DU'ers, did your first phone number have a word in it?

[CreekDog]

[bluesbassman]

1. No, but it had a coin slot above it.

[IADEMO2004]

6. I hear that.

[pnwmom]

2. Vanderbilt, I think. n/t

[NV Whino]

3. Yep

FRontier

[Art_from_Ark]

4. CRestwood

CR = 27

[ellenfl]

182. mine was crestwood too. crestwood 8-2362. i can't believe i remember it. eom

[Art_from_Ark]

184. You weren't in Bentonville, by any chance?

[ellenfl]

188. nope. palm beach county, florida.

[LiberalElite]

5. my family's number

started with TU (TUlip)

[DeeDeeNY]

97. Me too!

It started Tulip 2.

[LiberalElite]

120. Yeah - Tulip 2 -

Bronx, NY?

[bettyellen]

216. TAlmedge9-8305. East Bronx.

[DeeDeeNY]

245. Yes. Mosholu Parkway.

[LiberalElite]

256. neighbors!

205th and Webster

[DeeDeeNY]

257. I was one block up from Webster!

I have very fond memories of that area

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Yes. EMerson 6

In Charlotte. My earliest memories were before that and we only dialed 5 digits. My grandmother was 2-2901.

Check out this site: http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

and the 'official' exchange names list: http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html

[etherealtruth]

8. SLocum

... not completely sure if the phone number really still had "slocum" in it, but that is how my mom referred to it when I was little (born in '62)

[madamesilverspurs]

9. GRant (1952)

Then BElmont (1954)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. MIdway.

That was the first one I remember, anyhow.

[scarletwoman]

145. Was that a St. Paul number?

It's really familiar to me.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

189. Yes, it was.

We lived in Falcon Heights.

[scarletwoman]

191. I'm thinking it was my family's telephone prefix when I was quite young.

We lived near University and Snelling until I was about 10. Then we moved to the east side and our prefix was PRospect.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

199. Sounds about right.

There was also a MElrose exchange in the area but I don't remember exactly where that was.

[scarletwoman]

204. Good grief - I remember that one, too, now that you've brought it up.

I had quite a few relatives on both sides of my family scattered about the St. Paul area. So I'm thinking at least one of them must have had that exchange. But I have no idea which area it would have been, either. Some families were in Roseville, some were in the Highland Park area, and one set of grandparents was in West St. Paul, across the river.

Man, this thread has been a trip!

[freshwest]

11. Yes.

[Ron Green]

12. My first phone number was 3038. That's it.

Small town, long time ago.

[Oilwellian]

93. Same here

2187, small town, long ago. Ugh.

[lob1]

111. Our first number was only 6 digits...and that was in Chicago.

FAirfax 0148. Around 1944 or so they went to 7 digits. I was just a kid so I don't remember when. No area codes yet.

[Silver Swan]

212. The first phone number I recall

was just 2142 in a small town/rural Michigan area.

[randr]

13. Wyman99454

[Vincardog]

14. TEmple

[LiberalEsto]

87. Pompton Lakes, NJ?

Ours was TEmple too.

[Vincardog]

186. Florissant MO. Right across 270 from Fergusson

[Wounded Bear]

89. Me too....(TEmple 3)

Auburn, WA

[antiquie]

15. Oxbow.

[Arkansas Granny]

16. MAyfair. We were on an 8 party line.

Eight families sharing one telephone line. And my kids wonder why I look at my smartphone as something miraculous.

[AtomicKitten]

17. National 93292

God I'm old.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

18. The answer will give away your age

[CreekDog]

40. Well, I don't think it will give away my age

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

57. Yeah, because like me you didnt answer LOL

[snooper2]

240. I guess you don't know how rate centers work LOL

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

243. Not only that, I dont know what rate center is LOL

[kelliekat44]

19. Yes, the name of our town...followed by numbers and ending with a letter. I still remember it. nt

[elias49]

20. JAmaica Plain

ja4-5006...can't believe it's still in memory after 60 years. My grandmother's home.

[lpbk2713]

43. HIngham6-NNNN

It was the early 1950's. One phone for the whole house, no extensions.

(I was born in Jamaica Plain BTW )

[elias49]

51. I was born in '52. Lived in Hyde Park til I was 14.

Used to take the T thru Forest Hills. And on into JP. Crazy memories.

[Contrary1]

21. FLeetwood 9

Sounds like a song title.

[El Supremo]

81. I had FLeetwood 7 in Dallas.

Can't quite remember the other 4 numbers.

[CTyankee]

223. I don't remember any of my Dallas phone numbers but when I moved to NYC

it was MUrray Hill. I still have my personal phone directory from that time. I was showing my son and his wife what those exchanges looked like...they loved it!

