How Did Telephone Numbers Work in the Old Days?

You had to enter the entire word Butterfield and then the numbers by rotary dial. In small towns you would just pick up the phone, tell your neighbor to shut up and then say, “Sarah, get me the sheriff up in Mt. Pilot.”

Errr they still do this OP.

Speaking of rotary dials, many a house burned down before the homeowner could dial the fire department, and many Lee Press-ons were lost to that demon.

That was when Reginald Marcy Bic invented the pen, and ladies across the land rejoiced.

AT&T published a list of Suggested Names for exchanges, though local companies were allowed to create their own for historical reasons or localities. COney Island 6 in Brooklyn, would have no meaning in Chicago. The first two letters were capitalized, BUtterfield 8. If an exchange had two words, the first two letters were capitalized, as in MUrray Hill 5.

I guess the idea was that people couldn't remember seven digits and so names were used to help remember - though it only worked for the first two digits and you needed to remember the other five. I think 100 or more years ago you needed an operator to make a call because I've seen old phones without a dial and there were no prefix numbers. Once prefix numbers were added then you only needed an operator to make a long distance call. Then later you could dial a zero, the area code, then the 7-digit number.

Fellow eldergays, did I get this right?

“AT&T published a list of Suggested Names for exchanges, though local companies were allowed to create their own for historical reasons or localities.“

For example, if Datalounge was an exchange, names we’d be given to choose from include:

Hooker, Spreadeagle, Pearlclutch, Swallow, Cumming, Butternut, Licking, Bitchface, Greasefire, Booger Hole, Bigbottom, and Fetch.

In NYC, some of the prefixes told what neighborhood was represented. For example, MU5-5555 would be Murray Hill neighborhood.

R5 Operators connected all calls until dial service arrived. Then you would dial Zero for Operator assistance on calls out of the area. You now could also dial "Information" 411, the Business Office 811 and Repair 611. In some areas other three-digit codes were see The first three digits of a number is the "Exchange," MAin 5 or 625.

A very long time ago you had to call Central to have them reach your number. Early phones up until the mid-20s did not have dials. This was in the days of the candlestick phone. Central would have a number of exchanges, as mentioned above, and they would attach numbers to them. My father’s number growing up was Jefferson 212. The popularity of the phone meant more numbers needed to be added. So it migrated to JEfferson 5-1234. It just took people a while to get used to having numbers instead of words. When I was growing up my phone number was TR5- 2244. The TR was a remnant of when they would call Central and say, “Give me Transit 5 2244.” We then moved to 875-2244. It was considered very modern to use seven numbers rather than a combination of letters and numbers when giving people your phone number. Yes, really. And don’t get me started on party lines!

In the old days, that prefix indicated your neighborhood. At least in Manhattan. Some were more “desirable” than others. GRamercy exchange for instance. Although it was GRamercy, it was the Upper East Side. A fancy one.

I miss those days. I’ve never liked all digit phone numbers. Of course now it wouldn’t work because most phone numbers are 10 digits with area code. You can’t very well have 425 BU6 5555.

Butterfield 8 would be BU-8. You didn’t have to dial every letter. It’s like R8 explains it, not R1.

This was before you dialed the area code for local numbers. So for, say, Peekskill, it might be PE-3-####.

R13

Is that why Helen picked up???

My town had Madison, Fairfax, Temple, Walnut, and about a half-dozen more name prefixes. This system changed around 1970. That's also the reason that there are three little letters associated with each number on the dial. 2 abc, 3 def, 4 ghi etc. with no q or z. A Fairfax number would start 32 (then the 5 remaining letters of the phone number).

R8 Other exchanges in New York for neighborhoods included BEnsonhurst 6, GRamercy 3, BElle Harbor 5, FLushing 3, AStoria 4, MOtt Haven 9, CHelsea 2, WAshington Heights 7. In the suburbs, names of towns - MOunt Vernon 7 .. NEw Rochelle 6, YOnkers 9, MAnhasset 7 plus many more named for communities.

There were still area codes. Area codes went into effect right after WWII. I don’t think most people had private phone lines before them.

