My Experience As A Telephone Installer

by JimT, Texas, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 08:35 (577 days ago)

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.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.