the bell beneath

Lost beside a phone pole is an old Bell System marker for a buried line.



(Click images for closer views.)

ads from '52

An old print ad for Peebles.



Geo. Delk is no stranger either.



If memory serves, Bett's later became a Southern department store (which later became a Peebles).



One can find a Smithfield Farmers sticker here.



The face of the independent phone company back then.



I recall a very cool old neon sign at the Virginia Kernel. So far this ad's all I've found of the now long gone establishment.

All the above are more hasty photos, these being of ads in a program for Surry County's tricentennial celebrated in October 1952.

this Bicentennial Minute is brought to you by

Another ad from the July 4, 1976 Richmond Times-Dispatch:



Though the above image can be clicked for a closer look, I rather liked the logo (and vaguely remember it from phone books gone by):




And here's a clickable & somewhat less blurry look at the Virginia Independent Telephone Association members as of 1976:



Actually, from what I can tell these nearly 32 years later, close to half of these independent phone companies still exist on the membership roll.

But the "IT" in VITA has since switched to "TI" as in the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association (VTIA). And joining the locals are big dogs like Cox, Comcast, Sprint and Verizon.

Such changes notwithstanding, the existence of these small independents is of interest . . .