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'Voice of Reporter-News' is hanging it up at
year's end
By Bill Whitake
The face of Ma Bell has changed many times during the past
three decades, but through it all the "Voice of the Abilene
Reporter-News" has remained the same.
Now, at age 71, longtime switchboard operator Millie Ates is
putting down the phone and picking up other daily passions.
The change is sure to change the dynamics of those who deal
regularly with the Reporter-News, whether it's the caller whose
paper hasn't arrived yet or some harried publicity hack from the
governor's office trying to garner good press.
Millie says she'll miss them, too - at least, most of them.
"I've loved it," Millie said after more than 27 years
manning the paper's switchboard. "I've really enjoyed it
and I've enjoyed the people, including those here at the Reporter-News.
We've had a lot of good ones come and go." Polite to a fault
though occasionally direct and to the point when confronted by
rudeness, whether on the part of the paper's staffers or the public,
Millie steps down this week to a life of sewing, gardening and
volunteer work.
"But mostly I'm going to do what I please when I please."
WALKING THE DOG
A native of the small Texas town of Whitewright, near Sherman,
Millie first began work on the switchboard during her senior year
of high school, when she would work half a day substituting for
her aunt, who worked for the local phone company.
"I guess that's when the bug bit."
She continued switchboard work beyond school, including after
she married Lee Ates and followed him during his career in the
Air Force. Occasionally she worked switchboard duties at military
outposts to fill in for others.
But when Lee retired from the Air Force to Abilene in 1970,
Millie decided on a job in town: "I wanted some money of
my own - spending money - and, of course, with Lee around the
house more often, getting a job made even more sense!"
Although the newspaper business and telephone technology have
changed greatly during her years here, Millie says most callers
to the newspaper are unfailingly polite. Many continue to appreciate
interaction with a live person, as opposed to the rising tide
of phone automation.
"The majority of callers are great," she said. "Now,
there are a few who can upset your whole day. I'd say the biggest
gripe is not getting their paper. I take my dog for a walk every
morning, at about 6, and when I return home and see my paper isn't
there, I dread coming to work!"
DUSK TO DAWN?
Some of the most bizarre calls come from what Millie imagines
are aging subscribers who fall asleep in the afternoon, wake up
at 8 in the evening on those long, lazy summer days, and automatically
assume it's morning - and so wonder where their morning paper
is.
"Ginny Daughtrey, who has worked for many years here and
is a wonderful switchboard operator, had one woman who'd call
almost regularly at 8 p.m. She'd think it was 8 in the morning
and she'd begin looking for her paper."
Some confusion arose, too, when the Reporter-News' handy-dandy
800-number matched the local number for an out-of-state TV station,
to the point Millie began fielding calls from people wanting to
know what was going to be on the boob tube that night.
"Initially, I told them I didn't know, why didn't they
call a TV station!"
Ginny Daughtrey, who worked on the Reporter-News switchboard
for almost a decade and now works in the newspaper's morgue, says
Millie astounded those who worked the board the hours when she
was off. Her enduring way with people influenced them greatly.
"She's very good at that job," Ginny said. "Her
patience with people after so many years of dealing with them
is amazing. She was always helpful to the people calling, no matter
how they acted.
"I'd look at her sometimes and think, 'How can she do
that for this many years and not scream?'"
Millie praises current phone technology, including the paper's
voice-mail system, "as long as our people who get called
will call back!" Even so, she admits missing the near-ancient,
plug-in switchboard she operated when she first came here.
"I guess that's why we called the old-fashioned, plug-in
switchboard 'Old Reliable,'<t>" Millie said. "It
might have been terribly slow but it was reliable."
Millie Ates wasn't at all slow at her profession, but beyond
that, she might very well rate the same nickname herself.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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