Page 94 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

Column June 17,2007

THE NIGHT IRENE SCREAMED

Some time ago I wrote a column on the history of the local BellSouth
(then Southern Bell) telephone company.

Irene Payne Porter, one of those early telephone switchboard operators,
wrote to tell me about one of the busiest nights she ever had at
Southern Bell and how it caused her to momentarily lose her cool. Here
Is Irene's story.

"During World War II, I was a Southern Bell switchboard operator. Our
switchboard was manually operated. An operator handled each call
personally. There were no dial phones back then.

Tobacco sales season was always an especially busy time for us
operators. One night during tobacco season Ruth Milton Parrish and I
were the only two operators working the 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.

We were always busy handling local and long distance calls for our
regular customers. But then when you added in all the long distance
calls from tobacco men to their home offices with their daily reports,
it was almost overwhelming since there were just the two of us working.

One particular night we got so many calls that the switchboard lit
like a Christmas tree and the calls just kept coming in. I had never
seen our switchboard so lit up.

For a moment I felt overwhelmed. Suddenly I let out a scream so loud
one of Ruth's customèrs heard me and wanted to know what was wrong. She
told him he would not have asked that question if he could have seen our
switchboard all lit up and how overwhelmed we were.

Ruth and I quickly regained our composure and finished our shift but
after that the phone company always gave us extra help during tobacco
season.

Another bit of information, I was the first woman hired at the Lake City
telephone office who ADMITTED that I was married. If my husband, Red
Porter, had not been overseas fighting in the war I might not have
gotten the job."

Of course the eventual warning by the U.S. Surgeon General connecting

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