[enough]

22. Mendenhall (nt)

[KamaAina]

23. Berryville, Ark., where I used to visit over summer, had five-digit dialing

The local exchange was 423. The only other exchange in the local calling area was the next town over, Green Forest (438). So you could strip off the 42 and just dial 3 and the number.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. Meanwhile, on the other side of the White River/Beaver Lake,

the big towns had exchange names-- Crestwood for Bentonville, Melrose for Rogers, and Pleasant for Springdale.

[KamaAina]

63. That must have been before my time

mid-'70s.

[Art_from_Ark]

69. I think they phased the exchange names out in the early '70s

I'm thinking '71 or '72 in Benton County.

[GP6971]

166. Ours were phased out in mid 60s

Som posters mentioned party lines. During the 50s, my 3 spinster great aunts lived together and constantly complained that someone was always listening in to their phone conversations. They were great gossipers and come to find out that they listened to other's conversations as much as they were listened to. My parents always laughed about that!

[KT2000]

24. PArkway

two party line.

[treestar]

25. Olympia

I vaguely remember, soon after that everyone was using the 7 digits.

[WheelWalker]

26. GReenwood 6

[uppityperson]

27. ADam

[Jackpine Radical]

28. No. It was 314-R.

To, make a call, you picked up the receiver & cranked it. If the person you were calling was on your party line, you just rang their "distinctive ring." Our "distinctive ring" was made by giving the crank three short bursts. My uncle, also on the same line, was two shorts. To call someone not on your line, you had to get the operator, which you did with a single short ring. If you picked up the phone when it was already in use, etiquette demanded that you hang up immediately. However, curiosity often demanded tht you listen in for a little while.


This is just about exactly what that old phone looked like, to the best of my memory.

[libdem4life]

74. That's the one. Memories. Ours was 4 shorts and a long...and you could pick up the phone really

carefully and eavesdrop on anyone...no operator. I got caught once...Mother was not amused.

Then we moved "uptown" and had a regular telephone that the operator answered when we picked up the receiver..."Operator" SNL of the 50s...ultimately I escaped to the West Coast and then got a real number OX for Oxford. You could tell the city/suburb you lived in by the prefix.

Then came the Area Codes...213 and 714...LA and Orange County. Then the digital explosion.

OMG, that's old.

[Wellstone ruled]

100. Our number was 13 and like you,one short and Molly would conect you to whom ever

you needed to speak to. Everyone was on a Party Line with some up to ten to twelve houses. If it was a emergency,Molly would break in to a conversation to complete your call. Living in a tiny town was interesting to say the least. BTW,we didn't get dial phones until 1956,as well as electricity. Politics in small town Wisconsin in the fifties.

[ND-Dem]

146. We didn't have a party line, but our rural cousins did. Clear into the 60s.

[Jackpine Radical]

209. We didn't get dial until a decade after you.

I grew up in the woods near Hayward. Feral childhood, actually.

[Wellstone ruled]

253. Gee,home of Bigfoot.

By the way JR,lived down hwy 63 on the Polk and Barron County line. Towns claim to fame-Mistake by the lake Casino. Built on a ancient burial ground,one of Wisconny's famous land swaps in order to produce jobs. Remember Impact 7,need I say more. The land at one time belonged to the fellow who owned the Phone company.

[bigwillq]

29. No (nt)

[immoderate]

30. DIckens 5 in Brooklyn. Then we moved to FAr Rockaway 7.

Rockaway is a giant sand bar, that will soon be reclaimed by the Atlantic.

--imm

[elleng]

49. MAin 5 in Brooklyn,

then ROckville Centre something. Have to think about that!

[immoderate]

62. Ah. The Brooklyn diaspora!

Movin' to the 'burbs.

--imm

[elleng]

70. Yes, we did,

but not for the 'usual' reasons. My mother passed away, we lived in Brooklyn at the time. Dad later decided to remarry, and our adopted mother's brother + family lived in RVC, so we joined them there.

My birth mother's family stayed in the City, grandparents in Bronx, aunts + uncles Brooklyn + Queens, so I don't know WHAT we'd have done, had we not lost my mother.

[RoccoR5955]

126. We had DIckens 4 and

NIghtingale 9
in Brooklyn.

[Princess Turandot]

31. Oregon. In NYC: go figure nt

[hifiguy]

32. Yeppers!

When I was but a wee lad our family phone number's prefix was TUxedo.

Holy cow, I am old.

[Habibi]

83. Ours was too! TUxedo2, in Westerville Ohio

[hifiguy]

85. i was in Bloomington MN.

[Old Codger]

172. Plymouth Minn.

ORchard, then changed to LIberty 5, then went to 545- which was still LI5

[Rolo]

33. yup

POrter 4

[TheCowsCameHome]

34. Yes, and the numbers were Roman Numerals

No, not actually, but it began with WE(st) followed by four digits.

