Georgette Paiment
My History with the Glengarry Telephone Company
I worked for the Glengarry Telephone Company for 16 years, from Labour Day, September 1948 to August 1964. The salary at that time was $15.00 for a week of 7 days. We worked for I week and were off for the next week; this was year round and no vacation.
This went on until Mrs. Charlotte MacKinnon, who was night operator and housekeeper, retired in 1960. After she left another operator was hired and we were put on 2?hour shifts. We were two day operators and one night operator. Each of us had her turn for the shifts. The day operators worked two?hour shifts from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The shifts were as follows: 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. – 2 hrs. 10: 00 a.m. to 12: 00 p.m. – off 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – 2 hrs. 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – off 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – 2 hrs. 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. – off 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 p.m. – 2 hrs. 8 hrs. a day
The above hours were for one operator and where it shows “off’ the other operator took over. The following week the shifts were exchanged. This means that for one week the first operator worked 8 hours a day and the second operator worked 6 hours. Then the next week the second operator worked 8 hours a day and the first operator worked 6 hours. The third operator worked the night shift from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Also she was the housekeeper and sometimes had a little help from the operator who was off-shift. Each one of the operators worked for three weeks in a row and then was off for a week. Again on this system we had no vacation pay.
I worked with: Charlotte MacKinnon, Muriel Smith, Tena McCormick, Shirley MacDonald (Eigg Road), Helen McDonald (Alex. Baker), Claire Crevier, Helen MacDonald (Johnny Hughie), Agathe St. Denis, Yolande Belair, Mary Kennedy, Claudette St. Denis, Margaret Lacroix, Jeanine Beauchamp, Marjorie MacLeod. I also had to train all the above operators, except Charlotte MacKinnon, at no extra pay. In the 1960′s we were paid $25.00 a week.
I enjoyed all the years I worked for the Glengarry Telephone Co. Of course there were a few ups and downs but they were always easily solved. The only thing that upset the younger operators was that they had to ask permission to go out after their shift was finished. They were off but they couldn’t go anywhere without asking permission - whether it was with a boy friend or their parents. As a joke we were often called “the girls from the monastery”. That wasn’t my problem since I very seldom went anywhere.
The largest majority of the public was very, very nice to me and I received many compliments for my work with them; I also received many gifts too. I have many good memories of the calls I put through and I missed this public after I left.
I’ll mention one special incident that happened while I was working for Glengarry Telephone. Mr. J.J. MacMillan had a young man from Germany working for him who was 19 years old. This boy was like a son to them as they had no children. Well, while working in the bush with Mr. MacMillan he was hit by a tree and killed. Quite a shock to them! Since they wanted to notify his family in Germany Mrs. MacMillan started to make a call. At that time we had to give the call to an overseas operator in Montreal. I put through my call and stayed on the line to help Mrs. MacMillan as she was very nervous. The boy’s family had no telephone; they had to send a messenger to deliver the message. During the process of the call the Montreal operator told me to get off the line and I said ”no” since Mrs. MacMillan would get confused with the Montreal operator’s questions. We finally got the call through at 5:00 a.m. and Mrs. MacMillan gave her message to the brother of the boy that was killed. In fact the brother was able to come to Canada to the funeral. For many years after this event Mrs. MacMillan would remind me of the incident with the Montreal operator and say that if I hadn’t persisted they would never have been able to get word to the boy’s family. She would say: “if it hadn’t been you who put our call through we don’t know what we’d have done; the Montreal operator was not very cooperative”. I also helped many who didn’t know the number and I never told them to look it up; I’d get the number for them. One in particular was Mr. Duncan Alex MacMillan who was blind. He made a lot of calls as a pass-time and I had many good laughs with him. Also there were a lot of lonely handicaps who would call just to visit with me and others who lived alone who would call in and tell me all their troubles and joys. They just had to talk to someone. Of course I couldn’t stay on the line with them continually; I’d answer my incoming calls and then go back and listen to them. I don’t believe they ever noticed that I wasn’t on the line with them. A few times I had three boys who wanted to talk to each other together. Well, I’d say, I can’t do that unless I am on the line with you. They’d say: Oh! that’s OK, we just have a short message and get a quick answer. So I’d do it because it was late in the evening and the board was quiet. Those boys were Carmen MacMillan, Ron MacDonell, and a friend of theirs.