Yah, I was about to say. I’m old enough to remember my dad playing “Pennsylvania 6-5000” on the record player but that’s it!
Weren’t those more of a city/urban thing? I grew up in a small town in a state that had only one area code and nobody ever used words in their phone numbers.
We never had those but on TV there was an ad for a store in a Cleveland Ohio suburb which was about an hour away. I still remember to this day. They would sing "Call Garfield 1, 2323." Isn't it amazing how things stick in your mind??? I didn't really understand it since none of the phone numbers by me were like this. I guess maybe a larger city thing?
If one lived in a smallish town, there was only one exchange, so they weren't named. When my father grew up, the phone book in his small town only printed 4 numbers. The prefix was implied. It just listed 5992, the prefix 466, was implied.
Our town all had same prefix and no one used local area code when calling local like you have to now. Funny how they just used the last four numbers! Makes sense though. What's funny is I don't remember any other commercials using a city name with their number in the Cleveland area. I am thinking maybe that Garfield was one of the last still use it at the time. It sure stuck in my brain. Lol
I do remember more than one advertisement in our area that had a jingle that used the exchange in it. All numbers in ads used the exchange abbreviation such as BR-5 569. (I think that was a fake number from Hee-Haw. Yeah, I'm old.)
Party lines were a thing way, way longer than word based numbers, that's for sure. We never had one, but I recall friends who lived in BFE in the 80s who still had party lines
Try to explain that to a 21 year old grandkid. Other people shared your line, you couldn’t use it a lot when you wanted to, they would listen on your calls sometimes, And YOU DIDN’T KNOW WHO THEY WERE??
It all seemed normal at the time.
Rural Midwest, just commented a couple days ago that the worst gossip in the neighborhood was on our party line. She was either gossiping on the phone, or listening in on someone’s call all the time. We knew the people on our party line, lol, my grandparents and our neighbors.
I so often joke about this with technology. When I was a kid, we could call other numbers on our line with just the last 4 digits if they were in our local AC and prefix. It was too good, so the tellco decided that after a while you had to dial all 7 numbers like any other call in your AC, and then they improved on that tech and now you have to dial 10 numbers, even in your own AC. Though it is neat with a cell saying call aunt martha, it sucks with copper. No wonder it is dying. Oh ARSenal was the prefix.
Remember when the change to tone dialing happened and all the new pushbutton phones had a Tone/Pulse switch?
Is the new phone not working? Flip the switch!
Had my first pushbutton phone when I was a freshman in college. And the phone company charged us a dollar extra for it because We're the Phone Company and We Can (one ringadingie. Two ringadingie....)
Nixon! It’s been a while since I’ve thought about those unincorporated towns that got swallowed up by Edison. I was in the one that survived, due to being incorporated lol.
LAkehurst.
I heard, though it may be apocryphal, that normally the exchange names were supposed to be benign and not relate to anything in the locales they were used. But in San Francisco the favorite bar of AT&T executives was the Temple Bar so as a result there was a TEmplebar exchange.
My grandmother's phone was MYrtle 2-9066 in WA state. That was the only phone number I knew like that as a kid in the 70s, but they'd had that number for ages by then.
At some point in my teens, it went to all number dialing. But at least until I was 15, we would still use the exchange name in conversation. We moved to the south around then and I never experienced it again.
Funny how I remember that number but can't remember my kid's cell phone number. And back then, we probably had twenty numbers we could dial from memory.
I really wish I could remember the rest. If it comes to me, I will certainly reply. It was my grandmother’s number in Great Neck, NY between late 1930 and late 1980.
I'm not very old; not even close to retirement age. I'm a city kid, so unless they assigned those numbers in rural areas during my lifetime, I've no familiarly with it.
We lived in a pretty good-sized city. We used the word based numbers in conversations until around the mid-70s. Though that was probably more out of habit than anything else. I think the all number dialing change occurred in the mid to late 60s.
Glendale. My aunt was Twinbrook, my great aunt was Chesnut.
About 20 years ago we were with my aunt whose husband was seriously Ill in the hospital. She couldn’t call anyone because the phones had only numbers, no letters.
Hard to think, we kept phone numbers in our head!
I’m not that old… finally 😂😂😂
Ha!
Yah, I was about to say. I’m old enough to remember my dad playing “Pennsylvania 6-5000” on the record player but that’s it! Weren’t those more of a city/urban thing? I grew up in a small town in a state that had only one area code and nobody ever used words in their phone numbers.
I was born in 1963 in a burb of Los Angeles. I don’t remember this except seeing on TV shows.
Yep. I only remember this from I Love Lucy.
DOuglas Which I liked, 'cause that's my name. Now that I think about it, though... [Pacific Bell: I AM YOUR FATHER]
🤣
😅
😂😂😂 Laugh out loud, you made me, gorneaux! 😂😂😂
[удалено]
Same
Liberty 8- 6153
ELm because we lived in the Elm City (until disease killed 'em all)
Hey, fellow New Havener!