[Auggie]

35. Yes ... CLifford 6

[livetohike]

36. Yes. It was Fairview. I still remember my Grandparents'. They were

Brandywine and Valley.

[Journeyman]

37. OSborne . . .

[catnhatnh]

38. Yep

the two local exchanges were DRexel and EDison.....

[struggle4progress]

39. Yep

[Little Star]

41. POrter.

[Purveyor]

192. We had 'POrter', too. Jackson, Michigan.

[Little Star]

210. Southbridge, MA for me.......

Here's a couple of our old telephone books from back in the day. Big difference between 1955 to 1966. I remember both of these. Time sure does fly.

1955



1966

[elleng]

42. Sure did!

MAin 5 6521!

[Cleita]

44. Yes. I guess that gives one's age away. n/t

[onenote]

45. yes.

[gregcrawford]

46. Yep. CApital 7-9307

In Westport, CT. And I can still remember it after nearly 60 years! When we moved to Southwestern Mass. near Great Barrington in Berkshire County, we still had party lines. That number was 1127W! Damn... I'm OLD! We got direct dial in 1958.

[haikugal]

47. Garfield....

That was in Chula Vista CA in the fifties. We're old....

[B Calm]

48. Hickory

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

50. Pennsylvania 6 or was it Butterfield 8? I don't remember.

[LeftishBrit]

52. When I was a little kid, our phone number began with LAK...

which stood for Lakeside. Not a real place name in fact; but it was the term for our neighbourhood in the phone directory of that time.


This was in London (England) in the late 60s.

[virgogal]

53. Of course. Stadium.

[sheshe2]

54. Lol~

Yup

[Hangingon]

55. CYes. Taylor 1 was ours.

I remember that some folks with prestigious exchanges objected to going straight numeric.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

56. Yes and a party line.

[4139]

58. BEverly 8 - 9373

[Freddie]

59. KEystone 6-5319

That was my parents' number from before I was born til they went into assisted living in 2009. My grandparents lived in a little town with a "mom and pop" phone company and I remember they could only make long distance calls by calling the operator, who then placed the call.
Yes our smartphones are truly miraculous!

[cordelia]

61. FRanklin

[hunter]

64. Yes. STate. And it was a party line too.

If you picked the phone up and people were talking then any polite person was expected to hang up, unless it was a dire emergency.

My great grandma had an even more primitive phone system, crank telephones and a dozen plus homesteads on a single line. You never picked up the phone on a neighbor's ring pattern, but of course many nosy neighbors did, especially the Mormon families.

My ancestors maintained the phone lines, they were the local water masters too, and otherwise made good business as don't ask, don't tell, trusted won't-stab-you-in-the-back non-Mormons, the sort one might ask to settle a dispute outside of church politics, or buy U.S.A. Prohibition era Canadian alcohol from.

[meaculpa2011]

65. In our first apartment we had a...

BUtterfield 8 number.

[WillowTree]

66. First one was 'Gunderson'. Second one was 'Sunset'. No exchange names after that.

[ChosenUnWisely]

67. Party Line but don't remember the word number

Didn't everyone but the wealthy have a party line back then?

[tencats]

68. TAlcott 5-5309

HA _ amazing that I can remember. When did it change to all numerical?

[pinto]

71. Yes. Still remember it to this day.

We were often out and about as kids. I think my mother schooled us to make it ingrained in case it was needed. Or it just stuck with me.

[adigal]

72. Arrochar which meant 273...I forgot that nt

[underpants]

73. BADASS

[Gormy Cuss]

75. Yes!

It only had 5 digits (5-7734) but when you read it upside down it was a potty word.

[safeinOhio]

76. IVanhoe

[roody]

225. Ivahoe4 here

[Hoppy]

77. When I was a young'un, the town was the exchange.

My town was Millburn (NJ).

# was Millburn 6-0209-J. I had to memorize that in case I was kidnapped or lost.

Then, in 1953, we went to dial and Millburn 6 was changed to Dr(exel) 6.

Years later, we went to straight numbers.

[bvf]

78. Yep. I'm that old, but apparently in like company.

Last edited Tue Feb 3, 2015, 02:46 AM - Edit history (1)

OLympic.

651-1809, Cleveland, OH.

Seems some things you never forget.

[Luminous Animal]

79. Fairview

[Demit]

80. Regent. And no area code, neither.

[braddy]

82. Yes

[LiberalEsto]

84. Yes

TEmple 9...

[Eugene]

86. TAlbot 5

Boston in the mid 1960's

[scarletwoman]

88. Wow, now there's a trip back in time! Ours was PRospect, but I can't remember the rest. nt

[Frosty1]

133. St Paul MN?

Mine too.

[scarletwoman]

141. Wow! Yeah, St. Paul MN - born (1949) and raised.

What fun to meet a fellow St. Paulite who remembers that far back!

