You can still get a live operator here sometimes. I remember a school tour of the phone company with all the PBX lines and seeing how the international operators had a different switchboard than the information operators.

My first job was rolling posters and putting them in little plastic tubes in 1971. I got fired because my work permit did not allow me to work in companies that did interstate commerce. So I got a job at a Real Estate office that also had a travel agency in it. I was 16. The boss was a dirty old man with a wooden leg that creaked. I had to wear a skirt. I also had to go out the back door and drive his car - 1970 Ford LTD - the biggest car ever made - to pick up the airline tickets from another travel agency if the customers came in for tickets. Minimum wage was $1.65. Everytime he'd try to get fresh, I'd tell my boyfriend, who came in and confronted the boss and tell him I'd better get a raise. I worked there a year and I left making $7.00 per hour. I only left because I broke up with Arnie (6" tall "jock type") and he wasn't available to come in to "chat" with Mr. Kay, my boss. Oh - and part of my job was to file the paid bills. I hated the work so much, I went in just before the boss came in, which meant I was always late. There were no answering machines then. And he left for the day before me - I'd leave when the coast was clear. I really did learn a lot working there. If my parents only knew they'd have been really upset.