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From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Pepsi-Cola Hits The Spot: Switchboard Shuts Down
Message-ID: <9826@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 17 Jul 90 07:44:14 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 492, Message 4 of 9


A hot Sunday afternoon in August, 1959. Resentful, I go to work that
day from 3:30 <==> 11:30 PM in the UC phone room. Brash sixteen year
old that I was, I came traipzing in to work and bid adieu to the two
ladies who were grateful to see me five minutes early so they could
leave.

I worked alone Sunday evenings during the summer, when school was out
and phone traffic was minimal. I brought a large paper cup of
Pepsi-Cola with me, and had it sitting right next to me -- I knew
better -- but was just careless.

I'd been there all of five minutes, I guess, when the board got real
busy for a couple minutes, and sure enough, my arm accidently knocked
over that Pepsi and sent it dribbling down inside the ringing keys on
the front panel. The board started buzzing, and lit up like a
Christmas tree, various lights blinking off and on, etc.

After overcoming the initial shock of what I had done, I moved to a
different position to set up shop and immediatly called 611. I talked
to a guy who said he would be over in about ten minutes, but in the
meantime, 'take that electric heater they keep in the closet and set
it up to blow hot air on the underside of the front cabinet on the
board, so it will start to dry out ... '

Well, he got there ten or fifteen minutes later, and of course I had
gotten rid of all the evidence at that point. This fellow sat there
for over two hours -- until sometime around 6 PM that Sunday night as
I recall. He never said a word to me; just sat there and picking
around at the wires and the contacts.

Brash and snotty as I could be, I knew well when it was time to shut
up and keep my distance, so I sat on the other side of the room and
kept taking calls and running the board, looking over my shoulder
every minute or two to see what he was doing. This fellow was about
sixty years old at the time; he just sat there silently, stripping
wires and occasionally muttering to himself.

Finally he packs up all his stuff and said to me, 'You know, if I were
to tell Mrs. Henderson about this tomorrow, you'd be in deep trouble.'
Mrs. Henderson was the phone room supervisor, and a battle-axe in her
spare time. But he never said a word. 

About six months later I saw him working on the switchboard at the
Windermere Hotel (around midnight as I recall; this guy worked
strictly what was called 'night plant', taking care of the UC
switchboards and the other boards in the area on an emergency basis),
and I thanked him for not snitching on me. He said he had done the
same thing (spilled a beverage) 'when I worked the switchboard at the
Century of Progress Fair back in 1933 ... I was the only one in our
family to have a full time regular job during the depression, and if I
had lost that job, my family would have gone on welfare ... the guy
who came out to fix the board at the fair gave me a pass and didn't
say anything about it, so I figured I owed someone else the same
favor.'

I have never kept anything liquid near phone equipment since. Monday
at our office, the kid who functions as file clerk and Fax machine
operator spilled his coffee all over the Fax keypad. The serviceman
charged a couple hundred dollars to fix it. Junior was appropriatly
mortified and spent most of the afternoon hiding in the closed files
stacks downstairs. The Chairman walked past while the serviceman was
doing his thing: 'what happened?' ... 'I dunno ... I guess these
things wear out sometimes' I told him. 

Everyone has to learn this lesson the hard way it seems: *No beverages
around telecom and computer equipment*. Ever. 


Patrick Townson