Btw, do you ever visit the Minnesota Group? http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1059

[central scrutinizer]

90. DUpont 2 - 5662

So I guess I was on DU back in 1956

[outside]

91. Yes

ATlantic 2-9719. San Gabriel Ca. 1965.

[Martin Eden]

92. GLobe

rotary dial, of course

[DinahMoeHum]

94. Yes, back in the day it was TEnnyson

n/t

[TNNurse]

95. All I remember is just 4 digits

I use that number as a password sometimes. Our neighbor next door answered her phone "3 5 0 5".

[redwitch]

96. Yes! Ours was Juniper

Which I always though quite lovely.

[Rhiannon12866]

193. Where was this? I remember ours being JU, no idea what it stood for.

This was when we lived in Ticonderoga and I was pretty young.

[redwitch]

195. central NJ

I wonder what yours stood for too.

[Rhiannon12866]

196. Guess it's not the same then, damn! Now I'm wondering...

Last edited Tue Feb 3, 2015, 01:37 AM - Edit history (1)

I also remember that my grandmother had RH in Hudson Falls, but she always had that number, became 747 in more recent years. But I never knew what that stood for, either, never did cross my mind. I was kinda hoping my JU stood for Juniper, too.

[rhett o rick]

98. Yes ATwood 4508. We had a four party extension and my dad made it plain

that the phone was not for chit-chat but a necessity for his work (he was a union member and often on call, not a bookie if that's where your mind was going). At some point they needed to make the numbers longer and it went to PRospect 4-4508. We has a very small house and had a 50 ft cord some we could go into the closet for privacy.

In fact the first time I called a girl for a date, I walked a mile to use a pay phone. I didn't get the date, she was dating an older football player with a car.

[yourmovemonkey]

99. TUlip 2

And my mother still sometimes tells it to people that way. My parents have had the same phone number for nearly 60 years.

[Demeter]

101. VEntnor

VE8-6018

I had a horrible time the first try at calling home....confusing the 0 with the O...I was 6, maybe 7?

I remember being on a party line, but somehow the rings were only for us...and eventually, Detroit got direct dialing...but the phone numbers didn't change.

I always thought it should have been "Vernor's"

Our phone looked like this:



Grandma's looked like this:

[kimbutgar]

102. Bay view which was 221

My 92 year old Mother still has the number.

[Sherman A1]

103. Yes,

it was also a party line.

[Hekate]

104. Are you trying to gauge how old we are? Mine was EMpire9-4939 in San Fernando Valley

We had a heavy black rotary telephone manufactured to last through the ages.

[vkkv]

105. El Gato 4 (354)

Los Gatos, CA

[jopacaco]

106. Tuxedo and Essex in Western PA

Mine was tuxedo in Pittsburgh and my husband, who is from Aliquippa PA, had essex.

[Thor_MN]

107. Sort of. LAKeside (525) but it really wasn't used by the time I knew what a phone was.

My mom still has that number.

[japple]

109. SHerwood. 746-9345. Before the days of area codes!

eom

[New Orleans Strong]

110. Wow. Yes -

GRanite. Makes me old as granite I suppose.

[Crabby Appleton]

112. Yes, Hudson 8 nt

[3catwoman3]

113. It did.

CLearwater 4. Later, there was another one that started with a G but I don't remember the word.

We live in the greater Chicago area, and there are so many people we have to use our area code just to call next door.

[HomerRamone]

114. WAtertown 3-

[madokie]

115. Gr which was short for Grover

Its just 479 now

[PasadenaTrudy]

116. SYcamore 9 n/t

[KatyaR]

117. LOL, my first phone number was 3 digits.

Ours was 401, my grandparents a mile away had 402. It was a party line. I think I was 12 or 13 when we got a 7-digit phone number, but I think we only had to dial the last 4 digits. I was so excited.

[tosh]

118. No - 4 digits.

[ChazII]

119. Whitney n/t

[Fuddnik]

121. Clearwater. That was in Cleveland. Now I live in Clearwater Florida.

Psychic Phones.

[RoccoR5955]

122. Yes it did.

Even after the words were part of the phone exchange, I have made a hobby of making words out of my phone numbers.

[bahrbearian]

123. TRinity

[SaveOurDemocracy]

124. CEntral 2-

If you were calling another CE 2 #, you just dialed the last 4 numbers.

[greatauntoftriplets]

125. Briargate.

[ananda]

127. Yes

Franklin

[Mz Pip]

128. MAfair

Later it was just 629-0931.

Don't anybody try to call me; this was from decades ago. Funny that I can remember my phone number from when I was 12 but can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

[cloudbase]

129. Yep. MUseum

Guess that makes me something of an old fart.

[onecent]

132. think we got a few of us here .....

