Keeping in Touch
Old Phones Remembered
by P.G. Meier
Lorena,I just read your new section on Ladatel calling cards in Mexico. It's very helpful. I've used these calling cards in Oaxaca to make local and in-country long-distance calls. They are really life savers. I too remember the nightmare of making long-distance calls.
In 1974 I was trying to make a call to Mexico City from Oaxaca. Every time I tried I was told the circuits were busy. My frustration hit its peak when I went into the small telephone office on the North side of the zocalo. The operator could not be distracted from the conversation she was having with a friend who was sitting next to her booth. I finally interrupted the conversation and asked if she could make a call for me. She looked at the switchboard and said "No sirve." She then dismissed me by turning to her friend and saying "¿Entonces?" I left dejected.
Since 1974, that side of the zocalo has gone through a number of remodelings. The space that was the telephone office is now a take-out pizza place. One night during Semana Santa in 1999 my wife and I sat down next to a woman who was sitting on a bench in the zocalo facing the pizza place. We fell into a conversation with the woman about Oaxaca. We talked about how much Oaxaca had changed.
She said "See that pizzeria? That used to be a telephone office. I was an operator there."
I looked at her and, sure enough, it was "¿Entonces?" albeit 25 years and 4 kids later. I told her that I remembered the phone office and that with Ladatel cards making calls was one of the good changes that had happened.
She said "You're right. I just sat there most of the time because the damn thing never was working." Asi es la vida . . .
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