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georgetown and the bell war years trying time cant serve all demand georgetown bell telephone staff 1945 i tor m ss m chave chief operator mrs e lewis miss m graham mrs l varfty mrs r barber miss d mulholland miss thompson and mrs a lindsay by 1941 georgetown a popul ttion had mounted to 2562 in habitants there were 756 tele phones in the tow by the end of mi world war 11 bad its serious effects on the bell telephone company though the prob lems it presented were quite different to those of the dep ression a few years previously when every employee of thr company was urged to do their best to save take out orders to obtain new ones and in ge neral to boost their business now with a terrible war in pro gress shortages of labour and materials were soon manifest yet there was an unprecedented demand for increased telephone services all over the country instead of trying to sell tele phone service bell salesmen bad to try when possible actu ally to dissuade people from expecting new equipment for many a day and to make good use of what they had the pub lic was patiently informed that it was increasingly difficult and in many cases impossible to give needed service since the armed forces and munition plants etc had to receive im mediate and adequate tele phone service and telephone supplies of all kind were de plorably limited and that tc situation would grow more dif flcult with every month of war world war 11 it was then probably with mingled regret and relief that the company announced in it telephone news of may 942 sent to all subscnbersl that war calls halt to tele- phone expansion in fact half the whole issue of the news was devoted to the an nouncement which comprises an historical document of world war ii it read telephones arc in greater demand than ever before even greater than in 1941 an all time record year by far the greater part of this demand is for residence telephones only a part of this unprccc dented volume of orders can bo filled if we are to have any thing left for the camps and depots and air schools of our armed forces for the plants and offices of our war indus tris already telephone mat erlals are difficult to obtain reserves are steadily dimmish lng even though we are recon dltionirg and re using every at piece of equipment that can be salvaged there can be only one an svter war needs must get first call on available supplies even when necessity demands new installations not all types of ins ruments and services will be available the wartime prices and trade board established bj the governor mcouncil under the war measures act h s directed us to do all such thing as may be requisite to conserve any and all telephone plant and fa cilities i vic raluc that this will cause inconvenience perhaps even hardship ve shall need your help in working out wise and just solutions to the tele j phone problems of your com munity and we know that you will give it cheerful y as st 11 another necessarv contribution to victor speak briefly this aas all that appeared in the brampton oakville dis trict telephone news of may 1942 but was sufficient to pre pare the publ c for the necessity of waiting their turn patienth when they required telephone service as did a small boxed notice in the same issue lo make enly essential calls speak briefly onlv a few years be fore customers were being urg cd to get single lines if they had party ones lo have extension sets installed to place chatty long distance calls to their fam ilics cspcciallj at christmas time and so on but total war changed the whole picture for many years and the public re spanded very well people lear ned patience and reasonableness in the face of prolongued crisis once it was explained to them the firs thins must come first the essential requirements of the armed service the require ments for the welfare of civil life in th ommunity public health and safety and other essential commercial and indus trial requirements a doctor for instance would get immed late telephone serv ce i he mo ved to a community there would be httic delay in prov iding a telephone for a drug gist a registered nurse or the commanding officer of a regi ment by the close of 1942 there were 765 elphones in george town the corresponding totals hello there new year 196b sa is into v ew w th rhe prorn se of health hap- p nets and success for you and your fam ly thanks to all our customers dave williams electrical contractor ii elgin street 1773321 for 1943 to 1946 were as fol lows 1943 793 1944 s3 6 1945 885 and 1946 977 herald editorial on november 5th 1947 the georgetown herald carried th following item as an editorial telephone clients increase the new teltphone book is sued last week by the bell tel ephone company to georgetown clients tells a story of the stea dy growth of the community if one cars to spend an hour or two with pencil and pad which is just what jour editor did on a recent evening adding up numbers in the new and old books to arrive- at the conclus ion that there are 177 more telephones in use now than at this period in 1946 numbers in the old book totalled 873 and in the new book 1050 if you don t bcl eve it count them jourself of course