My sister just called and needed the phone number and address of the LDS temple in Newport Beach. As I was giving the info to her in my best and most clear phone voice, it brought back memories of the thousands and thousands of such calls I used to answer with, "BYU Operator." Good times were those.
We had a direct link to the COB, also known to you outsiders as the Church Office Buildings. That made me feel special. We connected long distance and international calls for all sorts of big wigs on campus, at the MTC, and at the COB while they were traveling. We told freshman how to get stains out of their clothes. We assured children from California that just because it was snowing, we were not closing campus. We told bored boys who asked silly questions how many stairs there were in the Marriott Center, how tall the SWKT was, and about the underground tunnels. We connected grumpy and rude football recruiters to their wives while they were traveling. And we did it all with smiles in our voices.
We answered calls almost 24 hours a day, every day of the week.I think most people didn't know we were there on Sundays, but we were! I really loved that job. It was a really small group of folks and so we all got to know each other well. Plus, we were in a hidden location so we spent all of our breaks together as well. Working in a secret location was kinda cool. We got police escorts off campus if we worked one of the late shifts, because there were some odd BYU operator stalker people.
It was a good two years. (Sing it with me, "The best two years, the best two years." hee hee)
My aunt is the BYU phone operator supervisor. I don't know when she started there, but you may have worked with her. Too funny!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you did that...was that after I left? Cool job!!...man, I miss those BYU years...some of the best years/memories of my life!!!
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