Ii miss my old childhood phone number with letters and numbers. Haven’t had it since Johnson was President but it was permanently engrained on my brain when I was four or five years old. I use it now as a password on some accounts. We are talking about a phone number that hasn’t existed for 55 years, so very safe to use.

R11, the Upper East Side "desirable" exchanges were REgent, RHinelander, and Butterfield, though TRafalgar, FOundation, and YUkon were also there. GRamercy 3-5-7 were near Gramercy Park in the East 20s

You can still use letters. Like 1-800-FLOWERS . The letters were always really numbers.

R17 Operators used Area Codes beginning in 1947. The first Direct Distance Dialing call using Area Codes with the public was in 1951. The Mayor of Englewood New Jersey (201) dialed a mayor in California (213). Direct Dialing for most of America began in the 1960s.

Butterfield was BU. It was always the first two letters of the exchange name, like MAdison, HUdson, HOllywood, etc. So you dialed the numbers that matched those letters on the keypad, and then the rest of the phone number.

[quote] You had to enter the entire word Butterfield and then the numbers by rotary dial.

OP, now you know why we dialed with pencils.

All In The Family did a bit about this where Edith has to dial a number the new way and realizes that the digits match the letters on the rotary phone. It was because most people had to call the operator to make a call rather than dialing directly and asking for BUtterfield 5 xxxx would tell the operator to dial 285-xxxx.

Lucy Ricardo used the Murray Hill exchange, even though they weren't really in Murray Hill.

Lily knows.Lily knows.

It was so much classier to say, "I can be reached at Plaza 5-5555."

How exciting!

Some eldergay is giving us a tour of the old way phones worked!

Same as they do now, you moron.

I still pick up my mobile phone and ask Myrtle to patch me through.

This way I don’t have to remember numbers.

R24 in one episode, Edith told Archie to give someone their number, she began "RAvenswood 8..." Archie cut her off "Edith I know our numbah." RAvenswood was in Astoria where the Bunkers lived.

Until 1986 one town in America still had operators and the phones were magneto (Crank-Up). The switchboard of the Bryant Pond Telephone Company in Maine was in the living room the owners, Elden and Barbara Hathaway. There were as many as ten on some party lines.

I’m not even really an elder gay and grew up with a party line phone. The neighbor would occasionally catch me listening in on her conversations. I wasn’t as quiet as I thought at 10 years old.

My Grandparent's (and later, my Mom's) number was Avon-3532-Y . Avon for Avondale (Exchange). They lived in Clifton. My Dad had my Mom's number penciled on the back of an old photo. My local library keeps a searchable archive of some of the older phone directories.

R34, there are Cliftons in a few states. Where was yours?

In Chicago we had Pallisade 5, Tuxedo 9, Yards 7, Capitol 7, Mulberry 5, Harrison 7, Haymarket 9. When I lived in Brooklyn I had a Bensonhurst 6 number.

The only one I don’t like on that list is Yard. All the others have a decent ring to them (pardon the pun), but yard makes me think of some hillbilly yard with cars on blocks.

Operator, give me Beechwood 911!

R37 No so! The Yards exchange was quite important! It was for the Chicago Stockyards area, where all the meatpacking was going on.

"I'm in love with a voice, PLaza 0 - Double Four - Double Three"

Back in the olden days, people had trouble remembering more than 3 digits, so the named exchanges became the way to easily recall the entire number, particularly as telephone numbers grew in length. The names took on the cache of the neighborhood, hence the desirability of "GRammercy#-####" or "BRentwood#-####", for example. The phone companies, and ultimately, customers were allowed to name their own exchanges because it literally made no difference. If I'm correct, the phone companies came up with the idea of using two letters for the exchanges, and it was customers that assigned longer words, again because it is easier to remember a real word than two letters and a string of numbers.

R5: The capitals in those first words corresponded with the numbers in the exchange. It was a convention more than a requirement.

[quote]Then later you could dial a zero, the area code, then the 7-digit number. -R6

Dialing a zero was how you'd place a collect call, or charge the call to another number altogether. You'd get an operator intercept before the call went through and had to provide the information before the operator would hit the button to connect the call.

