S E R V I N G T H I S A R E A S I N C E 1 9 0 0

465 Delaware Avenue • Palmerton, PA 18071 • www.ptelco.com

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Customer Service: 610-826-6650Business Office: 610-826-2115

Repair Service: 610-826-3444Gilbert Office: 610-826-9321

CONNECTIONMAY 2020

CUSTOMER

Full Speed Ahead: It’s Almost Time for the 2020 Palmerton Telephone Directory…Would you like to see 20/20 into the near future? You can…with a sneak peek of this year’s telephone directory. Our new telephone directories will be distributed in the next few weeks. In fact, we think the book is so important that our employees personally deliver to some of our larger business customers. Our front cover features an autumn view of the mountain from Eighth Street in Palmerton. Be assured that we work right until the last minute to be certain the listings are as up-to-date as possible. The directory also serves as a wealth of information for more than just telephone numbers, including details about our optional services, a list of our local calling areas (where you can call without a toll charge), zip codes, details about your rights and responsibilities as a phone customer, emergency informa-tion, instructions for our optional features, and much more!

Our history article (in the middle section of the book) features The Chestnut Ridge Railroad Company, which was organized around 1898 to carry bricks made of local clay and tourists from Kunkletown through Little Gap to Palmerton. This 11-mile track of railroad was important to the growth of Kunkletown and later to the New Jersey Zinc Company in Palmerton.

We know that you may not always have your telephone book nearby, so don’t forget that our directory listings are also available

online at www.ptelco.com/directory.

465 Delaware AvenuePalmerton, PA 18071www.ptelco.com

Dear Valued Customer,

What phrase do you use to answer the telephone? For most of us, it’s a simple “hello.” Alexander Graham Bell always maintained that the proper telephone greeting should be a jaunty “ahoy.” Others preferred a straightfor-ward “What is wanted?” or “Are you there?”. So how did we arrive at using a simple “Hello?”

Well, it has been reported that Allen Koenigsberg, a professor at Brooklyn College, found an unpublished letter in the American Telephone and Telegraph Company archives in lower Manhattan. It was dated August 15, 1877 and penned within the context of phone being a device that always had an open line, hence, the eventual role of an operator. In it, Thomas Edison wrote, “Friend David, I don’t think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What do you think? EDISON.” David must have agreed, because people liked the word so much that it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1883.

Don’t hesitate to call and say hello to us if you have questions about your telephone service. If you prefer, just stop in our Business Office for assistance.

Thank you for choosing Palmerton Telephone Company.

Best Regards,

Tim Hausman General Manager, Palmerton Telephone Company

From theManager’s Desk... Do you know that Palmerton

Telephone has been serving the area since 1900?

NOTICE:Palmerton Telephone Company charges a fee of $20.00 for returned checks.

MAY 2020 RECIPE

> 24 slices French baguette> 1 tablespoon butter, softened> 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries> 1/4 cup white sugar, or as needed

Directions:

Preheat your oven’s broiler. Spread a thin layer of butter on each slice of bread. Arrange bread slices in a single layer on a large baking sheet.

Place bread under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes, just until lightly toasted. Spoon some chopped strawberries onto each piece of toast, then sprinkle sugar over the strawberries.

Place under the broiler again until sugar is caramelized, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve imme-diately.

Strawberry Bruschetta

Do you know that Palmerton Telephone copper wires, connected end to end, circle the earth 4 times at the equator?

Featured Feature PenTeleData Webmail

Webmail for Palmerton Telephone DSL customers provides access to your PenTeleData email account, even while you’re away. It’s available anytime, anywhere, from any PC or device with Internet access. While you are on vacation or simply waiting for an import-ant response, your email messages are easily available.

Using Webmail is easy – just visit www.ptd.net/webmail. If you prefer, visit www.ptd.net and choose “My Webmail” on the right side of the page. Simply enter your user name and password and you’re set! Emails that you have opened from your email at home or work will not be included, so don’t forget to close your email client while you’re away. (This can be changed in the Webmail account settings, but you will also need to configure your email client to use IMAP.)

Say Cheese! Consider Privacy when You Share Photos.The convenience of posting photos with friends and family has become more fun and convenient than ever. Social networking sites make it easy to share pictures with grandma and grandpa, your coworkers, your childhood friends, or anyone who has an interest. Still, it is important to consider a few simple tips pertaining to copyright, privacy and safety issues.

> Disable the GPS technology before taking pictures with a smartphone or other location enabled camera if you plan to post them online. Otherwise, the coordinates of your exact location are recorded with the photo. This could publicize your home address or other places you visit.

> Read the Terms of Service on photo sharing websites and other social networks. Other-wise, you may inadvertently give permission to websites or their users to use your photo as their own.

> Check your privacy settings on any websites where you may share photos. When possible, select the option that allows you to keep photos from being found by search engines. In addition, the best way to keep pictures private is to limit those who can view them.

