# Old Timey Telephone Numbers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956 "2018-07-15T18:22:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/81 "2018-07-17T15:06:31Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > We lived in a little town in Northern California in the early 60s where we only had to dial four digits because everybody in town was on the same exchange. It was similar to where I grew up in Tacoma, Washington. We lived in the Lennox exchange, the only numbers after the LE was 1 or 7. Dial 1 or 7 then the last 4 digits and the call went through. Still had to dial all 7 for numbers for calls outside our exchange. Still remember my mother getting upset when things changed and we had to dial all 7 numbers for calls within our exchange. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/82 "2018-07-17T15:22:38Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > It was similar to where I grew up in Tacoma, Washington. We lived in the Lennox exchange, the only numbers after the LE was 1 or 7. Dial 1 or 7 then the last 4 digits and the call went through. Still had to dial all 7 for numbers for calls outside our exchange. Still remember my mother getting upset when things changed and we had to dial all 7 numbers for calls within our exchange. Much the same here, except I go a little farther back: our number was PRoctor 9712 (the switching equipment was in a building just off Proctor street). Then TPC consolidated the exchanges downtown and folded PRoctor into SKyline with an added 2 or 7, and my father had a fit. Not sure whether it was the different exchange or the added digit, but he was convinced that it was the end of civilization as we knew it. Don’t know what he would think of the area code 564 overlay and the associated need to dial ten digits, but it probably wouldn’t be printable in a family magazine. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/83 "2018-07-17T15:48:42Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > That wasn’t real common, but yeah, some cities had competing telephone companies - usually Ma Bell and some other upstart. If you never wanted to call someone outside of the area, the local company might be a decent choice, but getting a connection to a Bell line to make a long distance call could be anywhere from challenging to impossible. There’s still an independent phone company around here, the [Pattersonville Telephone Company](http://www.ptcconnect.net/). It was a small area and didn’t connect to other exchanges directly – anything else was long distance. They set up local service to Schenectady in 1952 and are still doing fine. Verizon doesn’t want to invest in the infrastructure needed to compete. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/84 "2018-07-17T17:04:32Z")
Just to add, I live in a very old traditional community (yay me), which normally still expresses it’s phone number as 4 digits, which would be the last 4 of their modern day number. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/85 "2018-07-17T17:47:50Z")
in 1963, the times they were-a-changin’, and phone numbers did too. But comedian Alan Sherman didn’t like it! He wrote a funny song about organizing a protest demonstration to bring back those good 'ol phone exchanges with names which everybody liked. That new-fangled “all digit dialing” was just too much of a shock. He proposed the outlandishly funny idea of masses of people leaving AT&T and switching to another phone company.\* And then he goes on: “Let’s keep those beautiful names alive Crestview Six, Gramercy Five Get ready to fight before it’s too late Temple 2, Murray Hill Eight” [Lets all call up ATT&T and Protest to the President](https://mojim.net/us_video_u2_bHTazxaQ9bs.html?h=129446x2x32) \*Remember, little boys and girls: back in grandpa’s day, there were no other phone companies) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/86 "2018-07-17T18:04:08Z")
Phone number stuff from the UK: Somewhere in the attic I still have the old green rotary phone we had when I was a kid. When my parents first got it in the early 1970s, our number was just 3556, and that’s what it still says on the little paper insert in the dial, but two digits were added onto the front of that before I started making phone calls. But what I do remember was the utterly byzantine system of “local codes”. The codes we have nowadays, like 01483 for Guildford and so on, did exist (as 0483 back then), but if you were calling a place on the local exchange, and didn’t want to be charged for long distance, you had to use a local code, which seemed to be totally random and would vary from one digit (to call the next big town to us you added a 3 to the number) to five digits (calling a village a few miles away you’d have to add 93429). ---
**Author:** ![Milt\_Roemney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b77776/32.png) [@Milt\_Roemney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milt_Roemney)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/87 "2018-07-17T18:20:34Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Eventually that system also reached its limits: you can’t spell anything for a number beginning with 95. ZLoty? Probably only good in Chicago tho. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/88 "2018-07-17T20:54:41Z")
OK, now I’m wondering, because one of my childhood friends (early 80s) had a phone number that did start with 95. Whenever that number was established, did they try to find word for it, or just give up and call it 95? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/89 "2018-07-18T04:24:42Z")
