Two women sit at the telephone switchboard in Green River in 1950.
Lily Tomlin's Ernestine the Operator was comedic gold on Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In," which ran 1969-1973.
If you don't remember it, look it up on YouTube and return to a simpler and funnier time. The character is based on the many hard-working woman employed as operators who made the telephone system work in the days before computer switching.
The telephone systems in Sweetwater County had such operators, though not as snarky as Ernestine. I have been unable to find a date for the beginning of local phone systems, but an educated guess would put it at before the turn of the century. Casper'...
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