The house where I grew up started out in 21204 - Towson. Then one day, I woke up in 21234 - Parkville.
I had a drastic change in ZIP code once, and I am still kinda pissed off about it.
In the 1980s I lived a small suburb right near the city limits of a good-sized town. The USPS decided to redo the ZIP codes in the area, and overnight I “moved” from the city of Tulsa to the town of Broken Arrow. All but the first two digits of my ZIP code were changed. My husband, who operated an engineering consultancy out of our home, was stuck with hundreds of dollars’ worth of business cards and stationery with the old ZIP code on it. We were pretty annoyed that the USPS did this without any warning whatsoever. They notified us on the same day that the change became effective.
We went from 34643 to 33782 without moving or changing city names, but that’s because the USPS realigned some of the zips around here into a pattern that makes more sense.
Yep, mine just changed on July 27 from 92008 to 92010. Got several notices in the mail beforehand, and the last one informed us that the Post Office would reroute mail addressed to the old ZIP for one year.
Stupid part is that it has been over a month, and every time I have tried to update online info or order something online, none of the sites will accept the new ZIP. I put in the old one, and it takes it. Not that it’s a problem, and I know the US is huge, so keeping up on the changes from the Post Office would be a nightmare. But, c’mon Amazon! Probably the largest (in quantity) on line shipper of goods in the world, and they still don’t have this updated a month after the fact (and at least 6 months after it was announced).
Also, the local school district my kids go to can’t seem to get it right yet either. I know it’s summer and there are fewer personnel working right now, but again, they’ve known about this for at least 6 months. And it split their district!
All the postal codes near my parents rural NB community changed about 7 years ago or so. I think that was the reasoning there as well.
In the past, it was challenging trying to give directions to someone from out of the area. No signs, no (official) street names, no house numbers. Our address was rural route #whatever and then the nearest community with a post office.
My parents live just a few miles from your parents. 
When we first moved down in 1991, our zip code was 32646. It soon changed to 34446. (My parents have since moved to another zip code.)
I believe the area code also changed from (904) to (352) around that time.
Lake Orion, MI went from 48035 to 48362. I presume that Oxford, Lakeville, Ortonville, and a few other places undewent similar changes as Oakland County increased population in staggering ways, requiring new alignments of postal districts.
(They have also had two changes to the phone area codes, from Detroit’s 313 to 248 to 810.)
The lower tier of Geauga County, OH went from 44022 to 44023. This was a good thing. The 44022 post office is in Chagrin Falls, a village in Cuyahoga County which has higher taxes and much higher insurance rates. In the old days, it always took people weeks of arguing to get the proper insurance rates on their cars and houses and some out-of-state vendors insisted on charging the higher sales tax. For some reason, they left the name “Chagrin Falls” on the 44023 zip code, (they call it Chagrin Falls Annex), but at least the people in Bainbridge Twp., Auburn Twp., and western Troy Twp. are no longer fighting with their insurance companies, even when they have a “Chagrin Falls” mailing address.
(They have also had two changes to the phone area codes, from Detroit’s 313 to 810 to 248.)
My parent’s town and zip changed back in the early 90’s. They live in a rural area and their mail used to come through the post office two towns away, so they had their street adress, Diamond Springs, CA 95619. When the closer town started delivering mail they kept the same street adress, but had El Dorado, CA 95623 instead.
Yep, you’re probably closer to number of years ago it was than I stated - I was trying to figure out who I was going out with at the time it all changed. 
Suddenly, I no longer knew old friends’ addresses!
My old address used to be, simply: my name, R.R. #2, Pennfield, NB, old postal code. We all went to the same local post office.
Now these days, it would be (if I still lived there): my name, house number and street number, Pennfield, NB, brand spanking new postal code. Also, just about every street you turn onto has a different postal code! It used to be that the entire community/town shared the same postal code - it didn’t change until you changed towns.
At least they left our phone numbers alone. (If I remember correctly, the area code should be the same for all of NB - 506, right?) Ever since moving out here, sheesh. There are so many area codes within the state, I always have to ask someone if I’m making a long distance call or a local one. :smack:
When I was a kid, my zip code was changed. The old zip code was one assigned to a Brooklyn post office, even though we lived in Queens. After years of people asking for a change, it was changed to a Queens zip code.
Like madcossack, the biggest headache when our zip changed was that we suddenly had an “invalid” zip code everywhere.
C’mon folks, if someone says their zip code is 54321, that’s what you let them enter. They know better than you do. Sheesh.
The same thing happened to me when I lived in Essex , except it wasn’t quite as logical. It changed from CM7 8TW to CM77 6TW . Why they changed the 8 to a 6 is escapes me.
well not quite the same but when I was young it went from Box 69 to 10469 Bronx NY-aah to be young again
This may have been due to a change in postal delivery. The postal code is based on the delivery routes rather than the geographical area. If the old code was for postal box delivery at the local post office, they would all have the same code. If the town grows big enough to start door-to-door service, or to need suburban-style “super boxes”, then each route sector or super box location gets its own code. This why the other side of my street has a different postal code from my side - so the postman can separate the mail to be delivered as he walks down my side from the mail to be delivered on the return journey up the other side.
On a related note, I once had my own personal postal code! The street I was living on was several blocks long, but my house was the only one which actually faced onto it, so the postal code for the street (K2C 0R6) was valid only for my address.
Yup. I will not forget trying to make internet and phone orders in the late 90s and being told that I was wrong. Internet, well, I guess that’s just questionable programming. But when the customer service person on the phone accuses you of being an idiot who doesn’t know her own address… :mad:
must. not. make. fat. joke. Oh, what the hell!
<Wierd Al>::sings::
If I eat one more
pie a la mode
I’m gonna need
my own ZIP code
</Wierd All>