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(As told to an OASIS reporter)

IT’S BEEN GONE for almost20 years now, but I don’t mindtelling anyone that I think theflexoline system was an excellentway to keep a record of thenames and numbers of those re-ceiving social security cards.

What was flexoline?Actually, it was called the Na-

tional Employee Index FlexolineFile and was set up in 1937. Eachrecord was printed on a sepa-rate, paper-covered woodenstrip three-sixteenths of an inchwide and 9 inches long. Thestrip was almost as thin as thecover on a paperback.

Each little “stick” usually con-tained six separate items. Thefirst entry was 3 numerals whichhad to do with the Russell Soun-dex System (a system where allsurnames having the same basicconsonants are grouped to -gether). Next came the individu-al’s surname, given name, mid-dle initial, and social securitynumber.

By 1958, there were 160 mil-lion of these strips in existence,and an average of 7 million newstrips were being added eachyear as more people received so-cial security cards. Over theyears, t h e s t r i p s h a d b e e ninser ted-one by one and intheir proper sequence with re-spect to the strips already inf i l e - i n d o u b l e - f a c e d s t e e l

panels. The panels were hung inspecial racks (or stands), andeach page of strips appearedmuch as the pages of a largebook. I believe we had 750 steel,A-frame stands.

Except for a brief period onthe day shift, I worked with theflexoline files in the CandlerBuilding on the night shift from1946 until they were destroyedin 1959. There were eight unitso n t h e n i g h t s h i f t , a n d w eworked well together.

Our supervisor would bring ingreat rolls of strips and rip offabout 100 or so at a time foreach c le rk to f i l e . (Anothersection-Establishment-receivedthe applications for social secu-rity numbers from the field of-fices, keyed in the information,and ran it off on strips.) Each ofus was responsible for postingrecords in a certain alphabeticalportion of the file. Of course, weall used the entire file when wehad to search for something. Forinstance, when a person who losthis card and couldn’t recall hisnumber would come into a dis-trict office to get a duplicate,we’d be asked to come up withhis number.

The flexoline files were lo-cated behind a screen fence thatwas about 7 or 8 feet high, andt h e a r e a w a s o f f l i m i t s t oeveryone else. That was to en-

MARCH 1978 29

sure that the records were keptconfidential. There was a lot ofgood-natured “razzing” from the“other side” and sometimespeanuts would be tossed over thefence to let us know that we wereconsidered the peanut gallery.We didn’t mind because it was allin fun, and it did a lot to relievethe tension when workloads wereheavy.

Filing strips of wood may nothave been the most exciting jobin the world, but it had to bedone.

It was amazing how somepeople would help the newer orslower employees speed up thefiling so that the job got done.Some of those people constantlybroke speed records, filing asmany as 300 “sticks” an hour.There was a good deal of compe-tition among the units becauset h e o n e t h a t g o t t h e b e s tstatistics-most strips filed, leasterrors, and so forth-receivedthe weekly award for best unit.

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The employees on the nightshift were a great bunch ofpeople. They seemed glad tohave a job and strived to do itwell. I certainly don’t want tostep on anyone’s toes, but em-p l o y e e s o n t h e d a y shift-although nice-seemed more se-date and perhaps a bit clannish.

Although we worked hardduring our shift, we liked tosocialize after work. On Fridaynights after work, many of uswould go just a few blocks awayto the “Little Italy” section ofBaltimore and have dinner to-gether. T h e r e w e r e a l w a y sdances and parties going on atthe Dug Out nightclub at Falls-way and Front Streets, or at theEmerson Hotel, and people onthe night shift often got togetherat these affairs.

I spent some of my best work-ing years assigned to flexoline. Iguess we all knew that the Na-tional Employee Index was goingto have to be changed eventually.It was just getting too big. Therewere rumors that the flexolinefiles would be done away withlong before their end actually

came. We had made much prog-ress in the field of electronicbookkeeping, and they were talk-ing about this big complex to bebuilt out in the suburbs to houseSocial Security. Apparently,there wouldn’t be enough roomfor flexoline.

In early 1958, we got theword . The ent i re EmployeeIndex would be converted to mi-crofilm and would be updatedperiodically by means of elec-tronic data processing equip-ment. The conversion began inAugust, and by spring 1959,some 1.3 million panels of stripshad been microfilmed.

We moved out to Woodlawnwhen the new building wasready. After a year or so, I hadt h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o m o v edowntown again, but I chose toaccept a promotion instead andhave been at Woodlawn eversince.

As I said earlier, I guess we allknew it was to be. But somehow,I never really thought they’dtake the sticks off the rack. 0

In the October issue of the OASISthere was an article entitled “Tips onDealing with the Deaf, Blind.” Thearticle was a good one for the mostpart, and I, as a blind SR, was espe-cially interested to read that someone(congratulations to Dennis Fisher) iswri t ing about the relat ionship be-tween employees who are and who arenot handicapped.

G E O R G E S T A R U C H , A c c o u n t s In the section of the article regard-and Claims Investigations Clerk, i n g N o r m a n D u b n e r , t h e “ e l d e rBDP . . . began working at SSA statesman of blind employees,” I wasin 1946 as a clerk in BDP . . . also rather shocked to find some of whatoperated teletype equipment he said reprinted in the magazine.linking headquarters with field May I address myself to Mr. Dubner?installations and with the Rail- Yes, Mr. Dubner, I, too, attempt tor o a d R e t i r e m e n t B o a r d i n deal with the anxiet ies of s ightedChicago . . . holds degrees in people humorously, and try to putbusiness law and business admin- these people at ease. What disturbsistration from the University of me about your comment is that youBaltimore . . . hobbies include say “I didn’t have all the mannerismsparticipation in al l types of other bl ind people do.” Who aresports-particularly bowling, “other bl ind people?” Aren’t youbasketball, and softball. Played generalizing, and aren’t you guilty ofsoftball with SSA’s American t he s ame e r ro r we so dep lo re i nLegion Post team at the time sighted people, or in any group ofthey won the State title . . . also people, when they generalize aboutenjoys dancing. another group? This strikes me a bit

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At this point, the entire audiencestarted to hoot and holler and showerme with pennies, shouting “UncleSam needs these more than we do.”When the demonstration subsided, Ic o m p l e t e d m y t a l k , t h e c r o w dapplauded good naturedly, the pen-nies were retrieved and deposited inthe Club’s kitty, and I was led downto the refreshments for my fill of icecream and cake.

-EDWIN FAULHABERAsst. Regional Rep (Ret.)

New York

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Editor:

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