Hello Central!

Rita Bowers, pictured with the
older, candlestick-style telephone

January 24th, 1976 was a turning point in the history of Long and Brier Islands. On this date, the Islands changed from using crank-style telephones to the more-modern style dial-phones. Prior to having phone numbers, people who wanted to make an outgoing call had to turn a crank manually on the side of their actual telephone. During the 1940s, telephones were being serviced by Wilfred Gidney; he ran a telephone service for the Digby Neck and Islands' areas.

There were two operators or “Central”, one was based in Freeport, and one was in Westport. These individuals would literally, “hook you up” with the person that you wanted to talk to. One of the past operators for Freeport, Elsie Young was the operator from 1940-1967. As an operator, in her experiences, she would have to direct calls, as well as make calls to doctors, ambulances and other personnel to come to the islands for emergencies. This was also a 24/7 job.

Found at Islands Museum
Tiverton, NS

During this time, what is known as “party lines” were used extensively. Essentially, a selected number of homes would share one phone line. During the earlier times of use, there were only four phones and they accommodated forty telephones. It slowly grew into 300 telephones, divided among 112 phones lines. To the left, a "crank-style" telephone is pictured. Donated by a local resident, this telelphone can be found at the Islands Museum, Tiverton, Nova Scotia.

Each home would have a specific ring tone (if you will); some examples are two short and one long rings, or three long rings--- This specialized tone would signify that the call was for you. What is interesting to note about party lines is that it was much easier to eavesdrop on people's conversations. 

In 1945, Maritime Telegraph & Telephone bought the local company and continued to provide service up and past the 1970s.