This & That, October 1861

This & That

by Sue Vaught

In history, on October 24, 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from San Francisco, California by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C. over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.

Things have changed since then. Now you can just call around the world, yourself, with no operator needed.

When I was young we were on a party line and you could just ring the other people on the line, if the line wasn’t already busy, but you had to ring the operator for any other calls.

When we lived in Kansas, a police officer came to the door one day and asked if we had an emergency because the operator had placed a call from our number and got no response from the caller, only heavy breathing and thinking someone might be in distress and unable to speak. During that era, we had “pick-up” service and our 2 year old had gotten the phone off the dresser in the bedroom. Now you know the rest of the story, but it was nice to know if you needed help and could get the phone off the hook, you would get help.

We are now beginning to see some pretty fall colors in the leaves due to cooler nights and the rain helped some too. We had just under 1 1/2 inches in our yard but some areas got 4-6 inches. Wow!

Happy Halloween, Everyone! Sunday night this year. Then, on Nov. 6 you can sleep an extra hour as the time changes while you snooze. I usually set my clocks back before going to bed, then no confusion in the morning.

Happy Birthday to Jedi Harger on Oct. 28, to Kayne Ashley and Larry Dean Mitchell on the 29th, to Judy Garrett and Kara McAnally on Oct. 30, to Paula Leslie Floyd on the 31st. To my daughter Jamie and Debbie Mitchell both on Nov. 2, to Ramsey Neitert on the 3rd, to Mark Brown on the 4th, to Jace Smith on the 8th, to Jerry Evans on the 9th, and Wayne Corbitt (dad) on the 10th. We wish you many more. I turned the page on my calendar and had missed Gene Littleton on the 7th and Tina Davis Cummings on the 8th of Oct. Sorry about that!

Happy Anniversary to Guy and Margie Harrison on Oct. 28, to my son and daughter-in-law Jimmy and D’Lisa Vaught on Oct. 30. Wish you many more.

Great, grandson Radley Reid celebrated his 7th birthday (Oct. 26) on Sunday, Oct. 24 at Spartan Adventure Park in Fort Smith. His cake featured a “Fire-Breathing Dragon.” The kids love that place! I would too if I were a few years younger.

Only 66 days left in this year; can you believe it?

That’s all, today!