there s a small margin of error in both cases for there are some numbers the herald office included which appear twice in the book and we did not want to carry matters so far as to start weeding out these which in any case would not be more than a dozen or so the rapidity with which tele phone service is expanding is shown b this fact that since the new d rectory was compiled the list of local subscribers has grown to 1125 r c warns wth no 322 still has the alphabetical edge on other users and appears at the head of the list while w g young 442 r 21 cln wil hams is again at the bottom al zeravitv of lincoln auto bodv would be a c nch for this honour vhen he f nds a house and moves to town the business community has taken a greater interest in ad vortisinr in the directory and there are 80 who have taken smill displavs with their phone list ng and 31 1 sted in blackface wbtosyoutlievery jest it this hour mino millwork w 1 l f mino ii waler st s77 9771 georgetown type list year these figures by the end of 1947 there were were 67 and 26 1 165 telephones in georgetown in numbers harry gold ham s butcher shop retains no 1 bus bell of georgetown clay products has no 2 and town clerk p b harrison no 3 highest of the town numbers is 534w which belongs to the new baptist minister rev char lea gower it is always interesting to see what names are most com mon in a community and m georgetown the thompsons have the flephune lead with 16 the wilsons are stond with 13 and browns third with 12 next in line are hill and smith 10 hunter 9 barber and les lie 8 clark cleave norton scott 7 armstrong bell brad ley campbell graham hilts mcdonald robinson sinclair wright have half dozen list ings each the war is over december 1047 a telephone news for brampton and dis trict earned a brief announce ment of interest to georgetown subscribers installed during 1947 some 400 more phones deferred service orders are being fllld quickly as apparatus available despite the addition of 400 telephones in service a bramp ton gcorgetoan milton new market oakville and orange ville since january 1 unfilled orders in those six communit ics total 300 bell workers in ev cry department will not rest until this back log of deferr d applications for telephones has been wiped out and tliey re able to resume their former pndcful position of being able to offer prompt service on demand the war was over things were easing up a tnflc as mn and women had resumed their work in the company afler years of service in the army navy and air forces equipment and materials were bcom ng av liable again nevertheless there were still many orders to attend to and would be for years to come and many places required improved or addition al facilities the georgetown herald of march 10 1948 carried a heir tening announcement for geor gctown s telephone uteri it reed dial telephones for georgetown in 19s0 in conversation with w o mlsener manager of the bell telephone company for this dis trict he advises that plans of th- company contemplate changing the magneto telephone system and service to the dial or automatic type at george town either in 1950 or early in 1951 this is part of the com pany s construction and rehab ilitation programme to convert alt magneto exchanges to either manual common battery or dial operation as fast as equipment and manpower can be made available during the next few years despite heavy demands on the company s facilities result ing in an increase of 129 091 telephones for service in the company s territory at the end of the year georgetown has been particularly fortunate in the respect that it has been possible to provide for an in crease of 465 telephones during th- war and postwar years not withstanding this heavy growth only 33 applicants are at pres ent deferred here the major ity of which will be installed during the next few weeks up on completion of a switchboard extension which is now under way mr misener reiterated that plans outlined for service mod erniration of georgetown are an integral part of the com pan wide plan to meet the public demand for more and more service always with a in improvement in its quality by the time of the asuance of georgetown s october 1948 directory miss i thompsons name had replaced that of miss m chave as local representa tive the latter continued to serve in georgetown u chief operator by the end of ims there were 1 342 telephones in georgetown rnbhhpip wl s i new hlqhqi o wmbfikm m j time once again ssbbb to a new start we hope 1968 will bring you lots of happiness bob glad and ed c3 caldwell 11 nil bill barber and u all the staff bjib good health and all good things may the new year be one in which we may hove the continued pnv lege of serving you gwcorbett dc chiropractor 11 a main street the georgetown herald thursday dec mth 14t greetings thanks to all you wonderful people and may ihe new year br ng you much happ ness t ryders tv service 4 young st georgetown 1968 barber henley ltd insurance and travel aoenct m1li street blessings j1 for the new year exchange hotel good luck and best wishes from trw twff and mamgeimirt my this year bring to you good kmwi and hapftlmtt w thank ym for your patromja crest hardware owned by richakdsons