95X and 97X weren’t used for regular local phone numbers until all-digit dialing had become the standard in the 1960s. In the days of exchange names, those groups were supposedly “Reserved for Radiotelephone Service,” but outside of LA and New York, I doubt they were used at all. I worked at a Chicago business in the 1980s with a 95X number. Though I realized its peculiar significance, I never tried to figure out exactly when it might have been assigned. A similar concept was [ZEnith or Enterprise numbers,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_number) a sort of predecessor to WATS (800 numbers) whereby the called party paid for the call. You couldn’t, of course, dial a ZEnith number; you had to ask the operator to connect you. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/90 "2018-07-18T06:02:59Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > The phone numbers where I currently live were MOhawk back in the day, although “the day” was before I moved here. > > I found an archived email a list of [“recommended” exchange names](http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/history/exchange.names.recommended) from Bell. Five for each two digit combination. Hey, thanks for posting that list! I grew up with TWinbrook 2 (south suburban St. Louis) and often wondered where they got that name. I guess maybe we weren’t the only ones in the country with TWinbrook. This has been a fun thread. When I grew up in the 50s and 60s we were on a party line (with a number in the exchange I mentioned above.) As far as I know, it was our family and one other a few blocks away. Our phone would only ring for a call to our number. Of course sometimes we’d pick up to make a call and hear the other party talking. At some point, maybe in the early 70s, our phone began ringing for calls to the other party. My dad complained to the phone company (Southwestern Bell, now AT&T again of course) and it turned out that the other party had added something (maybe an answering machine, don’t remember) that upset the apple cart. Shortly thereafter, we were still on the party line (dad was tight, we were on it cuz cheaper) but the other party went to a private line and Bell never added anyone else. At some point of course party lines were done away with. Reminds me, we were also on something called a “40 call”. Paid less a month and didn’t exceed 40 calls, otherwise I guess there was a penalty charged. Like I said, dad was tight. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/91 "2018-07-18T11:38:30Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I never heard about callers refusing to hang up and blocking the other person’s phone, though. That was normal. From the earliest days, call signalling was controlled from the originating end. If the far end hands up, that just puts them into the state they were in before they picked up: calling party on the line, waiting for you to pick up. Their is also a telephone courtesy / Etiquette which may be related: it’s generally more polite to wait for the originating caller to hang up / allow the originating caller to terminate the conversation. It’s part of the problem of cold calling: you’re on the phone saying “no I’m not interested. No. I don’t have Windows. Are you saved? Have you accepted Jesus as your personal saviour?” Because you both know you can’t politely hang up until they let you go. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/92 "2018-07-18T11:49:28Z")
In the UK they used a combination of names (in London, occasionally somewhat fanciful in their association with particular neighbourhoods) and numbers. AIUI direct dialling within your local area came in from the 1920s/30s onwards, and long-distance from the late 50s. Not long after that, the singer/songwriter Sydney Carter wrote a lament for the system’s failings: THE TELEPHONE SONG by Sydney Carter \*Standing alone in the damp and the dark Of a filthy old phone box in Finsbury Park I dialed Fremantle they give me a FRO, I asked for a Primrose, they give me a PRO. CHORUS So, Say who you are, love, and not ‘Hello’ Give me your name and give me your number. Say who you are, love, and not ‘Hello’ If I press button ‘A’ all my pennies will go. My mother is waiting at Lancaster Gate, I promised to phone at a quarter to eight. I’ve done all the things that they tell me to do But instead of my mother I keep getting you. There’s many the girl that I’ve got to know Through a fault on the line of the GPO, I’d do it again but it wouldn’t be right. I promised to telephone mother tonight. \* ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/93 "2018-07-18T15:29:41Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > We had much the same thing at UCSD, around that same time. All on-campus numbers began with the prefix 452-, and you only had to dial the last four digits to reach another campus phone. I never heard about callers refusing to hang up and blocking the other person’s phone, though. ETA: I meant we didn’t do this at UCSD that I ever heard about. I did know that, as the calling party, one could disable the other phone by failing to hang up. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/94 "2018-07-18T17:08:12Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > in 1963, the times they were-a-changin’, and phone numbers did too. But comedian Alan Sherman didn’t like it! > He wrote a funny song about organizing a protest demonstration to bring back those good 'ol phone exchanges with names which everybody liked. > That new-fangled “all digit dialing” was just too much of a shock. Protests? Why there were battles over the change over! [Mr. Digit and the Battle of Bubbling Brook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdW4FFMZrfU) ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/95 "2018-07-18T18:15:06Z")
