TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu> (02/10/90)
The first memory I have of a phone cut over, or change in calling procedure was when I was 8 years old. Our manual exchange was converted to dial, as of 2:00 AM that day, and I was very eager to see what the difference would be when the conversion was finished. The phone man had visited our house, with many others in the neighborhood during the three month period prior, to install a rotary dial on the formerly dial-less phone. But the dial would not work until the conversion was complete, we were told. I found that rotary dial to be fascinating, and would spin it, but if I did it when the receiver was off-hook, the operator would come on and yell at me, since this created fast clicking and a rapid flashing on the light on the switchboard. Finally came the night of the change. When completed, we would begin dialing all other parts of Chicago which were dialable; we would dial '711' for northside points not yet dialable; '811' for southside points not yet dialable, and '911' for Whiting, Indiana, a place in our local (far south side of Chicago) calling zone. Whiting would remain manual for nearly another decade, until 1959. The only number I knew for sure I could call and get an answer without waking anyone was the recorded message for the Hoosier Auditorium Theatre in Whiting. They played a one minute message of coming attractions on the number 'Whiting 1234'. That, or I could call my dad's office at the Standard Oil Whiting Refinery, 'Whiting 3111', but someone would answer there, no matter the hour. That, by the way, was the main PBX number for Whiting Refinery; my father had a private line in his office, 'Whiting 9'. I think I called the coming attractions number ten times over a fifteen minute period, 1:50 AM to 2:05 AM.....Right up to 1:59 when I lifted the receiver, the operator would come on in a second or two, and I'd ask for Whiting 1234; then at 2:00 AM on the dot, by the best of my time calcuations, I went off hook, and no operator....no nothing. I waiting fifteen or twenty seconds, and the operator did not answer. I hung up, went off hook again about ten seconds later, and heard dial tone. Ah! My chance to see how the funny round gizmo on the phone would work. I dialed '911' and waited a few seconds; a lady answered saying "Whiting!" and I asked for 1234, and listened to the coming attractions message for about the seventh time. I remember being so excited by it I called a friend to talk, and his mother got on the extension at their house and bawled me out for calling at 2:15 AM. Everything left in Chicago was converted within the next six months or so, and all that was left was '911', which continued to get the manual switchboard in Whiting for about another eight or nine years. Then Whiting cut over to 219-659, at 2:00 AM one morning, and I made a point of being the person to make the last manual call on the old system. At 1:59 AM that morning I called....you guessed it, Whiting 1234. I think I was the first person to make a call on the dial system also, because two minutes later I dialed 659-1234 and the call went through without the weirdness of the day before when I had tried it: When dialing it the day before, it did ring, and the theatre did answer -- but when the theatre answered, within a couple seconds the Whiting operator would pick up, asking *them* 'what number, please?' I thought this was quite funny at the time, because the theatre box office clerk (who answered when the theatre was open) said "operator, you rang us!". I tried it two or three times, each time getting a laugh out of the resulting confusion. Once the cut was complete the next day, no more operator coming on line to answer a signal I had caused to happen by dialing prematurely, a day before the official cut. And now 12:30 AM, Saturday, February 10, 1990: I tried two minutes ago, and Evanston was still seven digits to me. As I dial it now, my call gets intercepted after dialing 491... I guess I was one of the last, and one of the first again. Patrick Townson