R18: I freaked out my sister and a long-time friend each when, at the grocery store/cash machine, I "guessed" their ATM PIN. Of course, this meant I revealed my PIN to both of them, and shared the same one with my sister. It's a pretty safe PIN, and easy to remember. A crook would have to do a pretty thorough investigation to get your childhood phone number... unless your parents never changed their number.

Of course, this we before you could port your number to any telephone in the world; and before humans became better at remembering long strings of numbers.

My family had a party line with one extension until my mother went to work for the phone company and part of her compensation was a private line and as many extensions as we wanted. She had a telephone installed in every room, including the bathrooms. It was cacophony when the phone rang. I also had my own line by the time I was a teenager because my parents got sick of hearing me yacking with friends every time they wanted to place a call. My mother would call my line to tell me dinner was ready, and yell when I was on the phone. My best friend and I had an early version of caller id: we'd call, let it ring once, hang up and call back, telling each other who was calling and giving each other time to get to an extension, particularly when we'd call each other late at night.

Ah, the bygone days of dialtone.

Yes, I remember when the first three numbers indicated your town/neighborhood. Ours was the least desirable three numbers!

I still remember how it was in Manhattan in the 80s, same thing.

R35, My Clifton and Avondale are both in Cincinnati.

[quote] My mother would call my line to tell me dinner was ready

MARY!

[quote]The names took on the cache of the neighborhood

Oh, dear! Were they like Public Storage?

My prefix was DRake 6-. Nearby towns had CLifford, ATlantic, YEllowstone, TEmplebar. My grandmother in San Francisco had LOmbard, even though she was nowhere near that street.

In the New York metropolitan area , Chicago, and Boston, you dialed the first three letters of the exchange name and then four numbers. This changed by the early 1930s and more telephone numbers were needed. As an example listed above, BUtterfield 8 was at one time BUTterfield ####, the "T" in North American dialing corresponding with the number 8. Other examples from New York were ATwater 9, which began as ATWater and CIrcle 7 which began as CIRcle.

Smaller centers where exchange names were used only had 4 numbers following the two letters until the late 1940s and 1950s. The city of Buffalo, New York was serviced by a couple of telephone companies and parts of Buffalo retained a dialing system of only 6 characters until ANC (All Number Calling) was introduced when the standard 7 character telephone numbers were adopted.

I vaguely remember my parents' telephone number in Manhattan was RHinelander 4 and in the mid 60s we got a new telephone and the installer slipped a number card into the holder and it was 744-####. My grandparents lived in midtown and their phone number began with ELdorado 5. The number card in the center of their dial phone still displayed ELdorado 5 up until the mid 1970s. My aunt who lived in the same apartment building as my grandparents had a PLaza number.

you dialed them, stupid. geez.

I'm in love with a man Plaza-O-Double-Four-Double-Three What a perfect relationship I can't see him, he can't see me I'm in love with a voice Plaza-O-Double-Four-Double-Three What a perfect relationship I talk to him and he just talks to me

I'm using this wire!

I'm fascinated by these comments, but I'm more confused than ever. Story of my life.

Fun story, my grandmother was THE telephone operator in a very small town. I say THE telephone operator because the switch board was in her living room. People would crank on their phone which would ring in my grandmothers living room she would answer, they say "Hi Bernice, could you connect me to Alice." This was around 60 years ago and I have no idea what happened if my grandmother left the house for a while.

The original play of Sorry Wrong Number starring Agnes Moorehead. It was originally titled "She Overheard Death Speaking", but was changed right before the live broadcast. Quite a few exchange names used.

In the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, the prefix of our phone numbers were:

ALgonquin 4 - which later changed 254-

STadium 2 - which later changed to 782-

Algonquin, which was my number, is the name of an Indian tribe in Massachusetts. I never knew what Stadium represented.

[quote] ALgonquin 4 - which later changed 254-...... STadium 2 - which later changed to 782-

They haven't actually changed at all. You can still use the letters AL and ST if you want and they will match the same number.