[Stonepounder]

130. TRinity-8-4477 n/t

[onecent]

131. 654 and sharing with multiple families for the line

Wow..I feel older than I did before...lol

[MineralMan]

134. Nope. We had operators in my town until 1963.

Our home phone number was 326, and my father's work number was 42. You picked up the phone and the operator said, "Number, please."

In 1963, the town finally got dial phones. People took a while to warm up to that.

[CK_John]

135. Mine was Wadsworth 7 something.

[Denis 11]

136. yes

FO4-2924 (36)= Fordahm 50 years ago It was a party line.

[fredamae]

137. On the farm we had an assigned

number on a Party Line.......Tap the buttons a few times...like a Morse Code type thing...and it would ring that households code - All could hear the phone ring, and you had to listen to see if anyone was "ringing" for you and even tho anyone could listen in (kinda like NSA ) it was a code of honor that one never picked up the phone for anothers ring...yet Somehow, Everyone on the line seemed to know Everything about All the neighbors
Then, we moved into town and "modernized"... we dialed AMherst.......

[Bette R. Daize]

152. And if you were too good for a party line...

...and paid more for a private line, everyone gossiped about what you had to hide....

[fredamae]

173. Lol-ain't That the truth?

We didn't have a choice, however. We were stuck in "the community".... Remember how Heavy the just the receivers were?

[Omaha Steve]

138. KEnwood

Mom had that number from 1945 until she died in 2012.

She was pissed when her bank got bought and they changed her account #.

[gopiscrap]

139. The first number I remember having had the word

Skyline in it. I used to like it you could tell what part of town a person lived in by their suffix such as mine sk = north end lo=University Place gr=south fu=downtown etc

[KauaiK]

140. DIckens

DI2-6874. As an adult I lived on the Central Coast of California where we only used 5 digits.

[mainstreetonce]

142. Hemlock

Some people, in town had Federal

[valerief]

143. Yes.

[No Vested Interest]

144. East was my parent's exchange;

Later changed to 321.
My phone number for 54 yrs. has been 871****. That used to be Trinity. I can't remember if Hubby and I started with Trinity or 871.

[Curmudgeoness]

147. DIamond.

But at least I didn't have to use an operator to make a call---it was always a dial phone.

[DUgosh]

148. Wilstead

262

[Jack Rabbit]

149. HOward

I don't know who Howard is, but it was long before there was a know-nothing sportscaster by that name.

[NBachers]

150. ELmwood 2-8112 from the early '50's. I looked up my San Francisco 647 prefix in a

1955 phone book; the word was MIssion. So my answering machine says, "This is MIssion 7-38XX." I like using the word for my phone number.

Yes, I still have a landline.

[jalan48]

151. Yes-SKY-I think they still delivered milk in bottles also.

[phylny]

153. Ivanhoe

[GP6971]

154. Sure did.......OL for Oliver, TW for Tewillerger

and I can't remember what my number prefix GI stood for.

[IcyPeas]

155. BOulevard

[jtuck004]

156. Melrose. (In Oklahoma) n/t

[pinboy3niner]

157. EMpire 4-2177

In L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. Party line.

[Bavorskoami]

158. Yes, Hilltop 5-XXXX and it was a party line.

On the party line our ring was different than the neighbors'.

[Useless in FL]

159. First Phone Number

Our first phone number (Year 1949) was 8077. 12 party line. Later on we were lucky to have an 8 party line and then about 1954 we got a private line and the number became Blackburn 2-8077. Then came the area codes.....

[olddots]

160. MOtrose 8 something or other

The phone before that didn't have a dial ......am I father time here ?

[Stargleamer]

161. BEechwood 4-5789

when I was at that number, I used to get calls asking for dates, for some reason.

[rpannier]

162. I was botn in 1964

But I think the area I grew up in from ages 2-7 was FR3.
Redondo Beach California

[Harriety]

163. Midway

[roguevalley]

164. Yes. I also had a phone that had four numbers to dial. I also

remember being on a party line. You waited for your ring and ignored (mostly) the others.

[AgingAmerican]

165. Chestnut

nt

[JDPriestly]

167. Well, it had the first letters of a word in it.

[ybbor]

168. Cedar

4-6126.

When I moved out west, the town was so small we all had the same prefix. We just had to give our last four digits. Then cell phones took all the rest and our little town had three prefixes.

