My Experience As A Telephone Installer

[JimT]

Back in the Dark Ages we had telephones that were connected by wires. Yes. Actual wires! I know it is hard for the younger set to believe this but actual copper wires were strung all over the world, allowing people to talk to each other. No. I am not making this up. There were no such thing as cell phones then. Like I said, it was in the dark ages.

The only thing the telephone did was to make a call to someone or receive a call from someone. You could not play games on it. There was no internet to access. You could not send a text. You could call someone IF you knew their phone number. And you could receive calls from people. Period. Life was much simpler then.

My wife wanted a phone in our bedroom for some reason and it fell to me to install the phone. The bedroom was upstairs. I had to hook a phone line into the box on the outside of the house where the connection to world came in. Then I had to run the line up the side of the house, stapling it in place, and then put it through the wall of the bedroom.

I got the line on the outside up to the bedroom wall and then went inside to see where I could run the line in. Our house was built in the 1880's and was made of oak. After almost 100 years the oak was hard as rock. And the walls were quite thick. While I was pondering on how to drill the hole in the wall I noticed my Marlin leveraction rifle in .32-20 caliber setting in the corner. The .32 caliber was about the right size for the hole so I picked it up, levered a shell into the chamber and shot a hole through the bedroom wall. Perfect.

Well .. nearly perfect. There were a few issues.

1. Always. ALWAYS warn the people in the house that you are gonna shoot BEFORE you fire the shot! Seriously.
2. Back away from the wall you are shooting into. Otherwise you have to paint. Trust me.
3. Always shoot from the inside out. (I got that one right)
4. Do not use hollowpoint bullets. They are really hard on the siding. You end up with a much larger hole outside than you wanted.
5. Shoot at a slightly downward angle. It keeps the rain from coming in. (I got that one right)
6. Check the yard before you shoot. You don't want to hit one of your chickens or the mailman. (I got that one right)
7. ALWAYS warn your wife before you shoot.

Nowdays with cell phones we don't have those issues.
Life was tougher back then.

3220-1894_4.jpg

[2ndovc]

Thanks for the morning laugh Jim!

jb

[Bill in Oregon]

You forgot to 'splain about party lines, Jim!

[JimT]

You forgot to 'splain about party lines, Jim!

Oh yeah. Those were .... fun ....

[harry]

The only time my grandma spanked my rear was for getting on the phone (party line) and making strange noises while others were talking. Yes great times indeed.

[marlinman93]

As a young electrician just out of apprenticeship, and freshly licensed, I was given my own first project and excited to be out working alone! The shop sent me to an old downtown building to do a complete build out from a new service panel, to all the interior wiring, and being a commercial job it had to all be done in hard conduit, or flex conduit.
I tried drilling the almost 100 year old rough cut 14" joists in the ceiling, and my big hole hog 1/2" drill and auger bit was giving me fits with that hard oak! At about the 6th hole I drilled for my flex conduit the drill bit grabbed, and standing near the top of my 14 ft. ladder it twisted me right off my feet, and I began spinning wildly around as the drill bit held solid. It happened so fast that I couldn't release the trigger as my thumb had bumped the lock on the switch, and I was in for a ride! After numerous revolutions the extension cord wrapped me up like a mummy in cord, and finally unplugged the cord from the wall!
So there I hung, as the ladder had fallen over, and nobody else on the job with me! I could hear talking in the book store next door, but no matter how loud I shouted nobody came to see what was going on. After about maybe 15-20 minutes hanging there, the carpenter on the job walked in, and fell down laughing. He took a minute to stop laughing, and then set my ladder up, and began unwrapping the cord so I could get down.
After that I took the drill apart, and removed the lock on the switch so it couldn't get stuck on ever again! And I was very cautious about drilling more holes in those oak beams too!

[JimT]

now THAT is a great story! Too bad there wasn't a video.

[Walt]

Yep, good one, Vall! Thanks

[Nath]

[GunnyMack]

now THAT is a great story! Too bad there wasn't a video.

If the carpenter had a cell phone it would have been on youtube!

Jim, where did you do this, Washington state?

[Grizz]

right tool for the job makes for good outcomes

[JimT]

now THAT is a great story! Too bad there wasn't a video.

If the carpenter had a cell phone it would have been on youtube!

Jim, where did you do this, Washington state?

Missouri

[GunnyMack]

Ah ok, my uncle was a telephone guy in WA, thought you might have known him if you were in WA at the time.

[Ysabel Kid]

Back in 1995 when I first started working out of my home I had to have phone service installed. One home line, one office line, one computer line (we used dial-up back then), one fax line (yes, we used those then too) - and then my wife started working out of the home. We shared the fax line, but she needed a phone line and computer line. So six lines. The phone technician probably thought I was running a criminal enterprise!

I doubt Mrs. YK would have tolerated me shooting six holes in the wall!

[Paladin]

Thank you SIR for the instructions and humerus post.

[piller]

Some person in my home town had the bright idea to use his 30-06 to make a hole from the basement straight up to the roof for a vent on the water heater he was installing. The hole in the roof was surprisingly large. Same person volunteered to do an exhibition dive from a platform into a tank of water while covered in burning lighter fluid after the professional diver wisely backed out. Same person had the CEO of the company tell a story on him during his retirement dinner about burning up a company vehicle and setting fire to a rancher's hay field and bales of hay. CEO said he probably never did hear the truth about that one. Yes, there are people who not only do silly things like that once, but multiple times.

[marlinman93]

now THAT is a great story! Too bad there wasn't a video.

If the carpenter had a cell phone it would have been on youtube!

Jim, where did you do this, Washington state?

If the carpenter had a cell phone in 1978 he'd be one of just a few, and the big brick wouldn't have a camera built into it!