A landmark building. This 100 year old article from the Trenton Times shines a little known light on just a bit of the battle of Trenton. Those of us who are familiar with the Trenton of the 20's through the early 1950's will agree that the Bell Telephone building was one of our "sky scraper" landmarks. It is interesting to know that the plaque illustrated above, along with a cannoball from the battle, were proudly displayed by that grand old lady all of us old timers know as the much missed, late, lamented "Ma Bell." Remember those olive green Bell utility trucks? Remember party lines? Remember Bell operator sitting side by side at the huge console, earphone-speakers on their heads, as they plugged into that console to complete a call? But most of all, do you remember when you made a phone call, the person on the other end of the line answered the phone......with no voice mail?
Almost every family I knew has a sister, mom or aunt working at Ma Bell at one time or another. It was often the "first job" for high school gals who did part time on the evening shift and many a night I waited for my gal to get off. When I worked at High Point Park in the early 70's in order to dial outside the immediate area of the town of Sussex you still had to go through an operator. Geez Tom, I was only there for two or three days and the operator already had the scoop on me as "the new fella that a few gals had their eye on". Mayberry New Jersey indeed.
ReplyDeleteEd Millerick