[GP6971]

169. Connecticut

BR.......have no idea what it stood for

[GeorgeGist]

170. PArkway 27382.

[Cooley Hurd]

171. Here's the Wikipedia page regarding Telephone exchange names:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names#Standardization

<snip>
Standardization

Mapping of letters to dialed digits in the 1950s

dialed - digit / letters
1
2 A B C
3 D E F
4 G H I
5 J K L
6 M N O
7 P R S
8 T U V
9 W X Y
0 Z

In 1955, AT&T distributed a list of recommended exchange names that were the result of studies to minimize misunderstandings when spoken.[4][5] The recommendation was intended for newly established exchanges, and did not mandate any renaming of existing historical names. The number sequences 55x, 57x, 95x, and 97x had no exchange names specified, as the mappings for the digits 5, 7, and 9 had no vowels, thus making it difficult finding names with those consonant combinations. As a result, those numbers were very seldom assigned to exchanges (KLondike was used for 55x in San Francisco and Columbus, OH, and WRigley for 97x, specifically WRigley 5 for 975, in Chicago). On the telephone dial, letters were mapped to digits using the assignments in the table.

The recommended list of exchange names was:
22x: ACademy, BAldwin, CApital, CAstle
23x: ADams, BElmont, BEverly, CEdar, CEnter, CEntral
24x: CHapel, CHerry, CHestnut, CHurchill, CIrcle
25x: ALpine, BLackburn, CLearbrook, CLearwater, CLifford, CLinton
26x: AMherst, ANdrew, COlfax, COlony, COngress
27x: BRidge, BRoad(way), BRown(ing), CRestview, CRestwood
28x: ATlantic, ATlas, ATwater, ATwood, AVenue, BUtler
29x: AXminster, AXtel, CYpress
32x: DAvenport, DAvis, EAst(gate), FAculty, FAirfax, FAirview
33x: DEerfield, DEwey, EDgewater, EDgewood, EDison, FEderal
34x: DIamond, DIckens, FIeldbrook, FIeldstone, FIllmore, FIrestone
35x: ELgin, ELliot, ELmwood, FLanders, FLeetwood
36x: EMerson, EMpire, ENdicott, FOrest, FOxcroft
37x: DRake, DRexel, ESsex, FRanklin, FRontier
38x: DUdley, DUnkirk, DUpont, EVergreen, FUlton
39x: EXbrook, EXeter, EXport, EXpress
42x: GArden, GArfield, HAmilton, HArrison, HAzel
43x: GEneral, GEneva, HEmlock, HEmpstead, IDlewood
44x: GIbson, GIlbert, HIckman, HIckory, HIllcrest, HIlltop
45x: GLadstone, GLencourt, GLendale, GLenview, GLobe
46x: HObart, HOmestead, HOpkins, HOward, INgersoll
47x: GRanite, GReenfield, GReenleaf, GReenwood, GRidley, GRover
48x: HUbbard, HUdson, HUnter, HUntley, HUxley, IVanhoe
49x: GYpsy, HYacinth, HYatt
52x: JAckson, LAfayette, LAkeside, LAkeview, LAmbert, LAwrence
53x: JEfferson, KEllogg, KEystone, LEhigh, LEnox
54x: KImball, KIngsdale, KIngswood, LIberty, LIncoln, LInden
56x: JOhn, JOrdan, LOcust, LOgan, LOwell
58x: JUniper, JUno, JUstice, LUdlow, LUther
59x: LYceum, LYndhurst, LYnwood, LYric
62x: MAdison, MAin, MArket, MAyfair, NAtional
63x: MEdford, MElrose, MErcury, NEptune, NEwton, NEwtown
64x: MIdway, MIlton, MIssion, MItchell, NIagara
65x: OLdfield, OLive, OLiver, OLympia, OLympic
66x: MOhawk, MOntrose, MOrris, NOrmandy, NOrth(field)
67x: ORange, ORchard, ORiole, ORleans, OSborne
68x: MUrdock, MUrray, MUseum, MUtual, OVerbrook, OVerland
69x: MYrtle, OWen, OXbow, OXford
72x: PAlace, PArk(view), PArk(way), RAndolph, RAymond, SAratoga
73x: PErshing, REd(field), REd(wood), REgent, REpublic
74x: PIlgrim, PIoneer, RIver(side), RIver(view), SHadyside, SHerwood
75x: PLateau, PLaza, PLeasant, PLymouth, SKyline
76x: POplar, POrter, ROckwell, ROger(s), SOuth(field)
77x: PRescott, PResident, PRospect, SPring, SPruce
78x: STate, STerling, STillwell, STory, SUffolk, SUnset,
79x: PYramid, SWathmore, SWift, SWinburne, SYcamore
82x: TAlbot, TAlmadge, TAylor, VAlley, VAndyke
83x: TEmple(ton), TEnnyson, TErminal, TErrace, VErnon
84x: THornwell, TIlden, VIctor(ia), VIking, VInewood
85x: ULrick, ULster, ULysses
86x: TOwnsend, UNderhill, UNion, UNiversity, VOlunteer
87x: TRemont, TRiangle, TRinity, TRojan, UPtown
88x: TUcker, TUlip, TUrner, TUxedo
89x: TWilight, TWinbrook, TWining, TWinoaks
92x: WAbash, WAlker, WAlnut, WArwick, WAverly
93x: WEbster, WEllington, WElls, WEst(more), YEllowstone
94x: WHitehall, WHitney, WIlliam(s), WIlson, WIndsor
96x: WOodland, WOodlawn, WOodward, WOrth, YOrktown
98x: YUkon
99x: WYandotte, WYman, WYndown

Fictitious phone numbers starting with 55 used the fictitious exchange name KLondike (55). The letters Q and Z were never used in the naming system, but Z was often mapped on the telephone dial to the digit 0 (zero).
</snip>

[beveeheart]

206. Interesting. Thanks.

[secondvariety]

174. I can't remember if my family did

but I DO remember some company's radio jingle with "Hudson Three Two Seven Hundred" in the chorus.