R55. I think STadium referred to the prominent landmark, Harvard Stadium, which is geographically located—not in Cambridge—but in Allston, the smaller Boston neighborhood which is adjacent to Boston’s larger neighborhood of Brighton.

And yes, the Algonquin Native Americans occupied what is now the Great Boston area.

R56. I didn’t mean ALgonquin 4 and Stadium 2 went away. But when the phone company stopped using the “word” telephone exchanges and converted to numerical exchanges, it just meant that ALgonquin 4 became 254 and STadium 2 became 782.

My suburban town had two exchanges, one for the original part of the town (ATlantic) and one for the newer part (BRoadway). Our exchange was ATlantic 5. I remember our black rotary dial phone with our number printed on the round label in the center - AT5-XXXX. This was in the late 60s/early 70s. I vaguely remember hearing my parents using AT5-XXXX when giving out our number. But I'm pretty sure by the time I was old enough to memorize it, we were using 285-XXXX instead.

I can't believe no one has mentioned "Call me at Beachwood 45789, you can call me up and have a date...any old time!"

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this but I'm old.

From WP:

"PEnnsylvania 6-5000 is a telephone number in New York City, written in the 2L+5N (two letters, five numbers) format that was common in the largest US cities from approximately 1930 into the 1960s. The number is best known from the 1940 hit song "Pennsylvania 6-5000", a swing jazz and pop standard recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Its owner, the Hotel Pennsylvania, claims it to be the oldest continuing telephone number in New York City.[1] While the hotel opened in 1919, the exact age of the telephone number and the veracity of the hotel's claim are unknown. As of 2019, callers to 212-736-5000 are greeted with the hotel's phone system recorded greeting that includes a portion of the song.[2]

"The named Pennsylvania exchange served the area around Penn Station in New York. The two letters, PE, stand for the numbers 7 and 3, making the phone number 736-5000, not including the later area code 212 for Manhattan."

When I was a young kid the phone was two parts: the handset on a base with no dial and a box with a crank. It was a party line and each customer on the line had a distinctive ring. Ours was short-long-short. So people on the line could call each other directly if they knew their code by cranking out the signal. They could also listen in on each other. To make an outside call you cranked a couple of times to signal the operator, who would then make the connection to the number you wanted. I remember ours was 63J1. How people outside the exchange called us I have no idea.

In 1968, the phone company jumped to touch tone phones, bypassing rotaries altogether. It was the first phone exchange in our state to make the switch. It was like the space age had come to our little hamlet.

Ours was Cherry 8. It was on our phones on the dial, but I didn’t really grow up using that, I just said 248-xxxx.

The Hotel Pennsylvania still stands directly across the street from Penn Station. Back in the day, the Hotel was quite popular with entertainers due to its location, esp. for those in the city for short stands. The Glenn Miller Orchestra stayed there regularly.

A few years ago, a friend who used to live in the city was back visiting. Out of curiosity, he decided to stay there. Although the exterior and lobby are still impressive, his room was a spacious dump.

R21 Bell System Retiree was there any way to trace calls back then? would you get a record of all calls made on your bill? what about payphones?

[quote] Errr they still do this OP.

R2 hasn’t used a phone since 1956.

So did you use all the letters or just the first three?

This is confusing.

R68, Just the first two. As I said above, ours was CHerry 8-xxxx. You dialed CH of Cherry, which is 24, making our phone number 248-xxxx.

You know how kids are taught phone numbers early so that if they ever get lost there's a way to contact their family? I was taught this:

Our house: 454-0306.

Grandma and Grandpa's house: GL4-1525.

So basically this entire thread was explained to me when I was 3, with me going, as you'd expect, WTF?

[quote] In 1968, the phone company jumped to touch tone phones, bypassing rotaries altogether.

The phone company installed touch-tone capable switches, not phones. The rotary dial wasn’t fully bypassed. You could still dial a phone using rotary all the way until at least the late ‘90s.

