20040319 Historic Sites of Logan Tour with Wilf and Barbara Jones

Barbara and Wilford Jones in front of the Western Watts building, formerly the business and operators' office for Mountain Bell telephone. This building is located near the southeast corner of Main and Center street in Logan. Barbara Jones worked as an operator at this building for 6 years, from 1952 to 1958. She attained the rank of service assistant. This was one of the best-paying jobs in Logan at $2.15 per hour. The operators' lounge was located along the second floor windows, and the switchboards were located along the east wall of the building, information on the south end, and long distance switchboards were on the west wall.

As a service assistant, Barbara supervised other operators. Her operator number was 63; each operator had a cubby-hole for her headset. Barbara and her co-workers would go to lunch, including at the Blue Bird. All the operators were women, while men worked on relay switching equipment in the basement. This was a manual office unitl 1955 or so when it went dial.

Barbara applied for the job, and feels Heavenly Father blessed her to get the job - - both she and her mother needed work at the time she applied. Her cousin, Norma Ann Andersen (daughter of Will) had previously worked there - - Barbara did not see Norma Ann again until the graveside service of Mary Hagemeister on March 19, 2005 (on which occasion all enjoyed visiting with Norma Ann, and Norma Ann shared her secrets for making cherry chocolates).

Barbara later transferred to the Burien, Washington office in June of 1958, and worked until November 1958 when Wilford was going into the Air Force. In contrast to her experience in Logan, in Burien her co-workers were not LDS and smoked. Barbara had morning sickness from being pregnant with Scott, so the smoke especially bothered her.