Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history
through old photographs. This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt
depicts a row of switchboard operators at work. A scene like
this was quite familiar to my aunt Beverly Ann Slade “Betty”
Anderson. Why? Because she was part of the legend of women who
said “NY-un” (9) and “FY-vuh” (5) when speaking to telephone
customers. From the very first day on the job in 1952, Aunt
Betty loved working at the “toll board” or “cord board,” as it
was called, as an employee of Southern Bell in Burlington, North
Carolina, and then later at C & P Telephone Company in
Portsmouth, Virginia. |C & P Telephone Company| High Street
Portsmouth, VA The telephone operators were on the third floor.
from Google Maps |The woman in the back is operating the|
switchboard from which she connected calls to the desks in the
business office of C & P Telephone Company. photo courtesy of
Beverly Anderson The basis of the job was quite simple: just
insert one or both cords to make the connec