Mine was ALpine 3. (Still is; we just don’t say it that way anymore. 
)
My grandmother still has an old bakelite phone with the exchange printed that way in the little circle in the center of the dial.
We got a phone in 1947 in Arlington VA. It was JEfferson 2-xxxx. My mom still has the same number.
My grandmother in Danville VA at about that time had the phone you picked up and clicked the hook for the operator. Then you told her who you wanted to call.
In about 1950, I think my grandmother in Danville had 6089J as a number. I’m sure I remember that because as a 6 yr old, I was drilled the number in case I ever got lost.
When I was a kid, younger than ten, we had CRestview, but I don’t remember when the family stopped saying it. My parents continued to have the same number until they sold the house a few years ago. Oddly, there was supposed to be a completely different exchange in the vicinity called BRadshaw (same numbers). I imagine the third digit was used to distinguish Crestview and Bradshaw.
But we did always have all 7 numbers.
Did anyone have a party line?
My father’s office number was DUnkirk 8 -???. As with Crestview and Bradshaw, there are still many numbers in that area today that begin with those numbers.
I wish now that we had saved some of my father’s old business cards from that era.
PEnnsylvania 6-5000 is actually still the number of the hotel in New York, that the swing tune was named after.
Here in the UK, mine started life as 0AL2 for ALdershot, dialled as 0252. That then became 01252 but the root remains the same.
Hah, forgot to put my own in as an example! 01394 = 01FX4 = Felixstowe.
And the big cities still have them, too:
0121 = 01B1 = Birmingham
0131 = 01E1 = Edinburgh
And 4=Glasgow, 5=Liverpool, 6=Manchester
The first phone number I ever had was 66182. Then, in the mid-1950s, that changed to MAdison 6-6182, which later became WEbster 6-6182. Then they dropped the neat-o exhange names, and the number was 936-6182, which wasn’t very interesting.
CEntral. My phone number started with 23 (CE) but the next digit was not 6 (N), so it definitely just pertained to the first two digits.
My mom, in Elmhurst, Illinois, was TErrace 2-xxxx, circa 1937.
Earlier, living in Villa Park, they didn’t have numbers; you picked up the phone and jiggled to get the operator, and then told her who you wanted. My mom reveals that when she was about six, alone in the room, she picked up the phone and said, “Help, murder, police!” for some bizarre reason.
The operator rang back and told a thoroughly chastened young Mrs. Bricker Sr. not to do that again.
Chicago burbs, PIttsburg 8. And I remember the carpet ad too. 
Growing up in Atlanta, first we had DRake 8, then BUtler 4. (378 and 284).
My telephone number today begins with 378, which I find oddly comforting!
Himself grew up with MOnica. We still have the same number, and all our neighbors’ numbers are in a row. You can remember the number of the house three down by adding three to your number. And the same people, or their progeny, still live in the same houses.
I found it a little hard to get used to initially, but kind of soothing once I did get used to it. It’s very, um … stable around here.
We still did that in the 1980s in my teeny hometown. When they required us to dial all seven digits, there was an uproar. Luckily, I was living out of state when they began to require the area code even for local calls. I’d bet there was rioting in the streets. We’re normally a peaceful people, but we don’t like change, no sir.
I vaguely remember those - not from using them, but from seeing them written on people’s phones. My grandparents’ exchange was UJ.
Growing up in Los Angeles we had a WHitney prefix, then all the numbers in our area were changed to WEbster and the infamous fifth number was added. I seem to recall being told by the phone company that the supply of numbers available with the addition of a fifth digit would last into the distant future.
Other prefixes I recall were HOllywood (guess where) and MAdison for downtown LA. Later LUdlow was added for the southern part of downtown. ZEnith was a toll-free number.
A seafood restaurant along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu used its GLadstone prefix and called itself Gladstones 4 Fish, which was its phone number. It is still there and I think it has the same number.
Until around 1983, my parents were still on a manual exchange, on a party line with 3 others. Paparoa 92-S was us. Lift the handset, listen, ask “operating”, no answer, so line was clear, replace handset, crank handle for 1.5 seconds, lift handset, wait for operator. If you were calling one of the others people on the party line, you’d crank out the appropriate morse code for their letter. After the call, you’d ring off with a “short” (approx 1/2 sec crank).
The thing was I went to the big smoke in 1980 to become a telephone engineer, training on BPO 2000 type, NEC 460, and NEAX 61S. Never used an automatic exchange until I was inside one 
Then the parents were changed over to automatic (NEAX 61S), complete with push button phone, underground cabling to the exchange and a 5 digit number (yy-xxx). Then sometime in the 90’s went to 7 digits (4y1-yxxx). :eek:
And now of course, in honour of the Underground, 020 for London, = B.O. 
That’s interesting, I didn’t know 1212 connected you to the local nick before 999 was introduced (in the 30s?). Not sure how Scotland Yard ended up as 0207 230 1212 - famously the Incident Room was WHItehall 1212 so it should be 0207 944 1212 !
CLifford, in central NJ.
I remember all the ads on TV from the New York City exchanges. There were a lot of MUrray Hill ones.
We had a “party line” – anyone remember those? If you picked up the phone at random you couldn’t tell in advance if you’d get a dial tone or listen in on your neighbors talking, and you’d have to wait until they got off the line.
We didn’t, but my grandmother did. Everyone on the party line was assigned a different ring (hers was one long, two short) so you’d know if an incoming call was for you!
Thanks for the link. Apparently mine was Jackson (522), but as a kid growing up in the 80’s I didn’t even know what an “exchange” was, much less that it had once been letters. It was all just seven numbers to me.