R21, calls could be traced before Electronic Switching Systems in the 1960s, but it sometimes took uo to ten minutes. There was a record of numbers dialed, but not available to the public. Today we have LUD lists, you often hear them mentioned on "Law and Order," these are Local Usage Details.

R66, Before Electronic Switching in the 1960s, it could take up to ten minutes to trace a call. There were records of all numbers dialed, but not available to the public without a court order. Today there are LUD lists, which you often hear about on "Law and Order," Local Usage Details.

Which is also why in older movies, specifically about kidnappers and ransom calls, the drama is heightened by the detective telling the person, “keep him on the line as long as you can. We need X minutes to get a trace.”

Of course the kidnappers know this and hang up JUST before they could’ve gotten a trace.

All is explained here (or at least most). During the end times of ALphabetical PRefixes, exchange names could differ depending on the numeral that followed the two letters. Beverly Hills, CA had both CRestview and BRadshaw, but, even though they were both '27' on the dial, weren't interchangeable.

My hometown had only OXford in the 1950s. By the early 1960s, OXbow and OWen were added. Again, they were based on the numeral that followed the '69', and their distribution depended on what part of town you lived in.

The same name can be used in different neighborhoods. In Manhattan, TRafalgar 3,4, & 7 are on the Upper West Side. TRafalgar 9 on Upper East Side. The other TRs are TRemont in the Bronx and TRiangle in Brookyn. YUkon is in Manhattan and on Staten Island. HIckory in Brooklyn and Queens.

Is that why the number AFTER the name exchange is important?

Such as TRemont 2 (let’s say) vs. TRafalger 7?

Click "search our database" to look up your exchange

Villagers recall YUkon 9

I think my mother told me if a phone number had the same exchange name as yours, you only needed to dial the last 5 digits. She grew up in Albany, New York and the exchanges there were HEmlock 4, HEmlock 6, HEmlock 8, HObart 2, HObart 3, HObart 5, IVanhoe 2 and IVanhoe 9 when she was coming of age. She was a HEmlock 8 growing up and an IVanhoe 2 when she got married.

The exchange names had nothing to do with neighborhood names there. They were really random. names..maybe from the suggested list of exchange names that I didn't look at?

I always wondered by a city like White Plains NY had one, WHite Plains, and the dinky Westchester village of Scarsdale had two - SC and GRreenleaf. We were GR.

This is all a mystery to teens. Here they are trying to figure out how to use a rotary telephone.

More hilarity

R79 along with YUkon 9, the West Village had ALgonquin 4, CHelsea 2&3, WAtkins 4&9.

In the beginning of DDD (Direct Distance Dialing), the Area Code had Zero or 1 as middle digit, so the equipment would know you were making an out-of-area call.

I remember when “Barnaby” who was a local host of a cartoon kids show in Cleveland Ohio went to the Seattle Wolrds Fair. This must have been what? 1960? He went with a film crew and they showed him using a push button phone which I thought was the meekest thing in the world. I couldn’t wait for us to get one. I must have been about 6. By the time the technology made its way into the mainstream and we went “touch tone” I was already a law school graduate. I loved the T T at first, but you know what? As I sit in Starbucks tapping into my iPhone before heading into the office, I gotta tell you kids something that you must know. These are words of wisdom which you, my young gaylings should carry with you throughout your lives. Learn them, embrace them, live them. They are: ROTARY DIAL PHONES ARE FUN!!!!!!!!! (I love my pc, but typing was fun too.)

R86 Sorry. Meekest = coolest.

[quote]The exchange names had nothing to do with neighborhood names there. They were really random.

That may be true, and yet I thought it was cool that in our Seattle suburb, where everyone's dad was a Boeing engineer, one of the prefixes was 747.

R77, you are correct. 25 was ALgonquin 4&5 in Manhattan, CLoverdale 2-3-6-7-8-9 in Brooklyn. TRemont 2&8, TRiangle 1&5 plus those TRafalgars.

R36, when the Kramdens got a phone, Alice said the number was BEnsonhurst 6-7741. Since it was an actual number, it was later dubbed over as BEnsonhurst 0-7741 . BEnsonhurst 0 did not exist.

