Women as Linemen: A Reader Responds
Tom:
I was floored when I read your page on women as linemen. That’s because I was probably one of the first, if not the first! I can't believe other women were not linemen at the time. I was never up to date on controversies, however, and I knew most women in my area wouldn't want to work outside in the winter. This was in 1973 or 1974.
I worked for a small telco in northern California, high desert area. I started by transferring into the line crew by seniority from an operator. Yes, we used line cords, but I don't remember them called that. I enjoyed being an operator and had, I think three years in, so I could pretty much choose the hours and schedule that I liked to work. The lineman job came open and it sounded like fun.
I was never afraid of hard work and loved being outdoors. The job was O.K. and I got along with all the guys, and really didn't mind digging all those holes for the tie downs. I remember every time I tried to climb a tree I "scunt" out of it, just couldn't get past that bark I guess. When they let me climb I was doing it in my tennis shoes. The office manager called me in one day and drew a picture of my foot in a sock and sent it in for a pair of boots to be hand made for me. Wow, I sure liked those boots.
I was still "just" learning to climb when some people came up from southern California, and had me put on some hooks and climb up a pole (only a short way) and took pictures of me because I was the "First Woman Telephone Lineman in California." I have the actual pictures they sent me somewhere. They used them for a magazine or something. I would have to dig them out, I had round safety dark purple glasses, like John Lennon style, but the pictures are black and white.
I was still very unsure about myself at that time but it didn't take long to acquire the skills. I had the strength and ability to handle the lasher ( I think that's what we called it), which was a big thing for a gal. It ran along the strand and wrapped the phone line to the strand with bailing wire and it weighed about 50 pounds. I didn't get treated any different from any man, except courtesy about bathroom breaks behind the truck! One guy and myself "stepped" 95 poles for one of our jobs for a new area. That takes some explaining:
When I say stepped poles, we were putting in a new line for part of a lake where a lot of people owned property. Every so often a pole had to have steps to climb up and work, (usually for the splicer's I think). One person had to be on one side and the other person on the other side of the pole. One drilled a hole manually, then passed it to the other person, and it seems we both hammered in a step then twisted it like a screw with a special wrench that fit them, until all were securely in place. We worked from the top down to at about nine feet above ground. We did that on 95 of the poles. All the other poles had to be climbed twice as we also installed the phone line and strand. When we put the line up, we put the strand line into a metal gadget that we put on the poles, where it was not tight, so the strand could slide through it. Then one of us used a cable pulley to tighten up the slack. Sometimes it would get stuck in one of the gadgets (I forgot what it was called), and the line would raise too much behind our work. Someone had to be watching this at all times so that didn't happen, because the line could get too close to the power lines and electrocute the one with the pulley. My partner that stepped poles with me was always afraid of being electrocuted, and we would tease him with wires, just saying it was hot so that he would jump. Sadly that's what killed him several years after I left.
I think I was not quite 21 years old in 1974 when all this happened. I have a lot of great memories about working on the line crew and wouldn't change it for anything! I also have some bad ones, but hey it was the seventies. Some of the good ones are as follows. I was followed by a bobcat when I walked a line in snowshoes by myself (creepy feeling). We took out a line that was mounted on trees by springs. When we were changing and putting in insulators one day I was shocked by an old style open wire line where the people had to turn the phone handle to ring the operator to get connected. I had lots of fun especially playing cards when it rained. Thanks for letting me share the memories. J.S.
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