of Telecommunications

Before smartphones, most people kept in touch using landline telephones.

And before direct dialing was common, some calls were handled by switchboard operators.

During the 1950s, more than 220,000 operators were employed by the Bell System alone. Most were women who were expected to be courteous, quick-thinking and patient under pressure.

And at a recent reunion in Maine, some former operators shared a few highlights about what they say was a challenging but rewarding job in a simpler time.

Until the 1970s, a switchboard operators' assistance was often needed for person-to-person, collect calls or to report a crime.

“Operator, yes operator, I'd like to make a long-distance call to area code 314-822-7024.”

“Operator, I'm calling from a phone booth and I'm trying to reach 326-3055.”

“Operator, can you get me the police, this is an emergency."

Operators were based at local switching stations called telephone exchanges where they watched for calls that appeared as lights on a cord board.

"Which was a board with little holes for different towns and when the light came on that's what we answered,” says Shireen Desmond, a former operator.

Desmond says she would then offer her standard greeting: " 'Shireen, how may I help you?’ We had to tell our name."

The caller would then provide a phone number. The operator would plug the caller into the corresponding circuit. And voila! What could possibly go wrong?

"Well, one time I plugged into Dixfield. And there was a young boy and he said the house was on fire,” says Lorraine Luce, who had just started as a switchboard operator. She says she got so flustered she forgot her training for dealing with an emergency. Fortunately, she says a supervisor was quick to intervene.

"There's a certain procedure you have to follow which completely escaped me and I hollered, "Fire!" And it wasn't long after that that I went into retraining,” Luce says.