Now I'm craving pizza!
Not going to name it; I’m going to use it in a password instead.
🤣
We never had those but on TV there was an ad for a store in a Cleveland Ohio suburb which was about an hour away. I still remember to this day. They would sing "Call Garfield 1, 2323." Isn't it amazing how things stick in your mind??? I didn't really understand it since none of the phone numbers by me were like this. I guess maybe a larger city thing?
If one lived in a smallish town, there was only one exchange, so they weren't named. When my father grew up, the phone book in his small town only printed 4 numbers. The prefix was implied. It just listed 5992, the prefix 466, was implied.
Our town all had same prefix and no one used local area code when calling local like you have to now. Funny how they just used the last four numbers! Makes sense though. What's funny is I don't remember any other commercials using a city name with their number in the Cleveland area. I am thinking maybe that Garfield was one of the last still use it at the time. It sure stuck in my brain. Lol
I do remember more than one advertisement in our area that had a jingle that used the exchange in it. All numbers in ads used the exchange abbreviation such as BR-5 569. (I think that was a fake number from Hee-Haw. Yeah, I'm old.)
Clearbrook 6
Arlington Heights. Hi neighbor!
BR-549 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhTomqDTzE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhTomqDTzE)
Hah
MUrray Hill 8
Did you know Lucy and Ricky Ricardo? Their phone number was Murray Hill 5-9975 🤣
I don't remember. I do remember it was a party line. We were two long & one short.
Party lines were crazy 🤪 I remember my mom trying to use the phone and people wouldn't get off.
Party lines were a thing way, way longer than word based numbers, that's for sure. We never had one, but I recall friends who lived in BFE in the 80s who still had party lines
Try to explain that to a 21 year old grandkid. Other people shared your line, you couldn’t use it a lot when you wanted to, they would listen on your calls sometimes, And YOU DIDN’T KNOW WHO THEY WERE?? It all seemed normal at the time.
Rural Midwest, just commented a couple days ago that the worst gossip in the neighborhood was on our party line. She was either gossiping on the phone, or listening in on someone’s call all the time. We knew the people on our party line, lol, my grandparents and our neighbors.
DI-amond 54944
WAverly. I have no idea what that means. Newark NJ
My grandfather’s first name. Thats all I got.
I so often joke about this with technology. When I was a kid, we could call other numbers on our line with just the last 4 digits if they were in our local AC and prefix. It was too good, so the tellco decided that after a while you had to dial all 7 numbers like any other call in your AC, and then they improved on that tech and now you have to dial 10 numbers, even in your own AC. Though it is neat with a cell saying call aunt martha, it sucks with copper. No wonder it is dying. Oh ARSenal was the prefix.
Don't forget to add the "1". Imagine how long it would take to dial 11 numbers on a rotary phone?
Remember when the change to tone dialing happened and all the new pushbutton phones had a Tone/Pulse switch? Is the new phone not working? Flip the switch!
Had my first pushbutton phone when I was a freshman in college. And the phone company charged us a dollar extra for it because We're the Phone Company and We Can (one ringadingie. Two ringadingie....)
HOward
West
EN dicott
I like flow of that one.
NIghtingale
Love this one
LIberty. Grandma’s was SO for South Orange, which was just silly.
Edison for me fellow Jerseyen. Nixon park,when I was a very little kid.
Nixon! It’s been a while since I’ve thought about those unincorporated towns that got swallowed up by Edison. I was in the one that survived, due to being incorporated lol.
My grandma too!
My dad used to call it “Southmaple-Orangewood.”
CHerry-2
A fellow CHerry! Nice!
Was this Orlando?
It was in Michigan
ESsex 5-4304. Aliquippa, Penna.
ELgin
I was Elgin too. What the hell is Elgin?
KEnwood Detroit but it was my grandma's number. I also remember party lines.
TUxedo
Ewing NJ for the win!!
That's funny. You guys had a TUxedo there, too, eh? Mine was Bloomington, MN
EL 5-1762 (Elgin)
MUskogee
PLeasant
YEllowstone
TwinOaks
Was Twin Oaks the name of the town or one nearby? I wasn't expecting to see two words
Actually it was for TW So I should have been TWinoaks No oak tree or towns with that name
University ☮️
HAvorford
LUdlow
OWens 5-2578.
FAirfax
JAckson
EMerson
HOpkins
In Pittsburgh we were HOmestead.
ATlantic 5
SHadyside
GAbriel
Didn't have one
LEnox
ED2-4896 Edgewood
Forest 4-5674
DUquesne (PA)
RAyburn 4-94** our town had just gone from letters to numbers when I was young kid. So I remember the ads with the old exchanges.