Thank you, r90. I was going to bring that up but you put it much more succinctly than I ever could.

In 1947, there were 86 NPAs (Number Plan Areas aka Area Codes). Today there are 335 in the US.

Some Area Codes had meanings never revealed to the public, including 646 (MHN) Manhattan and 787 (PUR) Puerto Rico.

[quote] Is that why the number AFTER the name exchange is important? Such as TRemont 2 (let’s say) vs. TRafalger 7?

In large cities, there was no single building handling all the switching. There were multiple switching centers located throughout the city of New York. Using your example, TR2 would have been handled in one location and TR7 at another. If they were both serviced by the same switching center, they would have been assigned the same prefix name.

Another example were CHelsea 3 and CHelsea 4, and CIrcle 7. Telephone numbers using the CHelsea exchange were handled through a switching center in, yes, Chelsea. "CIrcle" numbers went through a building several blocks north.

Just the expected troglodyte comment about the harshening of the modern world: the whole technological/digital absorption of the human imagination has produced many benefits, but at an unmeasured cost to beauty, specificity, connection and rich and individualized experience. The real world, in all its physical expressions - absorbed into common commodification and consumer units to be controlled. (Trumpism, Brexitism - in all their poisonous destruction - is reaction to this).

Telephone exchanges used to name, in invocative ways, a geography. The human hope for this is demonstrated by hip hop's presentation of area codes... e.g. "in the 213", with tattoos resonating on human skin. In LA the old exchanges... Hollywood, Clinton, Republic, Sycamore, Crestwood, Diamond, Angelus, Normandie, Hyperion...…….

This is my new favorite thread.

[quote] In 1947, there were 86 NPAs (Number Plan Areas aka Area Codes). Today there are 335 in the US.

Area codes were assigned to areas originally based upon population (ie more telephone traffic) based upon the number of pulls (the clicks as the dial returns to its stationary position) on the dial. The fewer the pulls, the faster the call can be directed. That is why NYC was given 212 (a total of five pulls). LA was assigned 213 (six pulls), and Chicago 312 (six pulls). Tennessee was assigned 901 (20 pulls).

Until the demand increased, area codes were confined to 1 or zero as the second number of three.

Mine was Humboldt 33056 -- Written as Hu3-3056. So much easier to remember with the prefix than all numbers. We didn't have area codes because you could only call locally on the phone. You had to go through 'the phone company' to place anything other than local. SHIT, I'm old! Just kill me - hit me in the head with my old pink Princess phone. And now I can't figure out how to post a picture of it. I'm going to take a nap.

To piggyback on to R97's post, in the original area code numbering plan, most states were assigned just one area code. Only a few were given multiple area codes. For single code states, the middle number was 0. For multiple code states, the middle number of each area code was 1. That's why New York received area codes 212, 315, 518, 716, and 914. Texas was assigned 214, 512, 713, and 915. California got 213, 415, and 916. And that's why New Jersey has 201, Colorado has 303, and Arizona has 602.

R94, CHelsea 2&3 are at the 18th Street Central Office. CHIckering 4 at West 36th Street and CIrcle 5-6-7 at West 50th.

a list of r99 stuff - area code history

That's great R100. Where did you get that information from? Is there an expanded list online of other NY exchanges and locations?

[quote]Tennessee was assigned 901 (20 pulls).

Surely Utah (801) had fewer people than Tennessee. Maybe Mormons didn't need as many pulls?

The logic of how the area codes were assigned doesn't always make sense if population was the main criteria. Maybe it was based on number of telephones in an area. Maybe in 1947 when the plan was created Utah had more telephones than Tennessee. Here's a list of the original area codes that had 10 clicks or fewer:

5 clicks: 212 (New York City)

6 clicks: 213 (Los Angeles & SoCal), 312 (Chicago)

7 clicks: 214 (Dallas/Fort Worth & N Tex), 313 (Detroit), 412 (Pittsburgh & W Pa)

8 clicks: 215 (Philadelphia), 314 (St Louis & E Mo), 413 (Western Mass), 512 (Austin/San Antonio & S Tex)

