I Became A Bell System Operator 35 Years Ago Today.

TSPS Console

"Will you accept a collect call from John Smith. . . Your number, please. . . Please deposit $1.35 for the next three minutes. . .Long Distance calling person to person for Sally Peterson..."

 I can't believe it's been 35 years since I began my career with Pacific Northwest Bell as a  long distance operator. It was very exciting. Those were the days of BlazerMania, Saturday Night Fever, Jimmy Carter, and Star Wars!

On March 22, 1977 I started my training in downtown Portland on the TSPS console we used to manually process person to person calls, collect calls, "Zenith" numbers, international calls, "messenger calls",  and coin calls.(click on the picture for a larger image)