Leon nearly blew it for me...

Danielle

Wildest person I ever met from Dallas

The telephone company went through a rough time in 1984. The federal government decided we were a monopoly and must be destroyed (technically, they said divided). It just seemed to me like destruction. So there was a process called Divestiture that took place on 1-1-84. The local phone company had to separate from the long distance part. It then became Bell South (for the local side) and AT&T (long distance). AT&T was always part of our phone company but no more. The plan was to open the door for competition in both sides, local and long distance. Thus destroying the monopoly giant that we had become.

In this whole process, our local company Bell South closed the office in Mobile and many of my friends moved away. At the same time they opened the long distance office, AT&T in the exact same office location. I opted to stay in my home town and transfer to AT&T. 

This choice brought about many new experiences. New people hired on, new policies were in place and a new world was before me. After about 2 years of this new job, we got word that our whole job function would be changing. We were going to become a center that handled long distance calling cards, billing and adjustments, and we would also be an error corrections center. A new computer system would be initiated and we were all going to be beginners again in many ways.

AT&T headquarters was and remains located in Parsippany, New Jersey, just a few miles from New York City. A decision was made that there was to be one person selected from each region to come to Parsippany to learn the new computer system, trouble shoot and write the methods and procedures for our new jobs with AT&T. 

My boss called me in and advised me that I was selected for our area. At first I told him I was not interested, but he insisted I was the one he needed to send. 

On May 2, 1986 I flew to Parsippany, New Jersey with great anticipation and much anxiety about what I was going to face. One week later my husband Leon drove to Parsippany to spend a week with me and help out as he called it. AT&T owned a huge upscale hotel to house visiting employees and executives. It looked like a castle and it had all of the aminities of a 5-star hotel. There was a magnificent gym, spa, sauna area that was Leon’s favorite place to spend time while I was at work. While I was working long hours, he was getting to know the staff and the hotel, making friends and lounging in the jacuzi. He would meet me at lunch on the days we actually broke for lunch.

I met the representatives of each region on the first day. We all gravitated to the people that we liked early on. I became friends with Elise from St Cloud, Minnesota, Gayle from Atlanta, and Joy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There was a lady who was in-charge of the whole process and her name was Danielle. Danielle was from the Dallas, Texas office. Danielle dressed in tight fitting clothes. She had an hourglass figure, large breasts and hips but a small waist. She walked with pride and great confidence. Her hair was thick, black and it hung down to her shoulder blades. She always wore earrings that were large and flashy.

We all liked Danielle that first day. She was energetic, loud, and excited about life. At first we thought, she was a dynamo, I was so glad they selected her to lead us. The first day when we went to lunch, Danielle began talking about men and sex in graphic detail. It was a mixed group of male and female employees and the detailed information she was speaking about was embarassing. She described the size of some guy's penis and the details of his erection and how very skilled he was at using it. I am no prude, but I found myself unable to look around at the guys at the table. I looked over at Elise who looked as though she was going to faint. I felt ok, I had heard it all and seen it all in the years of working at the phone company. I thought, this is no big deal. The penis talk from Danielle continued on every coffee break or lunch break.

On Wenesday night we all went to dinner at a really nice restaurant and Danielle talked a little about work but mostly sexual things. As I look back, it seems that she loved the shock factor, and I don’t think she really cared what anyone thought of her. That must be a freeing and stress-free way to live. I couldn't do that but good for her I thought to myself.

Unfortunately, Danielle was not good with computers; also she knew very little about the billing and adjustments process and I was frankly surprised that she was in the position she held. I knew that this was going to be an uphill battle to get the huge task we had before us completed in the timeframe we were given. We needed a knowledgeable leader.

On every break and at every free moment, Danielle talked of sex, sex, sex. She said the reason she does not shave her legs is that the guys she dates don’t like that. She said she once was in New Orleans with some girlfriends and they bumped into a batchelor party of some really hot looking guys. She ended up taking the groom-to-be back to her room for the night and it was the best night of her life. His name was Kingfisher, well at least that is what she told us. Anyway, I was intrigued but not shocked at all by her detailed story of that night. But her next words were quite surprising. Danielle said that Kingfisher was so well endowed and gorgeous, that she decided to take a picture of  his huge penis. She took the picture then had it made into an 8x10 picture and framed it. This picture holds a prominent place on her side table in her game room. She then laughed loudly and said that she still has to grab it and hide it away when a certain man friend comes over because he gets upset when he sees it.

That night when I got back to the hotel, I told Leon the story that Danielle had told us. He seemed amused as he listened to every detail.

Leon is the type of person that talks to anybody and everybody that will listen. I don’t even think he cares if they are listening to be honest. He did not understand that this hotel housed only AT&T personnel. So the next morning he was in the gym and he struck up a conversation with a lady when they were side-by-side on rowing machines. He told her that we were here from Mobile, Alabama and his wife was on a special project. During his long rantings about the project, he told her a few things. "There is a woman in charge who is from Dallas and don’t know what she is doing. My wife says she only talks of sex, so she is concerned about the project." This lady turned to him and asked, what is your wife’s name? He proudly told her my name. It turns out that he had been talking to Danielle but he had no idea this lady even worked for the telephone company at the time.

