Haleyville 9-1-1 Festival 2010

As you enter into Haleyville there is a sign on City Hall that reads home of "9-1-1". Each year there is a 9-1-1 Festival held in downtown Haleyville to commerate the place where it all began and since Thad and I met I have loved that Haleyville, his hometown, is the home of "9-1-1". This year we made a special effort to be there for the festival. There were vendors of all kind, rides, music and even a BBQ contest. I loved it and there was a fun energy there. As we strolled through the festival Thad kept running into long lost classmates, friends and family. It was a great time and we will definitly be at next years 9-1-1Festival 2011!

Here is what Wikepedia says about it.....

"Bob Gallagher, then-president of the independent Alabama Telephone Company (ATC), read an article in the Wall Street Journal from January 15, 1968, which reported the AT&T 9-1-1 announcement. Gallagher’s competitive spirit motivated him to beat AT&T to the punch by being the first to implement the 9-1-1 service. In need of a suitable spot within his company's territory to implement 9-1-1, he contacted Robert Fitzgerald, who was Inside State Plant Manager for ATC. Fitzgerald recommended Haleyville, Alabama as the prime site. Gallagher later issued a press release announcing that 9-1-1 service would begin in Haleyville on Feb. 16, 1968. Fitzgerald designed the circuitry, and with the assistance of technicians Jimmy White, Glenn Johnston, Al Bush and Pete Gosa, they quickly completed the central office work and installation.[16] Just 35 days after AT&T's announcement, on February 16, 1968, the first-ever 9-1-1 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite, from Haleyville City Hall, to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill, at the city's police station. Bevill reportedly answered the phone with "Hello". At the City Hall with Fite was Haleyville mayor James Whitt; at the police station with Bevill were Gallagher and Alabama Public Service Commission director Eugene "Bull" Connor. Fitzgerald was at the ATC central office serving Haleyville, and actually observed the call pass through the switching gear as the mechanical equipment clunked out "9-1-1". The phone used to answer the first 9-1-1 call, a bright red model, is now in a museum in Haleyville, while a duplicate phone is still in use at the police station."