[sorefeet]

175. Twinbrook but better yet

grandma had a party line with her own ring. No privacy.

[shadowmayor]

176. No name on a party line

Didn't have a name on our party line but we did have a neighbor Gwen who was on the phone 24/7!!!

[RKP5637]

177. No, it was 4 numbers, actually had a private line. n/t

[Capt.Rocky300]

178. AXminster 7-2760 in West LA

The we moved and had JUniper 2-3220 in San Diego.

I remember those from 60 years ago but damn if I can remember where I put my car keys today.

[HeiressofBickworth]

179. The first one I remember

was GLencourt 61XX, the number we had when my family first moved to Washington in 1955. We had a phone where we lived in Indiana, but I don't remember the number. Later another number was added and it was GLencourt 4-61XX. I married and moved to Germany in 1964; we didn't have a phone in Germany. When we returned to Washington, I don't recall that there was a word in phone numbers.

When I lived in Australia, 1975-76, we lived in a very small town (400 people) 85 miles south of Sydney. Our number was 24XX and there was an actual switchboard operator who placed calls. She was pretty nosey and my mother and brother enjoyed playing tricks on her. Like when my mother sent a telegram from Bangkok Thailand asking for immediate import instructions for 12 water buffalo. The operator called and read the telegram to my brother who gave her no response whatsoever, just a polite thank you. I'm sure the operator never got the joke. (for those of you puzzled, it was a take on the story that Thai girls went to Bangkok and worked as prostitutes long enough to buy a water buffalo and then went home)

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

180. CAstle

222-2355

[jmowreader]

181. This is why you have letters on your telephone dial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names

None of the exchange names have an I or an O in their first two letters, and exchange numbers' second digits are never 0 or 1 - the first because they didn't want you dialing the wrong number accidentally, the second because that's how mechanical switchgear can tell the difference between an area code and an exchange code.

[dpibel]

183. ATwater 2- was the first I owned.

When I was a kid, we dialed five. Home number was 7-7268.

[2naSalit]

185. The first one I can remember

was PArkview 3, but I was in the third grade and I wasn't allowed to use the phone until I was twelve.

[hay rick]

187. FRontier 7-5525

60 years ago...

[Art_from_Ark]

190. Back in the day, all the phone numbers on TV shows started with "KLondike 5"

That is, "555", a prefix that was at the time only used for telephone information services.

[Ninga]

194. Detroit: LUzone. And TIffany

Somethings ya just never forget...

Both were part-lines too!

[spanone]

197. LIberty 72345....in the fifties

[Marrah_G]

198. I live in the one state where if you ask someone to write their number down.....

They don't put the area code first. Ahhh Rhode Island...

[JEB]

200. Our first phone number: 2 longs 1 short.

But we lived way out in the sticks. Our first phone (crank type wall phone) came when I was 6 got electricity the next year.

[tularetom]

201. Nah, the first phone I can recall was my grandfathers and you had to call through the operator

When we moved to Californy in the early 50's, we had a phone and the number was Parkway(I think, might have been Parkview) 343.

[Rhiannon12866]

205. My grandmother's phone was that way, too.

If you picked up the phone, you got an operator. My brother and I always gave her phone a wide berth...

[Adsos Letter]

202. BAldwin

I still remember it, and it has been over 45 years ago.

[vanlassie]

229. Mine too!

[Adsos Letter]

248. Were you in the SF Bay Area at the time?

[vanlassie]

255. Fresno.

[likesmountains 52]

203. SPring 7-1819....I loved the word prefix..

[840high]

207. Yes. Buttterfield....

[beveeheart]

208. GEneva 8 in Maryland

on a 2-party line with next door neighbor.

[PDittie]

211. ROckwell 9

4869

[Grammy23]

213. FLeetwood 2-0498

Jackson, MS. In 1950s

[mia]

214. OLiver

Bethesda, Md.

[Little Star]

215. Just for the heck of it here's the first telephone book.....

It wasn't actually a book but it seems to get the job done because not many people had phones in 1878.

[greymattermom]

217. Twinbrook

Yep, sure did

[sorefeet]

234. Twinbrook was

Hamilton, Ohio for me in the 50's I think.

