Tales of happy days gone by have already started ringing bells with the former Hello Girls of the old Wellington Telephone Exchange as they plan a grand reunion this autumn.

The girls are now almost all pensioners and even though they had to say goodbye back on November 5, 1963, memories of their times together are sure to be fondly remembered at the Hadley Park Hotel reunion.

Former Hello Girl Maureen Perks worked at the old exchange in Walker Street from 1959 until it closed and she has organised the reunion for September 3.

Maureen, aged 65, of Hampton Hill, Wellington, has nothing but happy memories of her days at the exchange where she started as a teenager alongside the girls who would greet would-be callers with a polite “number, please?”.

She said: “I was really proud to be a Hello Girl. All the girls were really good looking, we were always very well turned out and it was quite something to get a job at the exchange.

“We were such a happy bunch. Everyone got along so well from us girls to the engineers and the postmen.

“We were always doing things together out of work, as well as at the exchange. I can remember some of the girls taking part in a fashion show one year and and one year I joined others on a float in the parade at Wellington Carnival.

“It’s funny but some memories stick out more than others, like the chocolate cakes and big jugs of coffee we used to get as a treat on Saturday afternoons from Sidoli’s in New Street.”

Maureen’s work arranging the reunion has brought her into contact with a number of the Hello Girls including 76-year-old Joan Maddison.

The pair never actually met at work because Joan, of Lea Court, Apley Park, started work at the exchange in 1950 and left three years before Maureen started.

Joan said: “I think one of the most notable things about being a Hello Girl was that you formed lifelong friendships.”

Any former Hello Girls interested in the reunion should call Maureen on (01952) 255396.