So we climbed in and I saw there was a booth in the corner. I dropped a nickel into the ’phone and held the receiver to my ear and waited and waited and waited and waited. Gee, I waited about as long as three whole chapters would be.
Then I heard a girl’s voice. It said, “Hello, hello.”
I said, “I want three, two, one, Bridgeboro, New Jersey, and please hurry up, because my sister’s having a party.”
I guess the wire was crossed, the girl was awful excited, and every time I said hello, she’d say, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”
I guess she was so rattled, she didn’t know who she was talking to.
By this time I was getting kind of sore at the operator, because I wanted to get my sister the minute of ten o’clock, and she was sort of spoiling my plan. I had just three more minutes to get her, because Westy lighted a match and looked at his watch. Then I said, “Hello, hello.”
The same voice kept saying, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”
I said, “No, it isn’t. How long does it take to get the operator in this berg?”
The poor girl was almost crying by now. She said, “I’ve been trying for an age to get my father. Won’t you please let me get him? I want my father! Why don’t they give me my father?”
Gee whiz, you’d think I had her father in my pocket. I said, “I’m trying to get my sister, too. If you happen to see her, tell her, will you?”