[Blue_In_AK]

218. The first one I remember did,

but I remember my grandmother only having four numbers. And they were party lines.

[area51]

219. yes, PA. n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

220. We did.

MOhawk.
My grandparents also had party lines which were a hoot.

[In_The_Wind]

221. Yes

[ProfessorGAC]

222. Yes. Saratoga 6-3295

7-2 for the S and the A. How pathetic is it that i remember a phone number that hasn't been in the family since 1969?

[Liberal In Texas]

224. Lincoln...

LIncoln 33827.
Can't believe I still remember that, I suppose it was drilled into us as kids in case we had to call home if there was any trouble.

[Divernan]

226. WElls 2-2786, but one only dialed WE2-2786

[HappyMe]

227. Yup.

LIvingston8-43xx

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

228. Best demographic thread I've seen in a while

[Not Me]

230. FAirview 1040

And if we were calling other 'Fairview's' we only needed to dial the last 4 numbers.

[Paper Roses]

231. I still remember it: Lasell This was back in the 1940's.

Why do I remember this plus the number and can't remember 90% of my passwords?

Isn't old age great!

[gwheezie]

232. Humbolt. Nt

[CanonRay]

233. FIllmore 5

after our beloved 13th President. You know, the one nobody can name.

[Beausoleil]

235. BRoadway

I always wondered why they used KLondike 5 in old movies; then I found out that 555- numbers were reserved, still are.

[2pooped2pop]

236. clifford 3

which I think was 253. I know some small towns didn't have the prefix and you only had to dial the last 4.

[pandora nm]

237. HAzel

Will never forget that number!

[Thirties Child]

238. Mine had an initial - 59f12

It was one of those oak wall phones that are now antiques. Our ring was one long, two short. Two-long-one-short was having an affair and Mother followed it closely.

Later, another time, another place, our number started with TRinity.

[Tanuki]

239. My dad was stationed in New Caledonia in the South Pacific during the early days of WWII.

They weren't allowed to reveal where they were for security reasons, and their letters home were heavily censored. That didn't stop them from trying to drop hints in their letters, and he said that some of the soldiers from New York instructed their families to call a certain fur retailer, whose radio ads notably included the phone exchange "CAledonia....".

[Maeve]

241. GRanite4-4927--two short rings for us, one long for the neighbors

And you kept the calls short because someone else might need the phone.

[stevenleser]

242. PEnnsylvania 6-5000! Oh wait...

... that wasn't my number...

[trackfan]

244. Yep. CLinton.

We usually just said C-L.

[needledriver]

246. ELmwood 9-1284

That is still my Dad's phone number, although the area code changed a couple of times.

[raccoon]

247. If it did, that means you're older than dirt. nt

[Waiting For Everyman]

249. NOrthfield 8, and no area codes then.

No dialing "1" before the number either. And real operators gave free directory information by dialing zero.

[GliderGuider]

250. GEneral 88375

From 60 years ago. That shows you the mnemonic power of words...

[displacedtexan]

251. Yes. Jefferson 5-1101

And zipcodes were originally zones. We lived in zone 5.

I wonder how many people listen to "Return To Sender" and understand, "no such number, no such zone"?

[Bad Granny]

252. Yes - CH for Chestnut. Anyone remember calling your own phone by dialing 1191? Lots of fun. nt

[KansDem]

254. Yes! HArrison (42 x-xxxx )

Long Beach, CA

[TBF]

258. The first I remember had a party line -

we were in the country and I can remember sitting under the table listening on the phone to the neighbors talk. My mother wasn't all that amused.

[HereSince1628]

259. My parents phone, yes. My phone no.

30 years later, when that number had transferred from my parents to my older brother I still remembered it with SHerwood standing for seven and four

[Jim Lane]

260. Yes, and one that I know still does, sort of.

I came to NYC after numbers were officially seven digits. Nevertheless, many of the older lawyers who helped me with practical tips still used the old form, at least for one number in particular. For some reason, the number of the appellate court in Brooklyn was widely known as TRiangle 5-1300. To this day I remember it that way. A couple years ago somebody needed to know the number, so I just automatically said it that way. He was surprised to hear a word-based exchange.

The area code has changed (as NYC needed more phone numbers and new area codes were added) but when I call that court I still look for the T and the R.

Like other people responding to this thread, I still remember the first home phone number I learned, which began with a word. Tip: Something like that, that you still easily remember but that can't now be associated with you, makes a good base for a password.

[truegrit44]

261. Yes in So CA when I was growing up

It was Garfield 2, still remember it like yesterday. After they took away the GA prefix it just went to 442 and they had the same number until the 90's.

When I lived waaaaaaaaaaay out in Wyo in the late 70's we had a 4 party line with certain rings for each person on the line.