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But let Miss Thompson give you the picture in her own words, and explain why it, just isn't humanly possible for her operators to res- pond as quickly as they did in for- mer times. In other words, why you sometimes have to wait to get through. - If you recall the seemingly end- less line of cars passing through Richmond Hill from the north af- ter a particularly fine summer week end, you can get a fair pic- ture of the traffic that is humming along the telephone highways here, not only in the summer, but all year round. Miss Thompson says that folks in Richmond Hill have been averaging well over 4,000 local calls each day in recent weeks, and upwards of 500 calls to outâ€"of-town points. Just two years ago, telephone traffic was a mere dribble of 1,800 local calls a day compared to the deluge today, and yet in 1947, 1,800 calls represented a. substantial load. “Two years ago, we had three switchboard positions and seven operators handling them on shifts,” she explained.- “Right now, there are six positions and twenty opâ€" erators on the staff. And yet, the traffic has been rising faster than we have been able to obtain new equipment. Explains Delays “Just to show why there is de- lay sometimes â€"â€" just one reason of several â€" let’s watch the switchboard for a moment,” she said. “Here’s a call coming in to position No. 1. The girl plugs in to speak to the party, gets the number they want, and then finds that number is on position num- ber five, down near the end of the board. She‘an’t make that long reach over with her arm to make the connection, so she ‘posts’ the number. Now ‘posting' a number means that she signals the girl by means of a small green light which flashes on position number five to Could you serve customers at the rate of three a minâ€" ute or answer your doorbell as many times each minute of the working day? Can’t be done,:you say? Miss Alba Thompson says it can, and what’s more she supervises a staff of girls who do it everyday. They happen to be your local telephone operators, each of whom handles 185 local and long distance calls an hour at the switchboard in the Bell Tele- phone exchange here. Rising Telephone Traffic Uutpaces Ability Tq Provide More Equipment Heavy Task Thrown On Local Girls Richmond Hill exchange is shown here with the three positions and the staff of op- erators which handled the service in the summer of '1946. At the extreme left is Miss Dorothy Costofi', sole remaining member on the staff today of this group. ‘om he ll Miss Thompson explained that customers themselves can make things a little smoother by obser- ving a few simple rules. “For in- stance, if a customer fails to ring ofl’ after he’s \through, our girls have no indication that the con- versation A's over. They have to take time out, and cut in on the line to see if conversation is still going on. If they are busy, that’s just a little extra work that takes them momentarily off the essential job of putting calls through. And very often people don’t take the short time needed before tele- phoning to look up numbers in their directory. They rely on the operator to find it for them from the name and address they supply. For the most part, the greater per- centage of all calls to ’Information’ for this purpose could be avoided and time saved.” ‘ Neighbourliness Helps “During the last few months, we have had some losses in our operating staff,” Mi‘ss Thompson said. “As a matter of fact, we have lost six girls, almost a third of our staff, since April of this year for various reasons â€" some to get married, some moving out Another headache from tigie to time, the chief operator explained, is caused by party-line service. ‘T at’s where neighbourliness realâ€" ly counts,” she said. “And it’s really up to the people themselves who share lines to see that one or the other doesn’t take up more than their fair share. let that operator know there is a call for a number on that position. But let’s look at the girl on five. She’s busy handling calls at her spot right now, and until she has disposed of the one she’s engaged on, obviously the ‘posted’ number has to wait. That explains why there is a dela_\r sometimes be- tween the time the caller has giv- en the operator the number wanted and finally gets connected.” “Readers may recall, too, that we made an announcement in Aug- ust of last year that dial service was being planned for Richmond Hill in 1951. Meanwhile, we must try to do the best with what we have, and as I have mentioned, no effort is being spared to expand our present type of switchboard, as much as possible within these limited premises, so that we can maintain the service as efiiciently as possible until the new system comes into being. “Actually; Richmond Hill is much better off than many com- mimities in regard to the number of new residents who are without service. Our policy has been to provide service for newcomers to Richmond Hill as quickly as posâ€" sible, thereby keeping pace, tele- phone-wise, with the growth in the town’s business and residential re- quirements, Restriction of this policy would, no doubt, have re- sulted in lower operating loads. “Now a glance at our premises here will show you that we are very close to reaching the absolute maximum of