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People
send me a lot of unusual things--a limb shaped like a question mark, a can of
sardines from the 1950s (I was afraid to open it), and so forth.
But I’ve
never received a telephone book adorned with telephone numbers from the 1980’s
scribbled all over the cover, the back, and dozens of inside pages. It came from
Joel Towers of Lufkin with a note
that it was his mother’s telephone book from Jasper.
The full-color cover alone is worth a story. It tells the story of Texas and illustrates
it with colorful men and women who helped shape the history of the state.
Among
them Father
Antonio Margil, founder of some of Texas’ early missions, John Meusebach,
the leader of German colonists in Texas; Charles
Goodnight, an Army Scout and Texas Ranger; and Quanah
Parker, who was held captive by Indians for several years.
With each
telephone book, the company apparently gave users an 8x10 color print of the cover.
It alone was worth having as a keepsake of Texas.
As I thumbed my way through
the book, I found numbers Joel’s mom felt were important. The sheriff’s office
was 384-5419, the Ponderosa (whatever that was) was 1-817-778-5511, and Gibson’s
pharmacy was 383-6814.
Most of Mrs. Towers scribbled numbers were in the
white pages. In the yellow pages, I didn’t find a single scribbled number.
Telephone
books in the l980s had a lot more instructions for phone users than they do today.
For example, there was a special box with instructions on how to place
long-distance calls. Example: “When you have completed dialing, the operator will
come on the line and ask pertinent calling information” or “You will not be charged
if you hang up before the complete number is dialed.”
In 1980, it cost
callers in Jasper 32 cents per minute for a weekday, one-minute call to Oakhurst,
50 cents to call Atlanta, Georgia, and 52 cents to Washington, D.C.
But
you received a discount if you called in the evening or at night.
The price
could jump to two bucks if your call was made by the operator and to $3.00 if
you were calling person-to-person instead of station-to-station.
The yellow
pages consisted of about half the number of pages in the book, including 21 lawyers.
In the white pages, the Abortion and Counseling Clinic was first and the last
was Robert T. Zube.
Bob Bowman's
East Texas
May 15, 2011 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers |
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