Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!agate!telecom-request From: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Early Days of Telephony Message-ID: Date: 26 Mar 91 00:14:50 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Reply-To: David Lesher Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers Lines: 26 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 239, Message 3 of 9 Al L Varney discussed Kansas Independents. My friend the telephone collector told me about being in and around Lawrence, Kansas in the late 50's/early 60's. There was a full scale telephone war going on between the Independents and Ma; who was apparently trying to take over. There was full scale sabotage going on, eventually by both sides. Poles chopped down, trunks cut, etc. ISTM that part of that was that Ma claimed that Mom & Pop could not provide quality service, and low and behold, they couldn't!!! Before the shooting started, townfolk had one or the other LEC's, or maybe both. But you could not call from Ma to Mom & Pop or vice versa. One other piece of 'break your heart' trivia. Lee was driving by the old telco's office, and saw a large pile of magneto phones. They had been pulled from service to be replaced with new-fangled things with central battery and a DIAL! Lee was given all the old sets he could carry, cuz "no one would EVER want old junk like that" the man said. Well, Lee loaded up his car with as many as he could carry. Seeing how at that time he drove a 1956 Cadillac high-top rescue ambulance, that was quite a few. But Lee was not much smarter then the rest of us. He gave or traded them all away before they became desirable collector's items. He's still got the Caddy, however ;-}