9 clicks: 216 (Cleveland & NE Ohio), 315 (Syracuse & Central NY), 414 (Milwaukee & S Wisc), 513 (Cincinnati & SW Ohio), 612 (Minneapolis/St Paul & SE Minnesota)

10 clicks: 217 (Springfield & Central IL), 316 (Wichita & S Kan), 415 (San Francisco & Central CA), 514 (Montreal & W Quebec), 613 (Most of Ontario outside of Toronto), 712 (Western Iowa)

What stands out to me is that Houston, which was the largest city in Texas, was given 713 with 11 clicks while smaller areas (Wichita!) were given smaller area code number.

R63: I suspect that someone wishing to call you would have to make an operator assisted call on their end giving your town and specific party line number to be relayed to your local operator for final connection. When dial phones came in my grandmother's three-digit Party line code was assigned a seven digit individual line number with a zero place holder, so 199R became 0199.

I grew up in a suburban area in the 60s where in elementary school our prefix was MErcury 5; we moved two towns away to JEfferson 9, with FRontier 7 between those exchanges.

In Massachusetts when I was younger I seem to recall that some exchanges allowed for dialing the last 5 digits within the same Exchange? Also, one was required to start with 1 + 7 digit number for toll calls within the same area code?

These exchanges may bring back memories for Brooklyn DataLoungers ... APplegate, BEachview, BEnsonhurst, BUckminster, CLoverdale, COney Island, DEwey, DIckens, ESplanade, EVergreen, FOxcroft, GEdney, GLenmore, HIckory, JAckson, INgersoll, MAin, MAnsfield, MAyflower, NAvarre, NEvins, NIghtingale, PResident, SHore Road, SLocum, SOuth, STagg, STerling, TErrace, TRiangle, ULster, WInsdor, WYman.

Must I explain?

R107 "It's Little, It's Lovely, It Lights" So lightweight when you lifted receiver, phone fell on floor. Later Western Electric added a weight.

The Trimline with dial in handset was created for hospital patients, who couldn't reach phone next to the bed.

The old phone numbers had mystery, romance--"Butterfield 8""...Would a movie called 268" be intriguing, sexy? I think not.

From I Love Lucy:

The couple had three phone numbers over the course of the show, the first was Murray-hill 5-9975, the second was CIrcle-7-2099, and the third was Murray-hill 5-9099 — all unused numbers of the New York Bell Telephone Company.

Their address didn't exist. I would have been far into the East River

[quote]mystery, romance--"Butterfield 8""...Would a movie called 268" be intriguing, sexy? I think not.

Maybe a song would? Hmmmm. Lemme think of a tune for 867-5309.

The 99 series were Bell System "Official Numbers" To call the Business Office, you would ask for MAin 5-Official 50. The operator would dial MA 5-9950. 9911 was the Chief Operator, Repair was 9961, 9971 to Verify if a line was busy. Coin phones were in the "96,97,98" series. This alerted operators in case you wanted to call a phone booth "collect" and thought she wouldn't know :)

In 1956 Brenda was in an area before dial service. Just the exchange Bigelow and four digits.

Movies and TV sometimes used KLondike 5 or 555. Those calls went to "Directory Assistance,"

R108

Back in the days of wired phones, the installer brought a powder blue Trimline phone for our living room. My father bellowed that he should take it back "This isn't Lana Turner's boudoir!"

In Chicago, there were different numbers for phone company services. If I remember correctly, 211 was for long distance, 411 for directory assistance, and 611 for repair service. Weather was WE4-1212, and unfortunately I don't remember the number for time.

Haha R7.

You forgot Pussywillow. It’s in the 212 FuckYou exchange. It’s where the Cocksucker is.

R115 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

R116 in New York, Time was MEridian 7-1212.

r117 In NorCal, time was POP-CORN.

[quote]Written as Hu3-3056.

No. You had to capitalize the second letter of the word to indicate that it needed to be dialed: HUmboldt 3-3056.

This was the bands only hit. The lead singer eventually became a. computer programmer.

