Where did the phrase, "Ma Bell"  originate as a slang name for
the Bell System or AT&T?  Well, nobody seems to know for sure,
but  here  are some possibilities submitted by  members of the
ATCA and TCI clubs:

    "One  apocryphal  version  is  that  employees of the Bell
System  acquired  an umbilical cord effect.  That is why there
are very few people who ever quit the Bell System, and so many
of the employees who stayed for the duration."
- submitted by A. P. Bloom

    "Another version is that the stock of AT&T  (symbol 'T' on
the New York Stock Exchange) was  purchased  by  or for widows
and orphans as a long-term investment,  since  its  reputation
for reliabilty during recessions was its selling point."
- submitted by A. P. Bloom

   "I worked for 'Ma Bell' for 34 yrs.  Many, many years ago I
was  told  that  the  term 'Ma Bell' came from a corruption of
Alex Bell's wife's name, Mabel, which is pronounced May Belle,
and that the company was run as a family business.  The  first
employees  were  treated  very  well  and thus referred to the
company in a friendly way as Ma Bell.  I also read that at the
109 Court Street, Boston location (where  Bell and Watson  did
their earliest work on the phone in the 1870's)  there  was no
division  of  labor.  No  us  against them, managment vs labor
division.  Every employee was treated as an equal and listened
to for ideas.  A family atmosphere,  thus  the term "Ma Bell".
True or not? I really don't know."
    "When  I  got  married in 1971 I was given one more day of
vacation (for the honeymoon) than I was due. When I went to my
foreman "Pop" to straighten out the mistake, I told him  there
was a mistake and I wasn't due the extra day.  'Pop'  put  his
arm  around  my  shoulder  and took me aside and told me, 'the
same thing happened to me when I got married; you are now part
of the family and will be treated as part of the family.   The
flip side of the coin is that when you go out and do telephone
work, you will do it like it's the family business'.  I worked
that way for many years.  Poor  craftsmanship  was  simply not
tolerated.  Your biggest critics were not the customer or your
foreman, it was your coworkers.  I remember  several  times in
the 1970's being told,  'the  greatest asset of our company is
the goodwill of the employees'.  I never heard that said again
after  the  breakup of the company on Jan 1, 1984.  If it is a
family now, it certainly is a disfunctional family!"
- Retired and enjoying it, Walter Smith