The operator had better things to do than tell me the time, but there was a payphone outside the pool and it was something to do for 2 minutes that was free.
pborenstein on
Interesting. I have no idea what happens now if I dial zero
clutzycook on
Where I grew up, we didn’t have 911 until the very late 90s or early 00s so learning to dial 0 in an emergency was drummed into us from an early age. We also lived in a rural area so we didn’t have a proper address to give to the operator either. We had to learn to say that we were approximately a half mile south of the (X)North/(Y) East intersection. My mom had it all written on an index card by our kitchen phone in case we or our babysitters needed it. Thank goodness we never did.
Tartan-Pepper6093 on
In 1972, dialing 911 wasn’t yet an option, except in a very few pilot markets. 911 in the city of Chicago for example didn’t come online until 1976, and the suburbs came later than that. So, dialing 0 was it, and yeah, a human would answer pretty quick “Operator!” and she wasn’t fooling around.
6 Comments
The operator had better things to do than tell me the time, but there was a payphone outside the pool and it was something to do for 2 minutes that was free.
Interesting. I have no idea what happens now if I dial zero
Where I grew up, we didn’t have 911 until the very late 90s or early 00s so learning to dial 0 in an emergency was drummed into us from an early age. We also lived in a rural area so we didn’t have a proper address to give to the operator either. We had to learn to say that we were approximately a half mile south of the (X)North/(Y) East intersection. My mom had it all written on an index card by our kitchen phone in case we or our babysitters needed it. Thank goodness we never did.
In 1972, dialing 911 wasn’t yet an option, except in a very few pilot markets. 911 in the city of Chicago for example didn’t come online until 1976, and the suburbs came later than that. So, dialing 0 was it, and yeah, a human would answer pretty quick “Operator!” and she wasn’t fooling around.
I didn’t know 911 was so recent
The operator must have had a lot of friends!