Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
So true!

People don't appreciate how far high tech has advanced.
This is a pic of my great grandpa Peter Bellert's harness shop around 1912 or so. That's him at the workbench. Pete ran the town phone exchange out of our house, the switchboard was in the living room (through the door on the back wall). The phone booth was used by people who didn't yet have phone service in their homes, if they needed to place a call they came to Pete's shop. The operator (my great aunt Kate) put the calls through and the folks paid Pete for each call. No direct dial back then - heck, not even a dial! :d
