Pneumatic Cashier

[sixdogsmom]

Waldo, you are correct about the flouroscope; they have since been outlawed. But they were cool, just being able to see your feet and toe bones right through your shoes! The last flouroscope that I saw was in a doctors' office about 1961. And I can see why a pink train was a flop, just wouldn't be the same somehow. 

[Mom70x7]

Those flouroscopes were cool. Too bad they weren't safe. 

[larryJ]

Interestingly and weirdly enough, I chose tonight to watch the show about the Chandler family and the Los Angeles Times which aired last month.  I had seen it on the computer, but it was repeated on TV and I recorded it.  While watching, I was taken back to earlier days when I first started there.  What I forgot was the pneumatic tubes they used in the writer's area.  The writers, reporters, editors would type out their stories, roll the paper up and stick it in a tube and send it to the composing department where the lino-type operators would pound out the letters needed to make up the page for the paper.  This eliminated the copy boy who you might remember from the movies.  The copy boy used to wait for the reporter to finish his story and run it to the composing department.  Using the tubes saved a lot of time.

Larryj

[Marcia Moore]

     I just remembered...  the Penneys store in Coffeyville also had a man that ran the elevator for the customers.

[W. Gray]

I remember those operators also and was leery of riding "unmanned" elevators when they first came to our town.

Does anyone remember when merchants had counter checks for the convenience of their customers?

If one went into a store and had forgotten his checkbook, the merchant had a book of checks at the register that were imprinted with the customer's bank name. I believe these were provided free to a merchant by the banks. The customer tore the top check off, filled out the check with or without an account number, filled in the amount, signed it, and the merchant accepted.

At the place where I worked in the fifties, there were three banks in town—so we had a book of counter checks for each bank.

However, not every customer banked at one of these local banks, so we also had a book of blank counter checks on hand. A customer tore off a check, wrote in his bank's name, the amount, and signed. The merchant accepted.

No problem.

I believe Diners Club, American Express, and Carte Blanch were all in existence back then, but they were all for rich people and very few merchants other than some in the big city accepted these cards.

[patyrn]

Counter checks were common in Howard when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s.  My dad was a partner in the Smith & Goodwin store, and I would work there when needed, so I remember seeing the checks.  Both Howard banks had books of them printed and probably neighboring towns' banks also because this store had customers from throughout the area.  It was common for people to use them, and I'm not even sure people would always know their account number.  They seemed to go through based on name and signature, only.  There were also blank ones where customers would write their bank name in.  We were not even aware of credit cards in those days. 

Thanks for that reminder.  I had forgotten that aspect of the past.

On the rare occasions that I got to go shopping in downtown Wichita with my friend's family, the elevators with operators in the big department stores were so fascinating to us small town kids.  We would ride them up and down numerous times until the operator gave us the evil eye for messing around and making them work, I think! 

[W. Gray]

When I was a little kid, I always had to go to the bathroom when we were in the Bundschu Department store.

There was nothing like telling your mom you had to go while she was shopping on the fourth floor, which was the top. Since the restrooms were in the basement, you always gladly used the elevator to get there.

When there was no one else on the elevator, there was something empowering about you being an eight year old telling the adult operating the elevator "basement" or "4" and he took you there immediately. No discussions, no arguments, no issues; he did what you told him to do. And, sometimes he took your stomach away getting there.

The first time on the elevator on any one day there was always a smile from the adult, but if you did it too many times there was a stern look. From the training children received back then, it was a look that told you that you better cool it or you were going to be in trouble.

Of course, some kids nowadays have figured out they can generally do what they want and an adult has no say so about it, legally or otherwise. But my mentality back then was that I did not have that kind of luxury—so when this happened I would take the stairs.

[Jo McDonald]

The counter checks I remember were pink for the Howard National Bank -- white for the First National Bank and a cream color for the Longton Bank.  As far as I remember, we didn't have an identifying account number. But later,  when the bank issued one, we were asked to put it on a counter check if we were writing one.
It is very difficult to cash an out of town check now, and there is a pretty hefty fee if you do, from the bank that is cashing it.
  While we were RVing - we opened a small account in a Minnesota bank and one in a Texas bank.  It made life much easier.

[W. Gray]

In order to get a telephone, one had to walk, drive, or take a taxi to the central telephone exchange. Once there you had to fill out extensive paperwork, pay a deposit, and schedule a hook up.

The phone man came on the designated day with a company owned instrument and hardwired it to the jack or he ran a line to the house, if the home had never had a telephone.

Our first phone was a black plain looking desk phone like those seen in 1930s movies. It had no dial. We had to tell the operator the number we wanted. We also had four other families on our "party" line. This meant that if one of those families was talking on the phone, we could not use it.

I was around 13, before I was allowed to use the family phone and then only with permission.

Eventually, we got a dial phone but you could only dial within the city. For calls outside the city, one called the long distance operator—something that only happened in emergencies because long distance calls were so expensive. We also had to dial the operator and say something like "6623 on this line please" if you wanted to talk to any of the families that shared the party line. When my folks moved within the city in 1963, they were happy to get a two party line. It did not become a single line until sometime after 1970.

Phones owned by the phone company were heavy, well built, took a lot of abuse, and were meant to last a lifetime.

If you moved you had to go back to the phone office and schedule a disconnection. The phone company came and got their phone.

At some point along the way when disconnecting a phone, the phone company began authorizing the customer to cut the phone cord from the wall with a pair of scissors and then bring the phone to the company and settle the account. About this same time when installing new service, colors became affordable and one selected the phone he wanted and took it home to wait for the phone man to come and hard wire it into the jack.

Then things broke wide open with plug in jacks, buy your own phone, etc.

One oddity to me was that my grandparents in downtown Howard did not have a phone, but my grandparents on their farm southwest of Howard had one. It was a huge wooden monstrosity with a separate ear piece and a mouthpiece sticking out from the cabinet. If one wanted to make a call, they cranked an automobile style crank a few times to wake the operator.

There is (at least at one time) a museum of telephony in Abilene, KS, that has all kinds of telephones on display including coin operated ones from the 1880s.

[Wilma]

Did you ever get to see the other side of the phone line, where the operator worked?  In the small town I grew up in, the switchboard was in a private home and could be handled by one operator.  The homemaker usually did this herself, but they did hire a girl for certain times.  One of the girls they hired was my neighbor and it was all right for me to drop in and visit with her while she was on duty.  (That is how good my reputation was in this small town).  It wasn't all right for her to let me handle any calls, but I got to see enough of what she did to understand how it worked.  One of the benefits of small town was that you didn't have to know the number you wanted.  You could just tell the operator who you wanted and if she didn't know the number she would look it up.  One time, while I was visiting, she took a call that wanted to talk to "Triple A"  Neither of us had ever heard of it and couldn't figure out how to look it up.  Fortunately the boss was nearby and he explained that it was under AAA, then told us what it stood for.  You could also visit with the operator over the telephone as long as you understood that when she had to go, she had to go.

Like Waldo, the telephone wasn't for the entertainment of the children.  It was for grown up matters, like calling the doctor when the neighbor lady went into labor.