Worked for Ma Bell in the "Valley" district for approximately two years in the late sixties. This was a time when the touch tone phone was in it's infancy. Worst jobs were given to the rookies such as removing old units from homes. Ma Bell owned all the equipment at the time you rented the phones and a lot of people moved and left the phones in the house or took them with them. Got a lot of doors slammed in my face on this job. Another was a complaint that a phone quit ringing. A lot of times this was due to roaches packed so tightly in the phone that the clapper would not move! [[God's honest truth!) We always tapped the connector block cover on the baseboard to chase the roaches out before removing it. My district was bordered by Gratiot on the North, the river on the South, McDougal on West, and St. Jean on the East. Another problem was dealing with the wharf rats that made their homes in the Michigan basements on Concord and Grand Blvd. I was told that they came in via the ships at the Uniroyal plant. All in all, it was a good job, just didn't pay well. Worked with some great guys over at the Hart Street office.
Anyone have any similar memories?