I started working for Glengarry Telephone and John Joseph McCormick in 1943 and I worked off and on until the company was sold to Bell in 1966. When I wasn’t called out I didn’t get paid. The pay back then was 75cents an hour for a 12 hour day.

To climb poles we had only a pair of climbers and a belt. I fell once when I was putting up a ten-pin cross-arm and the belt broke. Another time I was asked to climb up a pole and help bring down a man that had been electrocuted.

To dig holes we had only a shovel, a long bar and a long-handled spoon. We had to go down five feet. Kenyon Township was “rock city”. No hole was easy in the winter when the ground was frozen solid.

To put up the poles we had to lift them on our backs. We would put the bottom of the pole into the hole and then lift. For the last part we would lift them with long pikepoles. Often there were only two men to put up a pole, and they weren’t fence posts.

I was off for most of one summer when I broke my ankle playing football (soccer) against Greenfield.

Most complaints were given to John Joseph. The people that were happy were the folks that finally had their line repaired.

John Joseph was a hard man. One time I couldn’t slacken a wire and he told me if I couldn’t do it, to come down and he would show me how it’s done. Well it took me less than three seconds and I was down and on my way home. After three weeks John Joseph asked if I’d come back. He always had a short fuse with no patience.

When Glengarry Telephone was bought by Bell we were all promised jobs. But as fools would have it, we didn’t get this in writing, so therefore no jobs were given. If we were given the jobs we may well have had a decent income and be better off today.