Monday, October 4, 2010

Newfangled

Kids these days.  What with their texting and their Twittering and running their lives through their phones.  Why, back in the day people got excited when they no longer had to go through a switchboard operator to be connected to the party with whom they wished to speak.  Speak, as in saying things out loud.  At approximately 2:30 A. M. on Sunday July 28, 1929, the telephones of all but 12,000 Des Moines Residents were switched to 'dial tone' service.  The 12,000 residents of "the old Drake area, or new fifth and seventh area"  were slated to receive their dial tones in 5 to 7 years. The project lasted one and one half years and cost $4,000,000. The telephone company at the time was Northwestern Bell.  A dial tone.  That was a thrill ride.
Source: Des Moines Tribune, 7/27/1929, p.1, p.2

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