Thursday, August 10, 1876. First long distance telephone call. Crook and Terry combine.

Alexander Graham Bell placed a telephone call between two Ontario towns, fourteen miles distant.  It was the first long distance telephone call.

Long distance telephone calls were a big deal when I was growing up, and indeed were expensive and frankly a big deal. People waited for certain times of the day or night to make them, when the price was reduced.  I'm guessing in an average year we had or placed maybe one or two long distance calls.

I dimly recalled that still being the case when I was first practicing law, and it was.  Indeed, I recall we had to be careful about how we logged the time to recapture the cost.  The revenue from long distance calls peaked in 2000, but cell phones made inroads shortly thereafter and by 2004 most long distance pricing had ended and it continued to decline throughout that decade.

Crook and Terry joined forces at the Rosebud.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 8, 1876. A long ride by Captain Jack. Terry resumes the march.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, Alfred Terry, cavalry, Ft. Laramie Wyoming, George Crook, Great Sioux War, Montana, Personalities, Sioux, Wyoming, Wyoming (Ft. Laramie)

Not noticing the familiar until its unfamiliar.

The west side of Natrona County High School is an area I didn't go to much when I was in high school.  I walked to school for one thing, so I didn't have cause to park over there.  And that area, surrounded by a bunch of very old small houses, was regarded as a bit rough for some reason.  Indeed, when I was a senior there was a riot on this part of the school, although I was there at the time.

Given all of that, I've never really taken note of the neighborhood to any great detail.  But now it's been torn down, as NCHS is gigantically expanding onto the neighboring blocks.  Over the next couple of years, it'll become a much bigger high school.

Now, because of my route to work, I drive through this area ever day.  And as it comes down, probably about a century after it first went up, I've actually taken note of its appearance for the first time, and what hte small houses all look like.