Bell Telephone Office at 12 Hope Street West in Tavistock — circa 1935
left to right: John Lemp, Pauline (Girly) Lemp, Ruth Eifert (later Seltzer), Edna Berger and Bob Krug

Number Please.
Hello Central. Get me Louisa.

In the olden days “Central” was the name given to telephone switchboard operators. In small places like Tavistock, Central connected callers by number and, quite often, by name. Central always knew exactly which Louisa was wanted and more often than not, knew where she would be at any point in time.

Telephone service in Tavistock began in 1889 when a far-thinking businessman, Fred Krug, installed a telephone switchboard at his store, the Glasgow Warehouse (the general store located where Home Hardware is today). In the early days there were 7 subscribers … J.G. Field at the woollen mill, the Grand Trunk Railway Station, Tavistock Milling Company, Dr. Michael Steele, Fred Krug and hotelkeepers Otto Jung at the Commercial Hotel and Jacob J. Wettlaufer at the Progress House.

It took awhile but people started to realize that the new-fangled gizmo called the telephone was useful in both their business and personal lives. By 1908 the Tavistock switchboard averaged 80 local calls a day plus 20 long distance ones. Long distance was as close as Shakespeare.

Just a few years later the community was all agog when a large gang of men arrived to set up new poles and string wires to provide increased telephone service. In 1911 the central office moved from the Glasgow Warehouse to the rear of John Lemp’s Drug Store just across the street at 16 Hope Street West. The Lemp family was enlisted to give new and improved 24-hour service. Middle-of-the-night calls meant that John or Lucy Lemp had to get out of bed to connect the parties.

By 1924 Tavistock boasted 100 telephones in the village. In 1934 the switchboard moved from the Lemp Drug Store and home to 12 Hope Street West where Hair Trends is today. The Lemp family continued their role as the official Bell Canada representatives.

When the picture that accompanies this article was taken Bob Krug, the teenage boy who worked some regular hours and some night shifts, earned 15 cents an hour or $1.00 for an entire night shift from 9 pm - 8 am. The office stayed open until 9 pm to allow people who didn’t have a phone extra time to use the public coin box in the office. The word “public” is appropriate as anyone in the office at the time could hear every word of the call.

Years later Bob fondly recalled his days as a telephone operator. A favourite story was about a gentleman who wanted to place a call to Worcester in Massachusetts. The ten-pound headsets that the operators strangled themselves with in those days was all that prevented Bob from falling off the chair in shock. Calls that distance just were not made in that era. It required 20 minutes and the same number of connections to complete.

The night shift was usually quiet with time for a few 40-wink catnaps. Any calls after 11 pm were often for the doctor or the undertaker. As Bob’s father was one of the local undertakers it wasn’t uncommon for the caller to simply say “Bob, get me your dad”.


Excitement prevailed when there was a local fire. In those days the fire siren was sounded from the telephone office or from a box on a post in the main intersection. Without fail, on approximately the third wail of the siren every number on the board dropped at once with people wanting to know whose house or barn was burning.

The 100 phones in Tavistock in 1924 doubled to 200 in 1948. Just a few years later in 1956 it had increased to 300.

Time marched on and in 1963 the entire telephone system in Tavistock became dial operated. Companies and people who had had the same simple 1or 2-digit number for years and years on end had a new 7-digit number starting with 655. The old phone that connected you to Central was replaced by one with a rotary dial. The telephone office closed.

Now, this many years later, rotary dial phones are museum pieces. Calling long distance after 11 pm because it was decidedly cheaper is long past. If you’ve given up your land line and use a cellphone you don’t even hang up the phone anymore. Can you think of other telephone-related activities or phrases that were once part of our normal routine and language that are now outdated?