available space. With- in the next two or three months another switchboard position will be installed, and our original three replaced by a newer type. To do this will require a complete rear- rangement of our exchange facil- ities in order that they can be fitted in. With the tremendous amount of wiring necessary for switchboards, you can see that al- though.it may not sound like a vast addition, it will entail a great deal of work and planning to in- stall, and of course it will certain- ly mean a further spreading of the traffic load of the switcthard at present, which in turn naturally relieves the load on the individual operator. ' Dial Service in 1951 Getting back to the business of the service itself, and appreciating the fact that telephone traffic is at a higher volume than it ever was, what ha‘s the company been doing about relieving these conditions, and what are itsplans for more facilities? S. Ross Van Dusen, manager for the company in this area, had something to. say about this. “Some time ago in this newspaper I mentioned details of our expansion over the past four years in‘ our local exchange. Brief- ly, they amounted to an addition of four new positions since October 1945. This has enabled us not only to add a great number of new lines in the exchange, but also to spread the number of lines more evenly over the switchboard into the new positions, each manned by an operator. As Miss Thompson also mentioned, our operating staff has increased in proportion, and we expect to increase it still more in the very near future. “Just as a passing mention, you may be interested to know that there are high points in telephone traffic each day, when our load is at its heaviest. They are between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning and between 7:00 and 10:00 in the ev- ening. If people could possibly remember that these are very busy times and if some of their calls could be as conveniently placed at other periods of the day, it would certainly help to cut down delays and speed up the service by dis- tributing the heavy traffic more evenly.” What Is Solution of Richmond Hill, and one return- ing to school. This naturally has placed quite a burden on the re- maining girls, and although we have obtained new girls as quickly as possible to fill the ranks, the training of a switchboard operaâ€" tor is something that can’t be ac- complished overnight. It takes time before a. new irl is as pro- ficient in the job as an experienced operator. ’ MI e service for a le Van Dusen also have ‘em en a VG mentioned hy pet have y E Miss Dorothy Costofi‘ is seen at a switchboard facing a spaghetti-like mass of cords which indicates in a small way the volume of telephone traffic in the local exchange. It frequently happens that with all the cords plugged in, as they are shown here, there are no remaining cords available for a moment or two for further incoming calls, sometimes necessitating a delay on the part of the operator until she finds herself free to handle additional callers. Thanking the Directors with whom he had worked, he stressed the fine work of the secretary- treasurer and presented Miss Gladys McLatchy with flowers as a token of appreciation. The Lib- In reviewing the year’s activiâ€" ties, Mr. C. E. Little informed the members that money had been set aside to be used in the beautificaâ€" tion of the land adjacent to the Library and also the entrances to the village. This work, he said, would be attended to in the spring of 1950. Highlight of the evening came when Mr. R. D. Little presented Life Memberships to Mrs. A. J. Hume, one time secretary-treas- urer of the Society and to Mrs. A. L. Phipps, one time director. In making the presentation Mr. Little spoke of the fine and faithful work the two ladies had rendered for many years. Wishing them many more years of association with the local society he presented them with roses. ' It was just a little different to annual meetings held in the past and everyone seemed to fe‘el freer and the expressions registered sat- isfaction at the way Mr. A. J. Mc- Latchy and his committee had handled the situation. The spirit of Hallowe’en pre- vailed at the Annual Meeting of the Richmond Hill Horticultural Society, on Thursday, October 27. Witches, cats, owls and bats hovâ€" ered around the prize table, julst crammed with wonderful prizes, and perky little pumpkins smiled saucin at the record crowd as- sembled in the auditorium of the Public School. Horticultural Society Draws . Record Crowd At Annual Meet 8. E. Little Elected President In contrast, the expanded switchboard at the local exchange today shows part of the operating staff of twenty who handle telephone traffic in Richmond Hill. At extreme rear left is Miss Alba Thompson who is the chief operator here. The six/positions shown here represent 100 per cent increase in facilities within the last three years, and a seventh is to be added shortly. ‘ (By Glad. McLatchy) With tables laden with jams, jellies, preserves, fruit, vegetables and flowers, the judges, Miss Jane Among the outâ€"of-town visitors, Lt._Col. C. H. Reeve, representa- tive of the T. Eaton Company Ltd., was on hand and presented the Eaton Trophy to Mrs. J. Dedlow for the highest number of points accumulated at the season’s shows. Mr. G. Lummis, president