What it was like working as a 411 operator before the internet

While attending Los Angeles City College in the 1960s, Lilith needed to find a part-time job. So, she applied for a position at Pacific Telephone Telegraph to work as an information operator.

In the years before the internet, people could dial 411 to connect with an information operator who could help them reach the person or business they were trying to find.

“Most of the time, people were calling for doctors, their friends. They somehow didn’t have their best friend’s phone number in their house,” recalled Lilith. “Anybody they might want to call that they did not have the phone number for.”

New Year’s Eve was a particularly interesting day to work, according to Lilith. In the moments before the clock struck midnight, people would call in asking for the exact time, jamming up the lines. “We had no idea what the exact time was,” remembers Lilith. All the information operators had was a clock on the wall.

For a long time, Lilith said she made a point to keep phone books around. Now though, she said she’s gotten used to doing almost everything on her computer.

Click the audio player above to hear Lilith’s story.

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