When the telephone was invented, the telegraph operators found they were out of work. The whole process started slowly, a few telegraph operators at a time laid off over the first couple weeks. The majority of them all gone, the last few were the longest there.
And then, there was one.
His name was Gerald, and operating a telegraph was all he had ever known. His first instinct was to go to the boss, tell him there was some mistake. They couldn’t just let him go. He lived and breathed working the telegraph. It simply couldn’t be true that the telegraph was coming to an end.
His boss told him it was true.
“Go on, Gerald!” He said, in the middle of clearing out his office too. “You’re young, you’ll bounce back at the drop of a hat.” Gerald didn’t want to believe it. “Go on, take some time, see the world, experience the world that exists outside of the telegraph and find yourself.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start, sir,” Gerald answered. “This job is all I’ve ever known. I’m not sure I would want to learn how to use those fancy telephonics.”
His boss understood. “There’s so much more to this world than working. And there will be more changes besides the telephone coming our way soon enough. Just go, just live and you’ll find your way.”
Gerald, the last telegraph operator, bought a train ticket and never looked back. He rode the train all the way out west, and back east again. He saw all the sights he could, picked up work when and where he needed it. He learned all he could and met as many people as he could. He experienced life, and then when it was finally time to settle down, he sat in front of a computer to tell his story.
