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I remember when you couldn’t dial a long distance number yourself, you had to call the operator by dialing “0”. Then you told the her (I never personally spoke to a male operator though I suppose there were some) who you wanted to call and in which city and state they were. Then you might have to hang up to wait for a call back when she got the person on the line.

I remember answering the phone when I was kid and the operator was would say she had a long distance call for my father. If he wasn’t home, she would leave a message with me to have him call “operator 3”. Then when he got home, he would dial “0”, ask for “operator 3”, who would then get the other party on the line for him and the other party still paid for the call.

“I never personally spoke to a male operator though I suppose there were some”

I remember my mom telling me that the phone companies were very leery of male operators. They were afraid that if things got dicey the men would lose their cool and curse out the callers.

I have no idea if this was based on actual experience or just fear.

Yet I think we can say that telephone operator jobs were area that moved women into the vanguard of technological jobs.

I wonder if anyone has studied this, and NO I do not want to or mean to sound like some women’s studies awful person here!

I remember when you could set your clocks by calling Time on the telephone -- I don't remember the number now, but it was really simple, just a 7-digit thing, and very handy. You'd call and a pleasant sounding recorded voice, female, would say: "The time is. Seven forty two. And ten. Seconds. *beep* The time is. Seven forty fwo. And fifteen. Seconds. *beep* The time is ... "(etc.)

My dad often called it to set battery clocks, etc. Whenever there was someone else in the house (... though who knows, maybe that didn't matter!), we'd hear him dial the phone and inquire politely:

Hello, could you tell me the time please? (pause) Seven forty-three and fifteen seconds, well, thank you! (pause)What was that? (pause) Oh, yes, it's nice and sunny here, not windy at all, but then again, we're -- (pause, followed by polite chuckle) -- no, nothing like that! (longer pause) Well, thank you for asking! Yes, she's fine, doing very well. (pause, and a nice laugh as he listened) Well, that rascal! I hope you weren't too rough on hi -- (pause, more laughter) Oh, I believe you! Well, thanks for telling me the time, I -- (pause, another laugh) -- oh very good, very good! (more laughter) Okay then, bye bye now!"

He'd hang up and remark to anyone listening that that lady at the telephone company who always had the time was sure a nice lady, and then go on about his day. My dad is a man who definitely knows how to take the time to smell life's roses along the way! {^)

<(I never personally spoke to a male operator though I suppose there were some)

I read that while they tried male operators, women were more ‘compliant,’ shall we say and easier to mold in the ways of the phone company. Guys also had a tendency to fool around with the equipment.

See: Race on the Line: Gender, Labor, and Technology in the Bell System, 1880–1980 by Venus Green

I never personally spoke to a male operator though I suppose there were some

I've read that in the very early days, all operators were teenage boys. Supposedly, management found out quickly that such operators were unruly and unreliable, so they switched to females, and solved the problem.