New and Interesting Item in Museum

[DavePEI]

Hi Pholks:

I mentioned this item a few weeks ago, but at the time, had
only a very poor photo.

In the museum I have a number of pen and ink drawings by
Vivian Bostwick.She passed away March 18th, 2009. A few
weeks ago, I was contacted by her niece, Pam Hanselman, who
asked me if I would be interested in having a beautiful and
large shadow box she made of her years with the telephone
company in Arizona.as a display for the museum..One
interesting item on the display is an operator's call
counter, shown in the middle right-hand photo.

You can see this at:

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/new.html

A truly interesting piece of ephemera with some wonderful miniatures! These photos will be remaining on the server. I am posting a photo of one section here.

By the way, the telephone dangling from the top left shelf of this photo has been properly re-mounted, as have been several other items which were dislodged in transit. One other section shows her collection of Pioneer pins and her Pioneer bracelet. You can see a photo of most sections at the link above.

Dave

[Phonesrfun]

Does the operator counter count the number of operators that showed up for work on any given day?   

Tee hee

[Dennis Markham]

Very nice, Dave.  It's a great memorial to Vivian too, having her name plate displayed there.

[rp2813]

Bill, you're probably aware that on any given day, all operators showed up for work.  Ma Bell had a very strict attendance policy that was always enforced.  The same policy is still in place within telcos across the nation for all craft job titles.  Telco employees were forced to give up their own families and join a new one. 

Now that a job with a telco is no longer a guaranteed job for life, you'd think they'd ease things up with their attendance policies.

[Phonesrfun]

Bill, you're probably aware that on any given day, all operators showed up for work.  Ma Bell had a very strict attendance policy that was always enforced.  The same policy is still in place within telcos across the nation for all craft job titles.  Telco employees were forced to give up their own families and join a new one.  

Now that a job with a telco is no longer a guaranteed job for life, you'd think they'd ease things up with their attendance policies.

Ralph:

You have confirmed my question.  They would have definitely used such an "Operator Counter" to make sure everyone was present and accounted for before turning the boards on for the shift!  

[stub]

Dave,
         Here are two of the call counters that my Great Aunt used when she worked for Southern Bell .
         I can remember going to the CO ( 1957 ) and get to see all the operators and go to the back and see all the switches and watch sparks fly .  Man , those were the good old days.      stub

[DavePEI]

Dave,
         Here are two of the call counters that my Great Aunt used when she worked for Southern Bell .
         I can remember going to the CO ( 1957 ) and get to see all the operators and go to the back and see all the switches and watch sparks fly .  Man , those were the good old days.      stub

Hi Ken:

The call counter mounted on the display is of the first type.

I can hardly imagine the hours upon hours she must have spent planning and putting together the display. She was a talented lady - a site visitor sent me several pen and ink drawings of operator's headsets and other C.O. items two years ago he found in the yard sale after she passed away.

This find was somewhat of a coincidence, since her niece found my mention of her drawings on the museum site. I have them mounted above the magneto set display and to the right of the magneto switchboard.