> Know who your friends and followers are. If you have hundreds of friends on Facebook or any other social media sites, perhaps you don’t know them all too well. Decide wheth-er you are comfortable with those people having access to your photos. If not, it may be time to review and narrow down your “friend” list. If your settings allow “friends of friends” to see your posts, your pictures could potentially be seen by thousands (or may-be more).

> Consider photo sharing sites that allow invitation-only access with password protection for viewing.

> Avoid sharing identifying information, such as full names, schools or locations of your photos.

> Watch out for lower-tech ways of sharing information. Maybe the photo was taken in front of your home or children’s school. Maybe your t-shirt has a school logo. These scenarios and others could tip off information that you would prefer to keep private.

> Use common sense. Don’t post a photo that could be embarrassing in 10 years or more. With facial recognition technology, pictures will potentially be available for years to come. That means that your toddler’s potential em-ployer could know quite a bit about his or her childhood!

> Awkward! You may have a tough decision to make if a friend or relative posts photos of you or your child online. Do you ask them to take it down? After all, you won’t know who has access to or the picture.

> Consider a watermark. Imprinting a water-mark on your photos can make it harder for someone to misappropriate the image.

Community CalendarIf you’d like to see what’s happening to benefit the non-profit groups in our area, visit our Community Events Calendar at www.ptelco.com. Just select ‘Menu’, then ‘Community Calendar’.

Brain Teaser March 2020 WinnerCongratulations to Frank Hall of Kunkletown, Pa. Frank was the winner of a $25 Gift Card to Claude’s Creamery in Palmerton, Pa.

I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, water but

no fish. What am I?

Answer: a map

FUN FACTSThe first chocolate chip cookie was developed in the kitchen of a Whitman, Massachusetts, country inn in 1937. Simple experiments led to a recipe combining bits of chocolate candy with a short-bread type cookie dough.

Gasoline has no specific freezing point – it freezes at any tem-perature between -180 and -240 degrees Fahrenheit. When gaso-line freezes, it never solidifies total-ly, but resembles gum or wax.

There are three sets of letters on the standard typewriter and computer keyboards which are in alphabetical order, reading left to right. They are f-g-h, j-k-l, and o-p.

While diamonds are usually consid-ered the most precious of stones, a large, near flawless emerald is worth considerably more than a diamond of the same size.

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world. It is approxi-mately the same size as the state of Texas.

The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More than 2 billion pen-cils are manufactured in the U.S. annually. If these were laid end to end, they would circle the earth nine times

Oak trees are struck by lightning more often than any other tree. It has been theorized, this is one rea-son that the ancient Greeks con-sidered oak trees sacred to Zeus, god of thunder and lightning.

A bird’s eye takes up about 50 percent of its head, our eyes take up about 5 percent of our head. To be comparable to a bird’s eyes, our eyes would have to be the size of baseballs.

Brain Teaser

It belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do.

What is it?

To enter, e-mail the correct answer to ptelco@ptd.net or send a 3” x 5” index card to 465 Delaware Ave. Palmerton, PA 18071. Please include your name, address, daytime telephone number (to call only if you win), and the Brain Teaser answer. All entries must be received by 5/20/20.

Good Luck! Palmerton Telephone

Palmerton Telephone is giving away a $25 Gift Card to Claude’s Creamery in Palmerton, PA.

printed by www.tnprinting.com

May 2020Product FeaturePalmerton Telephone DSL

Are YOU a Palmerton Telephone DSL Customer?If not, then maybe you should be! If you aren’t familiar with DSL, it’s an “always-on” connection to the Internet. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It provides high speed and secure Internet connectivity over existing copper telephone wires, without interrupting your regular telephone service.

You already trust us with your landline telephone service, so why not DSL too? We offer DSL packages as low as $19.95 a month, speeds up to 10 Mbps, five e-mailboxes per customer with 2 GB of storage per mailbox and FREE access to any PenTeleData Community Wi-Fi Hot Spot location.

Why choose Palmerton Telephone over another provider? Some Internet companies advertise speeds that aren’t quite what you receive. We don’t. In fact, we test every DSL connection on-site to make sure that the speed package you choose is available to your home or business. If it’s not, we’ll change your package to a lower priced one that represents the actual speed that is available. (Although your speed will only be as fast as the slowest connection – website variables are beyond our control.)

Are you a Val-YOU Package customer? If so, you’ll automatically save $10/month Accelerate 5.0 or Accelerate 10.0 plans! (Please note: Customers who do not have phone service from Palmerton Telephone pay an additional $10/month.)

Interested in adding DSL? Already have Palmerton Telephone DSL? Call by May 31, 2020 to add service or upgrade your speed package and pay just $19.95/month for the first three months of your new DSL speed.

New DSL customers will also receive free installation.