SPOILIN’ THE BROTH
Neighbor Grover sez he wonders why abbreviated is such a long word.
Bert Dockall, Rockdale Historical Society mainstay and major force behind our town’s I&GN Railroad Depot & Museum, brought me an old phone book last week.
It’s the 1940 Rockdale telephone directory published by Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.
That was a good decade before Rockdale acquired any heavy industry—namely the Alcoa/IGC complex— and agriculture was our main industry, as it is again. This book contained five white-page listings, plus a few ads, such as:
• B Ashby Garage—
Used Auto Parts, Guns, Gun Repairs. Telephone 62.
Yes, 62, a typical phone number then. I was 5 years old in 1940. Our home number was 48. The Reporter’s was 155. Our home phone hung on the wall, a crank on one side, the receiver on the other.
When Mom called Dad at the office, she put the receiver to her ear, gave the crank a spin and a switchboard operator said, “Number please?”
Mom said,”155” and the operator plugged her call into The Reporter’s slot on the switchboard.
That switchboard was upstairs in an old two-story building and the operators could see most of downtown Rockdale from there.
Roberta Pounders was an operator in the early 1950s. Other operators over the years, she said, included Vera Sheppard, Pansy Hairston, Lena O’Bier, Marceline Lee, Betty Jean Alford, Jean Alford, Maureen Black, Faye Oldham, Marie Gohman and R.L. Marek.
The operators also sounded the fire alarm when one was called in. Roberta said the switchboard would get swamped with everyone wanting to know the location.
She also recalled the rural party lines and their lack of privacy, but that would make an entire column itself.
By the numbers—I counted a total of 393 white-page listings. The most (42) came under “S,” led by 7 with the surname Smith. There were zero listings under U, X and Y. There were only 2 each under Q and Z.
Back to the phone book ads:
• Phillips & Luckey— Burial Association, Funeral Directors & Ambulance Service. Telephone 54 (office), 134 (funeral home).
Yes, the funeral home operated the town’s ambulance service for decades.
• Rainbow Tourist Court—Modern Sealy Mattresses, Radio Equipped, Like Home. Telephone 64.
• E.M. Peebles & Sons—General Hardware, Furniture, Philco Radios, Frigidaire Refrigerators, Authorized Service Men. Call
55.
• Scarbrough & Hicks Co.—Groceries & Meats, Dry Goods & Furnishings. Call 88.
• Rockdale Ice Co.— Wood, Fuel, Coal, Ice & Cold Storage. Call 100.
• Wm Cameron & Co, Inc.—Lumber, Minnesota Paints & Varnishes, Gold Medal Wall Paper. Call 15.
• Henry Garage— Wrecker Service, Firestone tires, Exide Batteries, Expert Repairing. Call 71 (nights 93).
• Chevrolet Sales & Service—Louie G. Gest dealer, Goodyear Tires, Wrecker Service. Call 16 (nights 216).
• Old South Cafe— Fried Chicken Dinners, Home Cooked Meals. Telephone 99.
• Pearson’s Shop—New & Used Furniture, Complete Crosley Line, Shelvador, Freezorcold, Refrigerators, Washing Machines Gas & Electric, Radios Electric or Farm, Singer Sewing Machines. Call 26.
• B. Regenbrecht— Graduate Optometrist, Texas Certificate No. 160, California Certificate No. 1191.
Long time ago.
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