In 1997 we bought our Old House which is in Bumfuck, Iowa. I’m Sister #4 and I called Sister #3, who lived one town over. We were yakking and yakking and then all of a sudden we heard the sounds of someone dialing on the line. Then we heard Sister #2’s voice (she lived down the hill from me) wondering why the line wasn’t ringing out. We all laughed and laughed. Then we set up a time for me to call #3 and have #2 and #1 (who also lived down the hill from me but in her own house) pick up their phones. And we proceeded to have a 4 way conversation. We had bought the house from #1’s husband’s great-aunt. Now we knew how she always knew the local gossip. In 2001 the phone company was bought out and the new company put in new lines and we no longer could have the 4 way gossip-a-thons. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/96 "2018-07-19T00:59:36Z")
The phone number at the store where my mother worked in the late '40s was 1110-M and the street address was 111 Washington St. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/97 "2018-07-19T03:46:04Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > in 1963, the times they were-a-changin’, and phone numbers did too. But comedian Alan Sherman didn’t like it! > He wrote a funny song about organizing a protest demonstration to bring back those good 'ol phone exchanges with names which everybody liked. > That new-fangled “all digit dialing” was just too much of a shock. > > He proposed the outlandishly funny idea of masses of people leaving AT&T and switching to another phone company.\* > And then he goes on: > > “Let’s keep those beautiful names alive > Crestview Six, Gramercy Five > Get ready to fight before it’s too late > Temple 2, Murray Hill Eight” > > [Lets all call up ATT&T and Protest to the President](https://mojim.net/us_video_u2_bHTazxaQ9bs.html?h=129446x2x32) > > \*Remember, little boys and girls: back in grandpa’s day, there were no other phone companies) See post #66. (I was first for once.) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/98 "2018-07-19T03:54:33Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > If you want to spend hours perusing this stuff, I recommend [_Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell_](https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Untold-Teenagers-Outlaws-ebook/dp/B009SAV5W0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531832701&sr=1-1&keywords=exploding+the+phone). It is mostly about how the phone phreaks used as a playground what was then the world’s biggest network that nobody at Bell figured would be attractive for hacking. The early chapters cover the earliest days of Bell, from manual operators to the triumph of automated long distance. Full disclosure: The writer is a friend of mine If that is the book I think it is (and I can’t tell from the cover) I recommend it. It’s the moist accurate writing on phone hacking I’ve seen. When I was at MIT the Bell Systems Technical Journal issue that detailed the frequencies the network used was the most checked out volume in the engineering library. When I did my pre-visit I stayed with some people at the old Burton House who specialized in using tie lines to get from their hall phone to anywhere, including bombers over Vietnam. Definitely convinced me to go. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee7513/32.png) [@Mona\_Lott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lott)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/99 "2018-07-19T04:21:09Z")
This post has nothing about telephone numbers. I hope it doesn’t kill the thread. The following quote is from a telephone directory that my brother found in a garage sale. This directory is the property of the Telephone Company. Attachments of binders, covers or other devices not provided or authorized by the Telephone Company is prohibited. Page 1 Kellogg Mullan Wallace (Idaho) General Telephone Company of the Northwest June 1963 Lily Tomlin knew what she was talking about when she referred to the Telephone Company as “omnipotent”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956/100 "2018-07-19T04:35:23Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Arrrgggh I can still hear that tune. And Chicagoans who grew up in the 80s (and before) should remember: “Call National two nine thousand, national two nine [ring] thousand!” and I’m just barely old enough (43) to remember: “Call Bouchelle at Hudson three two seven hundred!” The Lincoln Carpeting one (NA2-9000) is the latest I’ve heard telephone exchange names used around here. Even as late as [1987 they were using the jingle and those letters in their commercials](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybTAuyx5mjs). I was born in 1975, and those are the only two times I remember telephone exchange names being used in giving out a phone number. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-telephone-numbers/817956.md?page=6)