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At top left is shown Mrs.
Geneva Duckivorth, switch
board operator, and at left is
Mrs. Katherine Russell, re
lief operator.
"Ecusta . . . Thank you . . . just a minute I’ll dial him for you.”
"Hello . . . Ecusta . . . Long distance? Hold the line please.”
"Information . . . Call the Turbine room.”
And so it goes at our nerve center ... the telephone switchboard.
From the time the switchboard opens in the morning at 8:45 until 5
o’clock in the afternoon, it is a center of much activity, until sometimes
the operators are prone to call it a "nervous center.”
The job at times has two extremes . . . it’s easy to get worried
when calls pile up and tempers get frayed and then a call will come
in that has a humorous twist to it and the tension is off. For instance
when a long distance operator wants to know if this is the Acoustic
Paper Company at Piggy Forest ... or when a child calls in and wants
"to talk to my daddy.” It’s that way day in and day out and through it
all the operator maintains an even disposition that is an essential part
of her job.
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