1910 Western Electric Magneto Wall Phone. Photo by Evelyn Edson.
The phone rang in the middle of the night. Miss Edith had just taken off her heavy leg braces, gone to bed, and fallen asleep. But she was “Central,” Scottsville’s telephone exchange, and Edith took her responsibilities seriously, so she made her painful way over to the switchboard. It was a man, clearly drunk and mumbling. “Who are you calling?” she asked. “I want to call Heaven,” he replied. “And who do you want to speak to?” “Jesus,” said the drunk. Edith replied firmly, “Luther Baber, if you don’t get off that phone, I’m going to give you Hell!” And she hung up on him. The caller got so mad that he threw his phone out in the middle of the road, an act he surely regretted the next morning.