What are you all up to

There was a long waiting list for a phone line when we got married in 1966 but we eventually got pushed up the list because Perkins who OH worked for needed to sometimes contact him urgently. We had a party line - that was fun 🙄

All this GPO talk has has me reminiscing as my dad was a GPO Telephones Engineer and I can still see him beside his A35 Post office Telephones van, brown leather tool bag in hand.

On some occasions I was allowed to go with him to the exchange if he was called in and remember being sat with the ladies who were operating the switchboard and being given a roll of soldering wire with which to make 'shapes & animals'.

When he was an on call engineer for the site at Winter Hill he was given a Land Rover to replace the A35 but, due to its height, would not fit in the garage that was rented for him to use and I can remember him having to dig two 'trenches' so it would fit!

My wife will laugh at how much like my Dad she says I am, something that I am very proud to be, and that's where the camping bug came from after we inherited the family Lamont frame tent, circa 1962ish, and had some great holidays until we had to put it up in the garden to dry and a cat decided to sharpen its claws on the corners and ripped it to shreds!

Another glorious day, but a bit blowy and chilly if in shade, had 2nd vaccine yesterday and no adverse affects so looking to catch the ferry possibly tomorrow and we will be off, will move van today just to check the mover still working, almost new so not envisaging any problems, and that the wheels still turn

 1.30 am our neighbour's full awning joined all the other great awnings in the sky....so not a peaceful night! Very strong coastal winds.

Talking about telephones we had one very early at home, Dad was involved in their development but I avoided it, they weren't the chatty things we have now it was all very formal often via the operator in the 50s. I didn't have a phone till 1975! 

RUFS  :--  PLEASE remember that it takes a couple of weeks for the Vaccine to get up to full working strength,  even the second jab - so don't think that you are now 100% safe yet, it is not too long to hang on to the guide lines --  Stay Safe -- Stay with us   

Brue  Got my first Land line phone in the mid 60s when the Company sent me to do the business on my local RAF Station*** - they needed to disturb my sleep at regular, unwelcome intervals  but it came , and remained, free until I retired in 1995. Charges came as quite a substantial shock !

*** R A F Hack Green as was, now famously signed as the " Secret Bunker " just outside Nantwich 

Millie

It reminds me of when we moved to MK in 1979 it was the devil's own job to get a phone. You got priority if you needed it for business but I couldn't claim that. The nonsense was that all the new estates in MK (probably true of Peterborough as well) had all the cabling installed as part of the building process so only a matter on connection? I know many won't agree but the privatisation of what became BT certainly made them a more customer focused!!!

David

We had our first telephone in 1972 when the in laws paid for us to have it installed an extra wedding present, and talking about telephones and numbers still can remember our Somerset number but this one here just goes in the grey matter and does not come out ha ha.

Feeling better this morning and again a lovely warm but breezy morning another load of washing to go out.

Have a good weekend folks.

Had the local hare go across the field yesterday at full speed and jump the wall into next field what a sight to see.

"I know many won't agree but the privatisation of what became BT certainly made them a more customer focused!!!"

Absolutely, David. The changes within the company were sweeping and the customer became king. Not least was the change from territorial working, which was a needless duplication of many things, to a national work specialism based operation. Thousands of people took voluntary redundancy as the business was streamlined. ABM and I are just two of that happy band.

My dad got a phone in the late 60’s. We lived in Bristol and I don’t   remember using the operator, so I suppose it must have been STD at that time. However, when I went to Durness in the Summer of 1972 they were still on the old operator system. To phone my now OH, I had to talk to an operator at Scourie and they put me through to an operator in Glasgow, who finally connected me with Bristol. Then they used to interrupt you to ask if you wanted to put more money in to continue. By the next year 1973 all the phone boxes had been converted to STD.

We didn’t get a phone at home until the late 1970’s, party line as well. I can however recall writing a daily letter to my beloved in the early 1980’s, when he was away finishing his degree. We received a letter/card a day for a good year or so, always the day after it was posted.