That day when I arrived at work, Danielle asked me to have a cup of coffee with her. I had no idea of Leon’s big mouth in the gym earlier. She then told me about her conversation with my husband in the gym. I was mortified! Leon told her everything I said the night before. He spoke of her very graphic sex talk, her lack of knowledge about the process. I could have just crawled in a hole at that point. 

I apologized and told her what she did in her private life was her business; I should never have told my husband about it all. I held my breath wondering if Danielle would send me home or something. That was a tense few minutes and I don't think I took a breath, until she began to speak. She said “Oh I don’t care about you telling him about my sex-capades, I want to know why you think I don’t know what I am doing?”

I was so nervous, but I knew I had to tell her the truth about why I was concerned. I said “when you spoke of billing and adjustments, I knew you were unaware of how the process works and why certain codes have to be used with each adjustment, so it was surprising to me.”  I said "I am sure you are smart and know what you are doing, I just had those thoughts about the billing and adjustments that I shared with my husband".

Danielle told me I was right, she had never done billing or adjustments and she was nervous about it all. I said “I have done them for years with the local telephone company, this system can’t be that much different. I will work with you if you think that would help.”

After that Danielle and I were fine. We got the job done and I continued to listen to her stories of sexual escapades. I think she is the only person I have ever known who is actually a nymphomaniac. She boasted of that fact and that is what seemed to make her happy. 

I say, different strokes for different folks, what ever brings you joy in this world ...it’s your life, so live it!  I will never forget Daneille and her escapades!

Ella, a hot-blooded woman

Ella

A hot-blooded woman

I worked for the telephone company for many years and in that time I met and came to know hundreds of people. There was basically the good, the bad and the ugly all working there. My primary job those first few years was in the Directory Assistance office. However, there was a period of time that I was bounced around into other departments so frequently I felt like a tennis ball.

It was during one of the times I was loaned to the long distance department that I met and came to know Ella. At first glance, Ella looked extremely reserved and modest. Also for the first few shifts that I worked with her, she acted just as she looked, very modest.

We started talking late one night when the calls slowed down and we had little to occupy our minds. She asked me if I had a boyfriend and I told her I was dating a guy named James and I really liked him a lot but he had some issues that I found to be roadblocks to any long time relationship. He wanted us to get more serious but I saw some red flags that had me concerned. Then I asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” This is when I learned not to ask any question unless you are prepared for the answer. I just was not prepared for her answer.

Ella said, “yes, I have many boyfriends!” At first I giggled because I thought she was acting silly. Then I looked over at her face and I realized she was serious. She added, “to be exact, right now I have 6 boyfriends, but they do not all know about each other.” At that point I was shocked but not nearly as shocked as I was about to be.

I still thought she was just joking, but she was not. Our conversation stopped for a few minutes as we each got customer calls and had to connect these people through to whoever they were calling. Once we slowed down, Ella began talking again. Somehow, I think she had come to trust me over the past few weeks and needed someone to talk to about her situation. Ella said, “First there is my oldest boyfriend, his name is Winston. I have been seeing him since I was 16 and we get along great!” “Winston is easy going and he really knows how to make love to a girl. He just wants a night or two here and there when I am willing and able to come by. Winston is the one who is wise enough to know that he probably is not the only one!” 

I sat there listening but looking straight at the switchboard because I was feeling so uneasy and oddly enough I was afraid I would laugh out of nervousness if I looked her way. I took a couple more calls and when those were completed, Ella continued with boyfriend number two. Jeff was number 2, he worked at a local hospital as a pulmonary therapist. He was muscular and macho. She had been seeing him for a couple of years. They went on dates and overnight trips from time to time. He was very passionate. Jeff was strong, virile and always ready to go. She said that if he was the marrying kind, she could possibly fall in love with him. He was not the marrying kind, so they both knew what their relationship was all about. The 3rd boyfriend, Charlie, actually worked at the telephone company with us. When she told me who it was I was totally shocked. They had been to bed 3 or 4 times and she said he was good but no comparison to Jeff.  Then she told me about a local businessman, Thomas, who was married and he was number 4. This guy was well known and he did his own ads on TV. She had been seeing him off and on for about 4 years. She wanted to break it off with him several times but he just would not let her go.

Then there was Curtis (#5) who worked for Liberty National Insurance and came to our workplace from time to time to offer discounted policies to us. She was still in the early stages with him and said she had held him off now as long as she could. So they had plans to consummate their relationship on Tuesday of this week. She said she gets all giddy and excited as she anticipates the first time with a new guy. So she was looking forward to Tuesday night, she would be off and she would be with Curtis.

Finally there was number 6, Cory and he was the best of them all. Cory was wild and crazy and would try anything. She said that is how she liked them. He loved all forms of loving and that made her very happy. She always looked forward to their nights together so much. She said, "Unlike the others, every time I am with Cory it is as good as the first time". She said “Cory holds the key to my heart!”

