By Uvil Zajmi
Memorie.al / “Eni me Elbasanin, kabina 7”; “Eni me Elbasanin kabina 7”; “Daku me Lushnjën të mos presë, personi nuk është paraqitur”; “Daku me Lushnjën të mos presë, personi nuk është paraqitur…”! Do you remember this voice, this call, this announcement? A nostalgic return to how telephone communication was carried out in Albania before the 1990s? How did that mechanism function in a country where telephone conversations of the population were conducted in public spaces, at post offices, since private numbers were limited and those were reserved only for important departments and officials, less so for artists, professors, and some doctors? Although decades have passed, and that waiting, that call, that announcement, is no longer heard, no longer exists, when everyone, an entire people at every corner, cities, villages, ran to the post office or PTT offices, as they were known throughout the country. From conversations in wooden booths, the famous three minutes, to the interest of fans in the results of football matches. Then line 12, line 13, and the “dedicated” one.
TIRANA OF PTTs, EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD AND OUTSKIRT HAD ONE
It has been and remains the city with the most post offices, PTTs, as they were known, especially in the post-war period, where every neighborhood, every residential center had its own post office, which served to carry out operations, not only telephone conversations, but also other functions. During the period of the Kingdom, in the center of the Prefecture of Tirana, there was the Post-Telegraph and Telephone Office with special acting clerks.
Moreover, for that time we are informed that as a fast means of correspondence in Tirana, “there is also a Radio-Telegraphic station, installed quite well after Albanian independence, in which Albanian clerks work with precious skill and ensure Radio Telegraphic correspondence with Italy, Yugoslavia, and with every other station of the outside world. The Radio Telegraphic station is located in a new building at the entrance of the city,” we are informed from the documents of the time. At one time the Central Post Office was at “Avni Rustemi” Square, the main building that still stands today.
Then, at the Bar – “Sahati,” in the center, next to the great clock of the capital, to finally move to where it is today. “The Post Palace,” as it was known when it was established there, while the central directorate was on the side, a building that has not changed, has remained as such, but with a different function today. In Tirana, every neighborhood had its own post office, of the PTT, and such a one was necessarily on the ground floor. Usually small spaces, with one or two counters, as many booths, where you could talk.
As well as the postman, who was among the most well-known people of the neighborhood? PTT had offices at the United School, “Selvija,” “Avni Rustemi” Square, opposite “Zëri i Popullit,” “21 Dhjetori,” “Xhamlliku,” “Zogu i Zi,” at “Qyteti i Nxënësve,” “Ali Demi,” “Rruga e Elbasanit,” Sauk, “Tirana e Re,” on the side of the former “Dinamo” stadium. Then in Laparakë, Kombinat, Kamzë, Kinostudio, Qyteti Studenti. Some of them are still there today.
WORK WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, EVEN WITH MORSE CODE
The PTT was together a directorate, Post-Telecom, but divided in functions, into postal and telephone services. On the right, in the long corridor were the Post counters, mainly for postal operations, including telegrams, sending, receiving packages, magazines, newspaper subscriptions, everything of this nature. Even for transfers of financial sums. On the left side, where the conversation booths were, were the counters where telephone operations were carried out, that is, call announcements and telegrams. Communication was done by teletex.
If the national connection was interrupted for one reason or another, bad weather, storm, snow, etc., for sending a telephone call, telegram, or any other type of notification, Morse code was also applied. In urgent cases, when the line of a city did not work, the notification was sent to the nearest city, which sent and transmitted it to the city whose line did not work. At the post office work was done in three shifts, while at the counters in waiting-receiving of the people only with two.
FROM BOOTH 12, THE LINE WITH THAT NUMBER 13, TO THE “DEDICATED” ONE
“Line 12,” that was what the one that functioned only with international lines was called. Moreover, the booth also had this number, 12, from where you could talk, communicate with abroad. At the post office a central was installed, which functioned with a prefix through Belgrade, according to an agreement made between the two countries that guaranteed communication with Italy, France, etc., everywhere in the whole world. Conversations were of the most varied kinds, such as those between family members, those with their sick in hospitals abroad, etc., etc.
Anyone who entered that booth was monitored beforehand and the conversation was controlled. Even in this case, you made the call announcement beforehand, or in the other case, you gave the number and talked. “Line 13” was the national one, which ensured communication within the country. Communication was carried out through a central of Czech production, “decadic” it was called, it was known. The peculiarity of this central was that conversations could not be controlled.
The third line was the “dedicated” one. Unlike line 12, this line was not for the population, but for special cases, and that connected directly with state officials, such as directors, first secretaries, etc., that is, with people and leaders of this level. You asked to speak with one of them and this line created the possibility, and reserved there were two booths. Everything until 1990, afterwards these lines were closed, no longer functioned.
ALBANIA OF FEW TELEPHONE NUMBERS, THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PREFIX
Numbers in Albania were four digits, since the “decadic” central was not automatic and did not hold many numbers. Until 1980, it functioned this way, 10,000 numbers that was the capacity of the central. Then the automatic one with 5 digits was put in and the figure rose to 20,000 numbers. The prefix was introduced, if I am not mistaken, in the mid-1980s, then the lines began to become automatic. The French central came, a modern machine, together with it the prefix 00355 was established, which became known throughout the world accompanied by the creation of two telegraphic and telephone lines. Only in the outskirts areas it continued with the rural central, the one with plugs.
THE EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTHERN ALBANIA, WHICH MOBILIZED EVEN THE POSTAL SERVICE
It is about the earthquake of 1975, which struck the city of Saranda, the villages around it. Poles, lines were damaged, nothing functioned, the connection was interrupted, the concern was frightening, but such was also the reaction, accompanied by an engagement from the entire state, including the directorate, the postal service of Tirana. “Toward Saranda, from the capital technicians, engineers of the central post were urgently sent.
For 3-4 hours telegrams had to be sent to the cities Fier – Vlora – toward Saranda every day, at 04 in the morning the vehicle left from Tirana and at 8 it was there. This situation continued for more than a month, the newspaper cars went and came, brought also the call announcements, telegrams, everything that had to do with the postal service,” recalls Ferid Greva, one of the veteran employees, from 1970 at the Central Post Office.
AT THE CENTRAL POST OFFICE ALSO FOR MATCH RESULTS
A detail, a bit special, as football fans recall, when for them the central post office of Tirana had turned into an information point for the results, the conclusions of matches. This, in the 1970s-1980s, when football meetings were not transmitted on radio, nor television and their conclusions were not given even at the stadium. A lack of information, for the fans who did not know the result of the matches of their teams.
The only possibility of information was the central post office of Tirana, in the square, at its main entrance they gathered and asked a family member that when he spoke with his people in the city where the game was held, to ask them also about its conclusion. Such a thing was asked also of …the employees who served the citizens, who stood waiting at the entrance of the post office.
AT WORK EVEN ON NEW YEAR’S NIGHT
On the eve of this holiday, the intensity, the flow at the Central Post Office was great with the entry-exit of citizens. The employees were loaded with work, from morning to evening in every sector of it. From that of sending postcards, packages, telegrams, to call announcements and telephone conversations. Everything without interruption, even on New Year’s night, the post office remained open, where the telegram counter functioned, some telephone call, only there service was provided, certainly for urgent cases, for births, separation from life, etc./ Memorie.al
