|
Rummaging in
the archives, we discovered an interesting clipping, name and date
of newspaper not identified. It was written by Susan Orton and
headlined Bellevue, Texas.
Museum Memories
published in Clay Co.
Leader, August 24, 2006 & September 7, 2006.
"Telephone calls go through an automatic
dial system now at Bellevue, but Loma Wetsel can remember when the old
fashioned "Number, please" operator served as something of a
community co-ordinator.
"For 22 years, Mrs. Wetsel had that job, sounding the alarm in
event of a fire outbreak, bringing medical help when help was needed -
even to reminding teenagers they’d talked too long and to release
the busy party line.
"As a widow in the early 1930's Mrs. Wetsel found it necessary to
bring in extra money in order to provide for her family. She began by
ironing for others in the community. Frequent visits to the relief
operator on the Bellevue telephone switchboard inspired her to learn
how to work the board.
"Accepted as a trainee, she completed a six weeks’ training
period, then began four-hour stints on the switchboard. Her career
with headphones began.
"The office in which Mrs. Wetsel began work was in the room above
a Bellevue store building. The Masonic lodge met in an adjacent room
each month, but Mrs. Wetsel was alone with her switchboard, ironing
board and heater most of the time. From her salary she paid utility
bills for the office, plus salaries for her part time help.
"The telephones in the exchange were brown wooden crates the size
of an ‘extra large’ shoe box, with a metal crank which activated
the two circular black domes on the box. To attract her attention,
customers cranked the metal handle, making a whirring, grinding ring.
The sound produced would bring Mrs. Wetsel’s ready response,
‘Number, please?’ On Christmas, the comment was altered to
‘season’s greetings!’
"The whirrings and ringings attracted others as well as Mrs.
Wetsel. Her patrons, grouped in party lines of five, six, sometimes
more, families, could also utilize the ringing for inter neighbor
communication. ‘Ringin’ on the line’ aided neighbors in
arranging for joint trips into town, social get-togethers, pasture
fighting help or livestock sales. To indicate that party line calls
had been finished, users cranked a brief ‘ringing off’ signal to
inform the neighbors and Mrs. Wetsel that the line was clear.
"From her second story office in town, she handled non-party-line
local calls and long distance calls. Her efficiency and helpfulness
brought a promotion in 1943. As chief operator, Mrs. Wetsel continued
and extended the services begun in her first years on the switchboard.
She became the person to notify in case of emergency, good news,
loneliness, death in the family, or any number of other eventualities.
"A great variety of emergencies beset Mrs. Wetsel and her
switchboard during her time of service. Whenever a fire broke
out, she was the first to be notified. As Bellevue was then without a
regular fire-fighting service, Mrs. Wetsel alerted the entire area to
the need for help.
" ‘ About the first people I’d call in case of fire alarms
would be the store managers downstairs,’ Mrs. Wetsel recalled. A
shrewd observer, she realized that men probably would be standing
around the store fronts, and were ready and able to take hoses,
buckets, and burlap sacks to combat the blazes.
"Another frequent emergency situation involved automobile
accidents in the Bellevue area. Mrs. Wetsel was usually the first to
know, the one to deploy ambulances to the wreck area. On one occasion
her assistance in an electricity high-line accident saved the life of
an electric company worker.
"Whenever anyone in the area needed a doctor’s aid, Mrs. Wetsel
was the source of help. Bellevue was without a doctor. The nearest
hospital was in Bowie, 12 miles southeast. Although Mrs.. Wetsel never
saw any of the Bowie doctors during her 22 years at the switchboard,
she came to know their voices, their schedules, their Bellevue
patients, and sometimes, the kind of medications which they would most
likely prescribe.
"Perhaps Mrs. Wetsel’s service meant the most to her patrons
when it aided them in times of grief. Innumerable times she supervised
funeral activity. As a switchboard operator, she helped notify friends
and relatives of the death. As secretary-treasurer of the Bellevue
Cemetery Association, she located grave sites, arranged for burial
papers, contacted grave diggers. As floral agent, she took orders for
a Bowie florist. And as communications handler, she supervised lodging
for out-of-town friends and relatives - kept track of where they were
staying and helped the community see to it that they had food to eat.
"Occasionally, she would interrupt over-gabby little girls’
conversations to remind them that others needed to use the telephone
lines.
"So it was that this Bellevue lady offered countless invaluable
services to her patrons.
"Mrs. Wetsel was replaced in 1960 by an up-to-date automatic dial
system. Efficient black dial telephones replaced the cumbersome,
dust-gathering wooden boxes. And Mrs. Wetsel, past retirement age and
without other job training, retired to her relatively quiet Bellevue
home, a few blocks from her former office. Still active as a Baptist
Church member, a Cemetery Association officer, and a Bellevue citizen,
Mrs. Wetsel continues to receive many calls from older Bellevue
patrons who need help in placing their long-distance calls."
|
