— go back to the guide
When I was a small boy, telephones were quite rare in Britain. Though they spread rapidly, for a long time you had to go through an operator at your local exchange for any calls outside the local area. She would plug in the connection and sometimes know the callers personally (I say ‘she’ because then all operators were female, perhaps because the transmission quality of talk over the fixed lines was poor, but tended to be clearer for speakers with voices in a higher frequency range). At that time it was almost inconceivable for ordinary folk to make an international call. That was complicated, and extremely expensive.
Later on, as a university student, I wanted to get a vacation job. This was not essential, since my father willingly paid me his part of an adequate means-tested allowance during my studies, but it did give me an opportunity for wider experience, as well as a welcome boost to my living expenses.