After graduating from high school, my mom worked for a short time as an old-fashioned telephone operator—a job that no longer exists. Before long, she left that job for something that suited her better.
A Tinter of Black & White Photographs
She found work at a photography studio doing another job that no longer exists. She was a tinter or colorist. In the days before widespread use of color photography, black and white photos were sometimes tinted by a specialist in the studio.
Below is a photo tinted by Mom of her and my grandparents.
In 1940, being a tinter was a job without a future. Kodachrome film first hit the market in 1936, and though in the beginning it was mainly used in advertising, it was only a matter of time.
No problem. A year or two later, Mom met my dad, and they moved on to other adventures.
No problem for her, but change isn’t always that easy. Have you or anyone you know ever had a job that became irrelevant or ceased to exist?
Pea Truck Driver
When I was in college, I had a great summer job. I drove a pea truck. Another job that no longer exists. To save on insurance, Twin City Foods in Stanwood hired only girls to drive the trucks. They hired boys to drive the tractors that pulled the swathers that cut the pea vines and sent them up chutes into the back of our trucks as we drove along beside them. When our beds were full, we drove to a stationary viner where we dumped our loads.
One year I worked twelve-hour days; the next year, twelve-hour nights. Long hours but easy work. And the pay was good.
Twenty years later, the truck-driving girls and tractor-driving boys and even the boys who worked at the viners where the peas were separated from the vines were replaced by a single machine: a huge mobile combine tractor. That’s life.
“The only constant in life is change.”
Heraclitus
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and to everyone who has a mother.
Actually I suddenly realise that my mother’s job would have qualified for inclusion here. She left school and became a shorthand typist, starting in the Food Office – it was during the war and this was the office that administered ration books… double points for two roles that no longer exist?
Ha! That’s a great double pointer. Yesterday I saw a screenshot of shorthand. I’d forgotten how simple and strange it looked. There’s no way an untrained person could read it or even guess.
And we talk about the pace of change now! Love that only the boys were clever enough to drive the tractors… Fascinating post
I know that their insurance rates were too high for them to drive the trucks. I don’t know about the tractors. I suppose female tractor drivers just seemed too strange to the people who decided.
Yes, there are so many jobs that don’t exist anymore, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fascinating or deserve another moment to appreciate. The world of work is something that I definitely want to explore more of in the future.
That’s a brilliant idea, Lani. There are lots of books I know about but haven’t read. One is Working by Studs Terkel. I think he interviewed over a hundred people about their work. It’s a great subject.
Love this. Interesting story plus photos. Change is the constant, but having a few memories of different times and some pics to go with makes some moments seem like constants.
I agree. The world is constantly changing, but we keep those passing moments alive in our memories and in our photo albums. And with the help of historians, books, and movies, even times and places we’ve never seen can come to seem like a part of us.
What a lovely selection of old photos Nicki 🙂
You’re right how all things telephonic have changed dramatically in our lifetimes. When we lived in West Africa, we didn’t have a telephone in our house, and the area in which I live now has just had it’s old style landlines service withdrawn. Only a digital phone service is now available, so in a power cut – there’s no phone, as power cuts also take out the local cell service towers. But we coped back then, so I’m sure we will cope once more.
When I was a kid, we had a party line–one ring and the neighbor picked up; two rings and it was for us. But of course “us” meant our whole family. As I remember, my sister and I didn’t get many calls. We mainly talked to our friends in person. Now, we all rely on our phones for everything from the weather report to driving directions, not to mention friendly conversations and taking photos. I suppose the way we live now makes us vulnerable to storms and Russian sabotage. But if you coped without a phone in West Africa, if we need to again, we’d fine a way to cope with all kinds of emergencies.
Happy Mother’s Day, Nicki!
I had a summer job with Bell Labs to test clarity of telecommunications . . . “can you hear me now?”
Quite a primitive post compared to smart phones and cell towers.
Thank you, Nancy.
Yes! There have been so many changes regarding phone service since you worked for Bell Labs. One thing that comes to mind: The cost of long distance calls. When we lived in the Philippines, it was so expensive that we only called home once or twice a year.
Wonderful pictures! I worked in a steno pool for a short time. That job (typist) along with steno pools don’t exist anymore!
That’s fascinating, Kate. So were you a typist as well as someone who knew shorthand? That’s really a forgotten skill, maybe even a secret language these days.
I was a cashier at a snobby women’s clothing store during high school and the summer I came home from college. It was right before cash registers switched from manual entry to bar codes. My fingers used to fly over the register keypad, which would impress very entitled customers and at least then they would be less impatient.
Things used to be so much more tactile. I remember the sound of those cash register keys and then the drawer sliding open. As far as I know, no one wrote a song about it. But there’s always “The Typewriter” song.
Happy Mother’s Day, Nicki! 🌹🌻🌺🌸🌷
What great pictures. So wonderful to have these treasured photos. I love that your mother kept moving on to jobs despite the obsolescence of them. (Makes me a little sad to think about so many jobs gone due to the upgrades in technology. I know some make life easier for us. But still . . .)
Thank you, Linda.
Mom must have moved around from one job to the next rather quickly after high school. She was working at the front desk at a hotel when she met my dad. He and his brother both saw her, but Dad got there first.