I was rather fortunate - in one of the cities I grew up in, one of the WU operators in Lawrence (MA) during WW2 joined our local club in the late 1970s and she was one hell of a CW operator..... Not too long after that, I took a California vacation, and wound up meeting the WU (Western Union) op from WW2 in my CURRENT hometown (Haverhill) … living in Watsonville, CA. I am assuming both are silent keys now - the latter was never a ham but given her service, we can and should consider her a SK in our tradition.
Her award showed Her being at Post Falls Idaho, I live about 10 minutes from there, It would be fantastic to be able to sit down with her and have a chat. She and others like her are an inspiration to us all, they not only increased the productivity here in the U.S. and Canada and elsewhere by sending and receiving messages in a matter of minutes rather days and weeks. This meant an order for steel, Wood, electrical wire, Store goods and such did not need to wait for a letter to be mailed and another letter sent back to confirm orders. They laid the ground work for the communications we have and enjoy today.
Well, as an OLD ham, I have this story to add. My Grandfather as a addict on railroad anything as I was a toddler. He had the Lionel trains, track, etc. We would set them up on the living room rug with everything in a loop. That is side tracks, switches, water tenders all of that. Do you think he would let me play? OH, NO. He had the hand key, the sounder everything set up. Then he made me learn the Morse code. He would send me a message to open switch 3 and let the train go through, and so on. I was 7. What a wake up when I joined the BS and told them they were sending the wrong characters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Long live MORSE. Mel, K6KBE
I had an aunt who died last year at age 91. As a teenager during WWII she worked in the train depot. She learned morse by listening to the operators and was able to start setting up train orders before the ops finished copying and handed her the sheet!