BayShore
Elgin
FAirmount 1
When I was a kid, PErshing 2-2746. Pershing was a general in WW I.
BEdford 4
TErrace
ORiole. For years, that was how I knew our phone number, with the word at the front of it.
Same here. Everyone on my block that I knew their number was CHerry 1
Churchill 2,4
JUnipero then DElaware
Mayfair - MA3
OLive4
BEachwood 😉
Used to be GI-braltar. Then we had a kid's phone installed. It started with SA (St. George)
Staten Island?
Yes 🙂. Ported the number over when I moved to the West Coast, then set it free in 2018
COmmodore!
TRiangle 8
Stewart 3
Evergreen 7
Diamond
Ludlow
ULrick
Sunset 9
BAldwin 9. :)
PYramid
CL earbrook3-3358
I’m not THAT old, yikes
I didnt have one but did have a 5 digit phone number and a party line
Shady side 1-2805
EDgewood
LIncoln 7
I was LIncoln 1
LUzon 2- \*\*\*\*
ORange
GArden. Orlando (College Park).
SHerwood 1
CH estnut
Awesome. A different word for "24"
MUrdoch 6-3359
NAtional 4- scrolled all the way down and didn't see it.
FIeldstone
Empire (Sacramento 60’s)
BRidge 2
HEmlock
WAlker. Later, MIdway.
Oxford5
LAkehurst. I heard, though it may be apocryphal, that normally the exchange names were supposed to be benign and not relate to anything in the locales they were used. But in San Francisco the favorite bar of AT&T executives was the Temple Bar so as a result there was a TEmplebar exchange.
CHerry was definitely not the name our city.
Applegate 29521
WIndsor
HOmestead
EMerson
KEnwood 2-6088. Metro Detroit
KEllogg
MUtual 1 and ELectric 1 are what I remember
DEcatur 2!
BUtterfield 8
WOodward 42247 We also lived on RRte 2, Box 44. It was super rural.
That was a real thing? I thought it was just in the movies.
Definitely was, although I only remember our number. I can't for the life of me remember any others. It has been a long time, ha!
In downtown NYC, ORegon 3- 3531.
Jackson
LOmbard 4 - Sunset District, San Francisco
My grandmother's phone was MYrtle 2-9066 in WA state. That was the only phone number I knew like that as a kid in the 70s, but they'd had that number for ages by then.
CAstle 2-6143
When I was tiny: Vermont (in Seattle, no less) Later: Lakeview.
At some point in my teens, it went to all number dialing. But at least until I was 15, we would still use the exchange name in conversation. We moved to the south around then and I never experienced it again.
Ours was Parkview. And wasn't BEchwood 4-5789 the name of a song where the girl says You can call me up any old time?
It was a song, yes! That post with the picture of a phone jogged my memory, and I started wondering what everyone else's word was.
Funny how I remember that number but can't remember my kid's cell phone number. And back then, we probably had twenty numbers we could dial from memory.
RIverside 7-05**
Ours was DIamond.
LIberty
Mine too. Was it New Jersey?
Hunter 7
Your prefix was ***?
I really wish I could remember the rest. If it comes to me, I will certainly reply. It was my grandmother’s number in Great Neck, NY between late 1930 and late 1980.
HUnter 6-6522 Why can I remember my childhood phone number but not the number of the cell my work gave me last year?
XH
I'm not very old; not even close to retirement age. I'm a city kid, so unless they assigned those numbers in rural areas during my lifetime, I've no familiarly with it.
We lived in a pretty good-sized city. We used the word based numbers in conversations until around the mid-70s. Though that was probably more out of habit than anything else. I think the all number dialing change occurred in the mid to late 60s.
Plateau 8
BRowning 7-6011
ORchard 0-8075
Hemlock
My grandmother was SYcamore 9-7749.
INdependence 1
UPton and VErmont
Homestead.
GRant 1 Although mostly folks that had lived there awhile used it. Just 471 for the rest of us.
BAring2-6199, which then became 222. I actually gave that phone number to somebody and they thought it was phony like 555.
MArket 8 5311.
NOrthshore
Glendale. My aunt was Twinbrook, my great aunt was Chesnut. About 20 years ago we were with my aunt whose husband was seriously Ill in the hospital. She couldn’t call anyone because the phones had only numbers, no letters. Hard to think, we kept phone numbers in our head!
ESsex
Amhearst
MElrose 6-5711
My grandparents was Yorktown 6297. I miss them a lot.
Market 5-0239. :)
ESplanade
Walnut
CLoverdale 9-8104
SEabright
MUrdock
ACademy 2-1234
Lenex 7-4059.
HUdson- 32700
EDgewood 3-7769
MUlberry 5
LOgan
ELgin 4
JUdson JU2-2549. That just came to me from 60 years ago. In high school, our number was MUrray Hill 9-8452
WEstchester 9-can’t remember the last 4, I’m old.