The Old Manual Telephone Exchange

A Memory of Didsbury.

I remember Didsbury well. I was a young Telephonist who transferred from the big Telephone Exchange in Chapel Street Salford to Didsbury to get Manual experience. I have such memories of how busy we were. In those days you could not call your next door neighbour the operator had to put you through. Of course we got to know a lot of the customers and knew that Mrs Smith went for morning tea at Mrs Jones every Tuesday and if there was a call for her we would often transfer it through to where she was. I also learnt to work a switchboard that I have only ever met one other person who worked one. people that could dial numbers would dial their DID 1234 but what the never knew was an operator was in between plugging in the call and giving them the ring tone or busy signal. What great days they were, Saturday afternoon was a highlight of the week as we all used to put in our order for sweets from the shop that was located close by and shared them around. what an assortment we ended up with. Another memory is of the Granada television studios and being given complementary tickets to watch the recording of Candid Camera...What lovely care free days they were. I left Manchester in 1964 and came to Australia in 1977 but my memories are as clear as yesterday.