of the North York' Horticultural Society, presented the Richmond Hill Soc- iety prizes to the following memâ€" bers, Mrs. B. L. Anderson, second prize winner in the general class, and to Mrs. Wm. Banks, third prize winner in the same class. Mrs. Alhe‘rt Rice captured the first prize in the commercial class with Mr. C. E. Little and Miss Jane Lit- tle winning second and third pri- zes respectively. In the new exâ€" hibitors class, Mrs. C. Styan won the first prize, Mrs. A. S. Barber second and Miss K. B-all won third prize. Something different on the pro- gram came with the Box Social. The boxes, all decorated in true Hallowe’en fashion were auctioned by Mr. Harry Kane to interested male bidders who found the next few moments of sociability very enjoyable indeed, and suggested that another box social should be forth-coming in the near future. eral Printing Company was re- membered on the thank-you list, especially Col. Picking for his timely boost in the local paper. It was nice to know that two of the directors of the society have brought fame to Richmond Hill by winning prizes at the C.N.E., Mrs. Wm. Banks with flowers and Mr. Douglas Boyd with his silver work] Enjoy Box Social Something different on the pro- gram: came with the Box Social. that how de- Sound, from 1945 to 1‘ spent last summer at C onto as senior counsellor Mrs. Labbett leader since her was director of the Y.W.C.A. ‘ The PlaceTo Go After The Show BETTLES COFFEE SHOP Sandwiches â€" Light Lunches Sundaes Mrs. E. Clifford Labbett of Tor- onto, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. C. Kennedy of Unionville, and her husband have purchased Camp Oconto, a private camp for-school girls situated on Eagle Lake in the Rideau Lake district. Unionville Girl And Husband Buy Camp 102 Yonge Street, Richmond H Open 8 am. to Midnight The Marksmen entertained with several songs and they were given Waterman’s pens. MiSS Lola. Jones who accompanied at the piano was also presented with a pen. The election of officers was con- ducted by Mr. Percy Bone of Thornhill, and the slate for 1950 is as follows: Hon. pres, Mr. Wm. Redelmeier; hon. viceâ€"pres, Mr. R. D. Little, Mr. R0bt._Keith, Mr. Allan Bales; president, Mr. C. E. Little; lst vice-pres., Mr. W. A. Wagner; 2nd vice-pres., Mr. A. Rice; directors for 1950-52, Mr. Paul Angle, Mr. A. J. McLatchy, Mrs. J. Dedlow, Mrs. Freeman Barker and Mr. George Fenwick. C. H Sanderson; class 20, other kind of jam not mentioned, Mrs. Wm. May, Mrs. Wlm. Banks; class 21, apple jelly, Mrs. Freeman Bar_ ker, Miss Cora Brodie; class 22, grape jelly, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. Wm. May; class 23, currant jelly, Mrs. Freeman Barker, Dr. A. Doan; class 24, other kind of jelly not mentioned, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. A. Bales; class 25, preserved peaches, Mrs. Freeman Barker, Mrs. D. Boyd; class 26, preserved pears, Mrs. C. H. Sanderson, Mrs. D Boyd; class 27, preserved plums, Mrs J. Dedlow, Mrs. D. Boyd; class 28, preserved cherries, Mrs. R. D. Little, Mrs. I. D. Ramer; class 29, preserved raspberries, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. Wlm. May; class 30, other preserves not mentioned, Mrs. W. T. Cook, Mrs. C. H. San- derson. ‘ ' Elect Officers Class 1, lapples, J. Dedlow, Mrs. D. Boyd; class 2, pears, Mrs. D. Boyd; class 4, potatoes, A. Stong, Mrs. W. May; class 5, carrots, A. Stong, J. Dedlow; class 6, beets, A. Stong, W. A. Wagner; class 7, cabbage, Mrs. W. T. Cook, Mrs. D. Boyd; class 8, squash, C. Bancroft, Dr. A. Doan; class 9, pumpkin, Miss Cora. Brodie; class 10, bou- quet suitable for living room, Mrs. I. D. Ramer, Mrs. J. Dedlow; class 11, bouquet of foliages only for living room, Mrs. Wm. Banks, Miss K. Little; class 12, house-plant, (flowering), Mrs. W. T. Cook, Mrs. J. Dedlow; class 13, houseplant (non-flowering), W. A. Wagner, Mrs. J. Dedlow; class 14, green pickles, Mrs. C. H. Sanderson, Mrs. A. Bales; class 15, red pickles, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. J. Dedlow; class 16, mustard pickles, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. Wm. May; class 17, rasp- berry jam, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. J. Dedlow; class 18, peach jam, Mrs. D. Boyd, Mrs. I. D. Ramer; class 19, conserve, Mrs A. Bales, Mrs. C. H Sanderson; class 20, other kind of jam not mentioned, Mrs. Wm. May. Mrs. Wlm. Banks; class Little of Toronto, Miss Margaret Dove and Mr. Carl James admitâ€" ted that they had really been hard pressed to commit themselves to first and second prize-winners as everything was so fine in quality and quantity, however the follow- ing members received prizes in the various classes; which were don- ated by Mr. W. A. Wagner and the local Society. Open 8 am. Closed from 1.30 ’JACK's‘F’OR’ RENT RICHMOND HILL HARDWARE Phone 426 x 1945 to 1948. She ummer at Camp 0c- een a camp apa 1e ’an' “MOWWWW 3 Richmond Hill ‘ Telephone 5-J § :ooooooooooo0999099009900oooooooooooooooooooooooo Wednesday & Thursday â€" November 9, 10; Telephone Richmond Hill 500 THE LIBERAL, Richmond Hill, Thursday, Nov. 3, 1949 8 Saturdays and holidays, continuously from 5.30 pm. Saturday: Matinee at 2 pm. Doors open at 1.30 pm; FREE PARKING AT REAR 0F THEATRE Entrance from Church Street. 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