I worked at central in 1953, 1954, 1956 and for a while in 1957 after I moved to Lachute.

The saddest time that I remember was a Sunday morning when Mrs. Alex (Big Norman) MacLeod died in church at Kirk Hill. Someone went to a phone to call the undertaker, Archie MacRae, from Vankleek Hill. I was the operator and I had a hard time to get him as he was in church at the same time.

Gilbert MacRae and Harry MacKenzie would talk to each other once or twice a week. When Gilbert was calling he would talk Gaelic to me and laugh because I didn’t know what he was saying.

There was a Mrs. L. who lived west of Dalkeith and who couldn’t talk English. She would call the station at Dalkeith and when I didn’t know what she wanted she would say “toot, toot”.

The lines would be busy when there was a storm. Clifford Campbell drove a milk truck. One day after a big snow storm and he was picking up the milk he would phone for the farmers to get their milk out to the road. Men he called and the line was busy he would tell me to get them off the line. I had to put the same lady off the line four or five times.

The weekends were always busy when Omer Poirier was running his commission sales barn on the Eigg Road. He would make a lot of calls to Quebec and the United States. He would give the numbers very quickly and it was very hard to get them all.

There were two ladies from Kirk Hill who called their sister in Comwall. When they knew I was working they would ask me to let them speak longer and not say a word.

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