Our former neighbor, Hollis Cameron, died on New Years’ Day. Hollis worked for Mountain Bell, the phone company (a/k/a US West, Qwest, Century Link). Rifle was the last Mountain Bell exchange in Colorado to convert from operators to dial telephones, and they didn’t do it until the mid 1960’s. She was an operator, and worked the last shift in Rifle before they cut over to dial telephones, so it is quite likely that she was the last person to utter “Number please” in Colorado.
Our kids will remember that Dan and Hollis were the perfect neighbors – never nosy, but always watching. If there was anything out of the ordinary, they’d report it. And when I wanted to play an old LP record of music I brought back from Colombia, they were the only people on the block who still had a functioning turntable.
