Chime in if you remember phone number prefixes with letters!

[DancingBear]

Like CH (for Chestnut) 8 instead of 248.

Also, postal zones (like 21) instead of zip codes.

(Note: this thread will expire when all of us who DO remember go to bed)

[teach1st]

1. I remember

It's how I remember my first phone number from like 45 years ago. WIlson 7-4208.

Time for bed yet?

[DancingBear]

6. Nah - I'm good until at least 9:15 EST

You? :)

[teach1st]

10. I took a nap today...

I believe I'm up past 10:00. Par-tee!

[DancingBear]

14. If I'd known I was starting this thread so late

I would have too!

[shirlden]

2. Sure.....my first phone

was Fairfax 7-4556. WOW............that was over 50 years ago and I still remember the number. But then, having a phone in those days was quite a thing. I am sure we were really proud of that.

[Papillon]

3. Mine was Esexess

373 or 377

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. yep.... EVergreen3- 28**

in postal code 11

good old, Brooklyn, NY

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Fleetwood

was the prefix for the first phone number I memorized-my grandmother's.

[RC]

7. Does 152OW count?

Childhood phone number. Party line, operator, all that. Late 40's, early 50's. I don't remember the zone anymore.

[DrZeeLit]

8. Dating Myself...

and it's not fun.

Okay, I lived in Los Angeles and remember my phone number as a kid.
FA 11194. FA = Faculty. Then we had DA, which stood for Davis.
Our next door neighbors had a DAvis number.

Well, my dad and mom were going out to a party. I told the neighbors they couldn't go. Because they had the wrong phone number. It was a... Faculty party. Okay... really, I did that... I was DUMB.

My grandparents were near downtown LA. Their number was AX, which stood for Axminister.


And that... is all.

[AVESGA]

17. AXminister

In Columbus,OH as well.
TUxedo
UNion
BElmont
CLearbrook
HIckory
TEmple
HUdson

Marvelettes hit from late 50s/early 60s:
"BEachwood 4-5789, you can call me up and make a date, any old time"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Mine was WArfield.

My best friend's was HArrison

[nono]

11. I remembet the crank phones

You would just ask for the person you wanted.

[Shoeempress]

12. Ar3-3773, my 1st phone number, Yikes, I remember that but not where my

keys are.

[lapislzi]

13. MAyfair-3-9885

I'm stayin' up to watch the ball game.

It broke my heart when I had to sell my father's house and disconnect that phone #.

[flamingyouth]

15. Mine was SUnset3-0810

My dad's work number was ATwater4-2821

[miss_kitty]

18. Ballard, Queen Anne. AH those were the days. You could

do a real general GPS thing when someone gave you a ph #.

[miss_kitty]

16. yo In Olympia when i was little

It was Whitehall and Fleetwood. we had a Fleetwood prefix. That's where the group The Fleetwoods got their name.

EMerson 2 in Seattle and now EAstlake 5 etc...

[JimmyJazz]

22. et tu? I'm in this group, too ( see below)

:hi:

[miss_kitty]

28. Oh Yes me too! n/t

[flamingyouth]

23. I currently have an EAstlake number

I live in Montlake. Hello, neighbor! :hi:

Scary that I knew that tidbit about the Fleetwoods! :D

[miss_kitty]

27. Hey! I drove through today to get to Woodinville

I'm on Lake Union :)

You know, it was a thrill when I was tiny to hear "Washington State" or "Seattle" in the national news. The Fleetwoods though, from teeny tiny Oly! Mega exciting! wooHoo!

[flamingyouth]

42. My dad went to high school with a couple of the Wailers

And he was friends with Rockin' Robin Roberts. They went to Stadium in Tacoma.:hi:

[1monster]

19. The old party line days!

OWEN 5-4269 OWEN for OW which stood in for 69. 695-4269.

Those were the days you cautiously picked up the phone line and listened for a few seconds before dialing to make sure that no one else in the valley was already using the line. When the "phone honor code" was in session. One wasn't supposed to listen in on anyone else's calls, but it did happen. Thus, it was rare for anyone to say something over the phone that wasn't for public consumption.

Two longs and a short ring meant the call was for our household. Two short for the neighbors, and the next farm up the road had a long and a short and a long.

Private lines, when they came, were really cool! One could dial out any time one wanted and was not chastized for using the phone so much that others on the line couldn't use it when they needed...

But after a while, those old party lines seemed like something precious, lost. The party lines helped bind a community together.

[JimmyJazz]

20. thanks a lot for the reminder

WYMan 8 - 9677

:P

[IconoclastIlene]

21. Ulysses........

I remember, yes I do.

[VOX]

24. EXmont 746**. State 654**. GRanite 262**. GLadstone 432**.

VErmont 807**. POplar 751**.

I'll stop there!

[NoPasaran]

25. Of course in my day

We just had two tin cans and a string!

[nutsnberries]

26. MUrdock,(and then some #s which my parents still use)

BUT... it's a memory from my infancy (practically)!

and a party line. seems crazy now.

AND I'M A NIGHT PERSON! It's not even CLOSE to my bedtime yet. (yawn)

[China_cat]

29. I remember

when phones didn't even have dials. You picked up the receiver and asked the operator for the number (2 digits and a ring code).

[bif]

30. Our snobby community was TUxedo for 88

Grosse Pointe don't ya know. I remember a million of them
VAlley
HOward
WOodward

(Detroit area)

[achtung_circus]

31. CHerry 1-6195 and EMpire 3- 9188

My house and my dad'd work in the 50's.