Until 1980, if you were in PTown and dialing another number in town, you only needed to dial 5 digits.

[quote]The lead singer eventually became a. computer programmer.

Well, he's apparently good with numbers.

[quote]In Chicago, there were different numbers for phone company services. If I remember correctly, 211 was for long distance, 411 for directory assistance, and 611 for repair service.

Actually, nationwide, 110 was long-distance and 113 was information. I think 611 was always repair service, though.

[quote]In NorCal, time was POP-CORN.

In Santa Barbara, time was 6-0611. I think I was the only person to notice that 60611 was also the ZIP code for Time magazine. I don't think there was any connection between the two.]

[quote]60611 was also the ZIP code for Time magazine.

iin Chicago?

It was the same as today's phone numbers. Instead of having an area code, a local code and a 4 digit number ,it is the same system. When I was a teen we had just the local code and the 4 digits. 793 was SY3. so 793-8701. was your phone number. The SY was for Sycamore, but the 7 and 9 are contained to this day in the SY. Area codes that you could access were added later as needs increased. I don't remember how we placed long distance calls - perhaps from a ld operator. I was too busy giving my number out to cute guys,

R125, dialing codes varied by company. While the Bell System served the most customers, there were more than 2,000 "Independent" companies from General Telephone, Century Link and Frontier serving multi-millions to Mom and Pop's with one exchange. At one point, Iowa has 200 companies, many serving one or two towns.

R122, are you also r111?

Sing it. Dial it.

ECho Valley 2-6809

Phone numbers in small communities were 4 or 5 digits. It was with the introduction of Direct Distance Dialing they needed to standardize to 10 digits. I recall my grandparents phone in Providence, RI was JAckson1 or 521 plus the four digits subscriber number.

The funny look at the dialpad on your smartphone - the letters are still on each number. Just checked on my Android phone and yup they're there. It's because now the word thing is more a vanity project than anything. E.g. 800-SUK-COCK if they'd allow that.

[quote] 800-SUK-COCK if they'd allow that.

Oh, when I set up my business, I tried, and it wasn't allowed.

[quote]60611 was also the ZIP code for Time magazine.

[quote]iin Chicago?

Yes.

The Time Life Building is on East Fairbanks Court, east of Michigan Avenue, near Navy Pier.

Since we are reminiscing, anyone else remember the 976- and 970- sex line numbers? There was one advertised on Channel J in Manhattan, for people into golden showers. “Call 970-PISSS - the extra S is for [I forgot what the extra S was for]”.

Haha that used to crack us up. They’d play audio of water pouring.

R136, was that commercial during Robyn Byrd?

R102 from my memory after thirty years with Telco. If you have a particular question will try to answer.

R123 I was P'town when the operators were in a small white building at 100 Bradford Street. Long Distance calls went through Boston and Springfield. Dial service arrived in 1966.

This pencil is interesting for three reasons. First of all, it's speed dialing, rotary phone style, as you used the rounded end to dial a telephone number rather than inserting your finger. It was much faster. Secondly, it was a give away from a pioneer Chicago firm, George B. Carpenter Co. They were originally ships chandlers, selling canvas, sails, ropes, ships supplies, back at the time when the Port of Chicago was one of the busiest ports in the United States. As rail transport expanded, they also dealt in railroad goods. George B. Carpenter was one of the pioneer settlers of Park Ridge, IL, and his old mansion, right across from the railroad station, served as the city hall until 1960, when it was torn down and replaced by the current building. Thirdly, George B. Carpenter's son, John Alden Carpenter, was a fairly well known American composer and member of the artsy crowd in Chicago. All of the time he was composing music, he was working as a vice-president of the firm. The Carpenter family sold the business sometime in the late 1930's, and the firm is now out of business.

When I was little, my grandmother was the nighttime emergency operator for Connecticut Light and Power, which powered the entire state of Connecticut. The switchboard was in her bedroom, in the rooming house she ran. Can you imagine one old lady for the entire state!? My grandmother had to hustle all he life. She earlier read tea leaves to tell fortunes ion Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn, until she was arrested for it.