1949 Outer Banks Telephone Book

An old 1949 telephone book tells us a lot about the Outer Banks of 60 years ago.  Our local telephone office was located in Manteo, NC and staffed with two operators, Mrs. Ozella Payne and Mrs. (Anna) Belle Midgett. The latter was my mother.

In 1949, Annabelle McDonald was a beautiful, blonde, "Georgia Peach" who met and captured the heart of an Outer Banks coast guardsman named Seldon Midgett when he was among the first crew stationed at the new St. Simons Island Coast Guard Station, St. Simons Island, Georgia. Annabelle worked in that island's telephone office, so it was natural, that when she and Seldon married and returned to the Outer Banks in 1945 that she would become a Manteo telephone operator.

Even though my Mom worked for the the telephone office, her employer always misspelled our last name in the phone directory. And she was never called "Belle", but "Annabelle".

 During that time, as today, the Outer Banks had two sets of Midgett(e)s.  You were either a Midgett or a Midgette.  And, we were Midgetts, despite what the phone company thought.  In those days, Midgetts believed that Midgettes were either too prissy or too wealthy, and we refused to acknowledge kinship, despite the fact we were all related somewhere down the line.

No one ever forgets their first phone number and I will always remember mine.  It was 93-J and we shared a party line with Ab Wescott (Manteo Furniture Company) and family at 93-W.

Rest assured that with one's Mom on the other end of a 1949 telephone company switchboard, this kid had to watch what he said on the telephone. Even though a few folks had telephones on the Outer Banks in 1949, it would not be until 1965 that my wife's family, who lived on Poor Ridge Road in Kitty Hawk (Village), NC would get their first phone line.  My, how times have changed.

Here are all five pages of the 1949 Manteo area telephone book.  See how many people you remember.

   =========================================================================