[SmileyBoy]

32. "Call KL5-4796 (let it ring)..."

Mr. Plow is a loser, and I think he is a boozer...

So you better make that call to the Plow King!!!!

[Eugene]

33. TAlbot5, AVenue8

Postal zones were before my time.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

34. I have no idea what our own number was,

but the Mohawk Carpet jingle will be forever burned into my brain: "HUdson 3-2700". And I believe "Bert Weinman, your TV Ford Man" and sponsor of quality schlock such as reruns of the Bowery Boys and Sci-Fi Theater, had a named exchange also but I can't quite pull it out of my memory.

I do recall the commercials with Mr. Zippy admonishing us to know and use our ZIP code to improve postal transit time. And buses that operated by means of overhead electrical cables (extinct today with the sole exception of San Francisco I believe). And door-to-door delivery of dairy products by someone called the "milkman," a kind of tooth fairy who left glass jugs of whole milk outside our door while we slept. And vastly superior candy intended solely to taste good rather than to be offensive. And clamoring for toys that were inspired by TV shows rather than watching TV shows that were inspired by toys...

I'm only 40, but it's astonishing how much has changed in my lifetime.

[brook]

35. Morsemere 6 4444 --NJ - 1939ish

First phone was a candlestick and we asked the operator for the #.
Later Crestview 4; Olive 6? in LA and Buttterfield 8-6000 in NYC. For some reason the others are long forgotten....Mexico, Texas, Canada.

[Jackpine Radical]

36. I remember phone numbers like 314-R.

You picked up the phone and if you wanted to call someone else on line 314, you rang them directly by turning a ringer crank on the side of the phone. 314-W would be two short, 314-R would be 3 short, etc. If you wanted to call someone on a different line, you rang one short and the operator answered. You told her (always her--usually Mrs. Jensen unless it was her day off) who you wanted to talk to & she rang them for you. You could give either the name or the number of the party you wanted to call.

Oh, and Mrs. Jensen knew every piece of gossip in town.

[Ivan Sputnik]

37. VAndyke-2 5245

That was my parents' number at one time.

There's nothing preventing us from using these letter prefixes today, if we really wanted to, is there? Phone keypads still have the letters.

Great big-band tune: "PEnnsylvania-6 5000"

[Tikki]

38. Ours was Whitehall...

The Tikkis

[sendero]

39. PErshing 2...

....8077 :)

Yeah, I am older than dirt!

[juslikagrzly]

40. We had TEmple, WEbster, NAtional, others I don't remember

God this makes me feel old.

[qnr]

41. Which should be in 20 minutes or so :) I remember the

telephone prefixes, but not postal zones.

[CO Liberal]

43. Our Phone Number Was JEfferson 9-3525

Later to become 539-3525.

[radwriter0555]

44. OR9 3092.... My first telephone number from the 1963 until 1978.

wild eh?

[amerikat]

45. JUniper 6=586

[arwalden]

46. Cherry 2-1537.... I sent a birthday card to my grandmother with NO address

it was simply:

Mrs. Mary Cook
Clyattville, GA

No street, no zip code, just a name and a town... this was in 1965.

-- Allen

[Dookus]

47. our childhood phone number

began with Mohawk-9

[Lindsay]

48. GArfield 1-2323.

Anybody else live in Cleveland in the 50's and 60's?

[BiggJawn]

49. Oh, boy, do I!

LIberty
MElrose
WAlnut
ATwater
AXminster
PRomise
TYler
INdiana
And I recall Indy had zones 4, 7, 11, and 5, probably others.

And "Mr. ZIP" was a cartoon character, not some superman on a bike...:-)

[Red State Rebel]

50. We were Atlas 7 -2866, but my Gran was 2 long rings and a short ring :)

They didn't get regular phones until the 70's out there.

[5thGenDemocrat]

51. Our family's phone was PL5-2615

Called "Pleasant." Back in 1962 or so.
John
Area code 517. That's different now, too.

[Kat45]

52. I remember. Ours was WA for Walnut.

Have no idea why the word was walnut.

[sugarcookie]

53. I can't believe I remember this

Hemlock 4 HE4
Bisbee, AZ

edit: Actually I think it was Lowell, AZ

[BuddhaGirl]

54. the only number I remember was

my Dad's work number - WEbster 83492. This was Los Angeles, what is now the West Hollywood area.

Whew - that was a long time ago LOL

[Kenneth ken]

ATlas 8-2367 (288-2367) was my childhood phone n/t

[Ellen Forradalom]

55. Barely old enough to remember letter exchanges

Don't remember zones instead of zip codes.

I'm 41.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

56. Yes, when I was a little kid in Minneapolis

my parents made me memorize our address and phone number. Our phone number was LOcust 1-5423. My grandmother's was WAlnut 6-2377.

I don't remember which zone we lived in, but my grandmother was in Zone 10.

[eleny]

57. Michigan 2-3126

The very first phone my folks got back in the '50s. Queens, NYC.

[woofless]

58. OLiver8-4722

I have remembered that number for nearl 50 years now. Dad made a game so we would remember it. "Ayliver Ott sore feven oot oot" Fond memories of laughing at the absurdity, but I have never forgotten that number. Gee, wonder who has it now?

[KT2000]

59. PA for PARKWAY!

zip - 18

we are old!

[helnwhls]

60. sure, why?