Claudette (St Denis) Quesnel
Dates worked:
I started working for the Glengarry Telephone Company on August 3rd 1960 until December 1969. For the last two and a half years I was working for Bell Canada, first at Lochiel and then in Alexandria when they switched the lines to the switchboard there.
Salary started at $35.00 per week for a 7-day week. We worked three consecutive weeks and then had one week off without pay. Unfortunately I cannot remember what the rotation of hours was. We started the first week on the early day shift; the second week was on the later day shift, ending around ten-thirty in the evening when the night shift operator took over. We would rotate during the day every third hour, I believe. The third week was the night shift. Though we worked one operator at a time there were always to be to girls in the building in case of overload or emergency.
Duties:
We were expected to memorize all numbers in order to be more efficient and also because most people never bothered to look up a number. Mind you, they would complain if they did not receive a telephone book. We were expected to get to know people’s lifestyles, their work, where they lived and to be able to assist customers, often when they called without even a person’s name. It could have been the veterinarian, the pastor, the grocery store (often with two side-by-side in the same location). Often people referred to someone by occupation instead of name. We were expected to give service you could only dream of today. I can still remember most of the names and numbers to this day. It was very important to be bilingual since most people spoke only one language.
It meant calling people back when a line became free since most lines were party lines and busy most of the time. We often had to interrupt a conversation in time of emergency or if we felt someone had visited for too long, depriving others of service.
In case of fire we would first call the fire department and then if the caller requested and volunteered information we would call neighbours requesting them to assist until the fire department arrived.
Two girls would also help Janet McCormick, who had become secretary of the company and responsible for the office work, sort out and add up the long distance calls at time of billing.
A new girl meant that you had the responsibility to teach, help train and support her in every possible way. It was expected of you.
We got to recognize every voice and often to recognize certain rings without having to answer them. It all became very personal.
Long distance calls were to be monitored and the length of the call recorded. The night operator would count calls and verify sorts for long distance service.
The night operator was allowed to sleep since we had a buzzer which would sound the alarm when a call came in. On most nights we managed to get a few hours sleep except for sale night at the “Poirier Sale Barn”. That was an all-nighter. During thunder storms lightning would trigger the switchboard, causing the lines to “ring”. We would turn off the buzzer and stay up.
When the power was off we went to manual. We had to turn a crank like the one on customers’ telephones in order to ring through.
Progress:
The company progressed from what I recollect to have been approximately three hundred customers in the early 1960′s to over six hundred in the late 1960′s.
Working with John J. McCormick:
John J. expected us to be efficient, alert, polite and pleasant at all times. We were his girls and what we did reflected upon him. Of course he kept us on our toes since we never knew where he would call us from (when he was working on the lines) and he always expected us to answer on the first ring or to have good explanation if it was the third ring. We were always fearful of him but I guess it brought out the best in us. We learned discipline, respect and soon found out that he had our best interests at heart. He watched over us as our parents would have since in many cases we were still very young. I myself started when I was only fifteen. Very often we would see him circulating the building out of nowhere; it could have been morning, noon or night. And he never refrained from letting us know his feelings. Mind you, we did not always appreciate it. We were to give service even if it meant going out of our way, working an extra fifteen minutes or longer if needed.
I feel that this chapter of my life has been a good education, good training, and prepared me well for other challenges in my life.
Girls I worked with were:
I replaced Yolande Belair in August 1960. I then worked with Georgette Paiment, Mary Kennedy and Margaret Lacroix. Later on I also worked with Jeannine Beauchamp, Agathe Girard, Denise Titley, Dolorèse Sabourin and Sarah Brodie. After the company was bought by Bell other girls were Thérèse Hurtubise, Jeannine Deschamps, Carole Ledoux, Claudette Quesnel (her maiden name, my married name) Nicole Tourangeau and Bernice MacDonald.
Of course there were girls who replaced for short periods but I do not recall all names.
P.S.: I can also remember those first years when Peter Morris, an uncle of John J., would come by in the fall and try to convince us that buying Canada Savings Bonds was a good investment. He usually had the last word. I believe his position was to take care of the company books, a job later taken over by Janet McCormick.
(Editor’s note: For the years up to the early 1960′s the secretary of Glengarry Telephone was Jack Morris, of Morris Brothers in Alexandria. Their business was coal and insurance, until people stopped burning coal. The brother was Peter Morris. While Jack Morris was the secretary, Peter Morris did most of the secretarial work.)