O'Gorman, Betty

DESCRIPTION

NameO'Gorman, BettyOccupationTelephone OperatorBiographyBetty Lyon was born on the 6th January 1926 at her Aunty May Raftery’s little old house, opposite the bowling club on Flinders Street, (Tongarra Road).

At the age of 14 and a half, Betty was taught to become a telephone operator at the Albion Park Post Office. Thelma Knight (O’Gorman) who taught her became Betty’s sister-in-law many years later.

Jack Reynolds was Postmaster. His wife was Postal Assistant and supervised Betty’s training. She was a hard taskmistress.

After a short time, Betty was working three days a fortnight, earning 19 shillings and sixpence. She thought she was made! Very soon, Betty was made full time on three different shifts with the earliest start at 7am and the latest shift finishing at 10pm.

All calls from the small Post Offices like Tongarra, Yellow Rock, Marshall Mount, Albion Park Rail and Oak Flats came through to Albion Park Post Office telephone operators. Their trunk line calls went through Wollongong exchange, which sometimes caused long delays and a few impatient subscribers.

In those days the Post Office was closed for lunch between 1pm and 2pm, and then the mail was given out to anyone who happened to breeze in. Betty also had a lot of paperwork to do; much of which was the Postmaster’s work.

The office closed at 6pm and Betty helped the Postal Assistant sort the mail and again give it out. If and when she worked on Saturday afternoon, she made up a mail, which was then taken to the train by the mail contractor.

On occasion, Betty would work till 11.30pm on a Saturday night, so the Postmaster could take his family to the pictures at Dapto. Sometimes he asked the employees to come to work at 6am on Sunday mornings to allow him to go fishing. As Sunday morning was a quiet morning he would ask them to clean the office, polish the counters and brass, and even clean out the fireplace in which coal was burnt.

When the aerodrome was being built the Postmaster opened an office, one night a fortnight, so the workers could send their money home to their families. Quite a lot of the workers lived out of NSW and this meant the next morning all the money telegrams were sent, as well as taking the usual telegrams and phonograms, sending them, and doing the daily bookwork.

Betty spent 8 years as a ‘hello’ girl’, made good friends and met some lovely people.

In 1949 she left the post office to marry and came back a couple of times to relieve the girls for holidays.

Betty then became a wife, and mother to four sons, and to the numerous array of animals that they collected.

Contributed by Betty O’Gorman 2006.

External LinkAlbion Park NewsWedding O'Gorman-LyonsSocial at Albion Park

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Betty O'Gorman, c.2000.

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CollectionPeopleFamilyO'GormanLyonsLocalityAlbion ParkPersonO'Gorman, AustinPlaceAlbion Park Post Office

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O'Gorman, Betty