I was dumbfounded by then and actually had a headache. I said “Ella, why don’t you drop all of them except Cory?”  I added, "or how about Jeff, you seem to care about him too". 

I told her I did not see how she juggled six men. I said I would be miserable and a nervous wreck just thinking about it. I asked her what kind of guy was she looking for to marry. Did she ever want to find true love and get married or was she going to live her life with this balancing act forever. 

Ella laughed at me. She felt that I did not understand life at all. She seemed to pity me actually. When she finished responding to my questions, I felt naive, silly and uninformed. 

She was only about five years older than me. She was very attractive but she always dressed very basic and modest. You could still see her beautiful figure but you would never have guessed that she was so hot blooded to look at her.

I was blown away by her words that night and even today I do not know how she lived her life. But it was the life she really wanted. Seems like to me she would be confused and exhausted all of the time. She said it was a life of excitement, nice gifts, wonderful days and nights. She said it feels so good when you have that many guys who want you every single day and night. It was her life and hers to live as she chose. But the rest of the days I worked with her on the switchboard, all I could think of was her 6 guys and her life. It turns out Ella never married and never had any children.

Ella passed away about two years ago, she was one month away from her 70th birthday. I saw her obituary and went to the wake. As I stood there at the funeral home I looked at every man there and wondered if he was a relative or a lover. 

Anna, good person, was fired

Anna

Kind, Good Person, Was Fired!

Anna was a great employee at the telephone company. She was eager to learn and very bright. Anna was happy to have a decent job with benefits and she was determined to do her best to keep this job for many years.

When I first met Anna she was walking into my classroom and I liked her. I could sense there was something special about her. She carried herself differently and she had a determination that I could feel as she walked up and introduced herself to me and to others in the room. 

By lunchtime I had a sense of everyone in the class. There were 12 new hires and most were keepers. I had doubts about a couple of them as they struggled with some basic information that was provided. Anna was one of the brightest in the class and I knew she would be with us for a long time. 

As an instructor or facilitator, it makes the job so much easier when you have people like Anna in class.

It didn’t take but a few days for me to realize that Anna was homosexual. She did not do anything that was inappropriate or sexual in nature. It just seems to me that I have a keen sense for detecting those things. The little things that a person does tells so much about them. The fact that Anna was homosexual had no bearing on anything for me. She was kind, smart and a great person who was eager to learn and do the job she was  hired to do. In the back of my mind I was aware of the policy concerning homosexuals but I had never been instructed to face that issue or to report it, so for that I was thankful. 

I had known of 2 others over the years that had been terminated solely on the basis of their sexual orientation. I guess we had our own unspoken “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy long before the military adopted it. Everyone has their beliefs and opinions about these things but I feel unless a person is acting inappropriately it is not my business or concern. Who am I to judge someone who is just living their life and being who they were born to be? 

In those days people were a lot less tolerant of differences and they were a lot more judgmental about differences. That was not the “good ole days” to me. People still used the “n” word regularly in my presence and of course they used the “q” word too.  In those days homosexual people were called “queer”. The word gay was not  used until many years later. All of that changed while I was working my 31 years at the phone company, but I was there when people were fired because they were “queer” and no black people were employed (except janitorial or cafeteria help). That was how it was for my first few years I was there. 

Anna made a couple of friends and went through her days at work with no problems. She did not make waves and kept her opinions to herself for the most part. I saw her a couple of times when people were telling jokes about “queers” and even though she did a good job of disguising it, she looked hurt or afraid to me.

As I write the story of this young lady named Anna who worked with me over forty years ago, my heart goes out to her and what she was going through. One of my co-workers who was closer to Anna told me of her life. Her parents, upon learning that their daughter was gay had taken her to church and had the entire congregation pray for her to be fixed. It was humiliating for Anna and she could no longer bear to attend church. By this time she had her own apartment and had little contact with her disappointed family.

I thought how very alone she must have felt. How very difficult it had to be for her as she had to walk in someone else’s shoes and pretend she was heterosexual. I remember thinking how fortunate I was that I was “normal” as my mother called it.

A couple of years passed and Anna won a couple of awards for exceeding all of the benchmarks and for perfect attendance. She was proud and I was happy to see her receive the recognition.

Then the day came when it all came tumbling down. A person named Stephanie that Anna had befriended, told one of the supervisors that Anna was gay. 

I remember the meeting and the discussion about her. It broke my heart to hear the words that were used. Bottom line is that it did not matter about her excellence on the job or her sweet disposition. It did not matter that she never complained and always did the job she was paid to do. All that mattered was the fact that Anna was homosexual.

She was fired. I felt so sad that day. I was sad for Anna because she did not deserve this and I was sad because she really needed this job to survive. I was even sad for those who terminated her because I felt they were ignorant and had no compassion for this young lady.

As the years passed by and policies such as this one were deemed to be illegal and oppressive, I was so thankful.  I wonder all of these years later as I remember Anna, is she ok?