[GreenKeys] This will take you back many years...

[Don Robert House]

You can still see a panel switch at the museum of communications in  
Seattle.
  I missed out seeing our last one at the EDgewater CO in Chicago  
before it was removed.
The switch frames were eleven (11) feet tall and the switch mechanism  
was referred to as a "Monkey on a Stick"
Panel offices used a craftsman that no other type offices used.  
"Equipment Cleaner"

On 2 Mar 2009, at 12:35 AM, Randy or Sherry Guttery wrote:

Don Robert House wrote:
> I remember I was disappointed when our number was changed from   
> CLearbrook 3 to 253...

I grew up in Los Angeles - which was somewhat of the "wild west" when  
it came to phone service and phone companies.  In most of the country  
- a large city - even a region was usually served by one company -  
usually a Bell company of AT&T.  Los Angeles, on the other hand had  
several major players - not always playing well together. Los Angeles  
itself was (mostly) Bell / AT&T - using Western Electric equipment.   
However - many of the surrounding communities - such as Long Beach,  
cities of the San Gabriel Valley, etc. - were General Telephone  
customers - mostly using equipment by Automatic Electric. That made  
for some strange "interactions" here and there...

In the early 1950s - within LA itself - you only had to dial 5 digits  
- and they were listed (usually) as (something like) 7-1234.  It was  
when you called some of the suburban areas - like Long Beach, Norwalk,  
etc. you had to use the Exchange "pre-fix".  Norwalk was University,  
Bellflower was Torrey (which you might note is NOT one of the favored  
Bell pre-fixes - not surprising since it was GT); West Covina, La  
Puente and the un-incorporated areas in that area were Edgewood;  Both  
University and Edgewood are on the "Bell list".

Another interesting "thing" out of that era - was that even as mobile  
phones and the age of digital communications were getting underway in  
the late 1970s - calls were still being connected by hand in Bell's  
Avalon (Santa Catalina Island) exchange via a local cord switchboard.

Another "fallout" of the mixed equipment - I had been in a couple of  
switch exchanges - and had never seen a rotary stepper... GT used  
something called a panel switch in many of it exchanges - which steps  
in the X and Y plane - rather than a half-circle like a Strowger.

yeah - brings back a few memories!
-- 
randy guttery