Comments on: Telephone exchanges

Telephone exchanges

Oriole Adams — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 10:58:19 -0800

Retro phone fun. Remember the days when telephone numbers included an exhcange, like BUtterfield 8, MUrray Hill 7, or YUkon 5? Even you young whippersnappers can look up your current phone number and see what it's exchange name used to be. If your number isn't in the database, you can check Ma Bell's list of recommended exchange names. The next time someone asks for your number, use the exchange and watch hilarity ensue.

By: yesster

yesster — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 10:59:53 -0800

Heh, I'm TRojan4-xxxx

By: timeistight

timeistight — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:03:54 -0800

Cool, but it doesn't really work with ten-digit dialling.

By: azazello

azazello — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:09:44 -0800

I use owls and TCP/IP to communicate. I know nothing about this fellytone business.

By: weston

weston — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:24:07 -0800

azazello, is this an upgrade to RFC 1149? Almost everyone I'm aware of uses pigeons.

By: weston

weston — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:25:01 -0800

ACademy5-0xxx myself.

By: merlinmann

merlinmann — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:45:17 -0800

Great link. (and OVerland 2, personally) Seems at least a little bit analogous to how domain names map to IP addresses. So much more personality, memorability, and sense of place. Let alone that it's just delightfully old-timey. Would go well with answering your phone with "Ahoy!"

By: squealy

squealy — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:50:02 -0800

I was fully expecting that to only work for US exchanges, but it does English exchanges too. Well it found Birmingham ones but not Nottingham. SELly Oak-XXXX signing off.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:51:49 -0800

when i was little using those name thingies when giving out your # was still common practice in winnipeg manitoba. ours was GRosvenorX-XXXX. you could tell who lived in the best and worst neighborhoods that way, if that sort of thing mattered to you. if we used them today my numbers would be JAckson5-XXXX (abc, 123!) or KEnwood7-XXXX.

By: jammer

jammer — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:53:27 -0800

Excellent, thanks. Glendale 9-xxxx here.

By: widdershins

widdershins — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:56:48 -0800

ULysses 5. Has a nice ring to it. Ba-da-boom.

By: JollyWanker

JollyWanker — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:07:53 -0800

I'm old enough that I was taught to memorize my phone number as "Jefferson-6-2-8-0-6" when I was a little kid spending summers in Groton Long Point, Connecticut. Even all these years later - and despite my current inability to remember even my own social security number - I can rattle off that number without pause... Of course, not being a native here, I appreciate a database that tells me that I have a UNiversity-4-n-n-n-n number now that I live in the town that hosts Northwestern University...

By: azazello

azazello — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:14:43 -0800

weston: is this an upgrade to RFC 1149? Actually, it's a tunnel to use it on different media, since owls have been used a lot for communication. And owls are far superior technically. At least the JKR implementation.

By: jeblis

jeblis — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:35:37 -0800

Interesting. I never knew about any of this...guess I'm too young.

By: turacma

turacma — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:37:29 -0800

I grew up at HArrison4-xxxx, but because the city I live in now has grown so much, I have an exchange that is new to the area (like within the last 10 years I believe), so I can't find it in the DB.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:41:35 -0800

Remember the days when telephone numbers included an exhcange, like BUtterfield 8, MUrray Hill 7, or YUkon 5? Strictly speaking, aren't the first 3 numbers of a North American telephone number still the exchange? The "YUkon 5" business was just using applicable letters for the first 2 numbers, is all. Anyway, doesn't that carpet company in Chicago that advertises on WGN allatime still say their phone number this way? Call NAtional-2-9000, NAtional-2-9-thooooooouuuu-ou-sand.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:54:36 -0800

I think it was to soften the blow of going from 5 to 7 digits. They figured that people would boggle at having to remember 7 digits so they instituted a mnemonic. Quaint, anyway. Now if the phone services would get with the times and institute a telephony equivalent of the domain name system so we can dispense with this archaic business of needing to know an arbitrary number in order to call somebody.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:00:43 -0800

When I was growing up in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, in the 1970s there was only one exchange for the two towns combined (78X-XXXX), and 5-digit dialing was the norm. It wasn't until the early 80's, if I recall correctly, that additional exchanges were added and 7-digit dialing became necessary. According to this database, the exchange didn't have a name (presumably it wasn't necessary).

By: dnash

dnash — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:01:39 -0800

Anyway, doesn't that carpet company in Chicago that advertises on WGN allatime still say their phone number this way? I haven't heard the National-2-9000 in a long time, usually when people talk about carpet ads on WGN they're thinking of Empire "588-2300 Empiiiiiiiire" Carpets. Although now there's also Luna Carpets which also attempts to use a catchy phone number jingle. When I was growing up in Kansas City we had ads for "Standard (bum-ba-bum-ba-bum) Improvment Company! At Westport-1-7100!" (I still hear the song in my head to this day.) I may start giving out my phone number as LAkeview-5-XXXX now. Heh.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:09:05 -0800

When I was a kid in Oklahoma City, I knew that my dad's store was downtown (in the "center" of the city) and that the phone number there was CEntral-2-xxxx, so I assumed that "central" was actually a place designation. I didn't realize the word referred to the numbers 2 and 3 until much later.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:11:01 -0800

my dad had the house built in 1960, when i was 7. i don't know why, but before moving there i had no truck with the telephone or numbers. we lived in a rented house, and i can't even recall having a phone, though im sure we did. we moved into the new house, more sibs were born and years passed and i grew up and left, and the number changed for some reason at some point, but i'll never forget good old Empire 3-1279.

By: marzenie99

marzenie99 — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:02:02 -0800

Speaking of jingles, I'm not sure if Detroit TV still plays the Belvedere Construction ads, with the cranky-sounding guy always ending with, "TYler 87100... WE. DO. GOOD. WORK." (yes, he said it like he meant it, by golly) But they were still playing when I moved in 2000. He was giving his schpiel at least as long as I've been around (mid-seventies) Probably a lot longer than that. My grandmother still gives Pontiac-area numbers as FEderal, godblesser.

By: ukamikanasi

ukamikanasi — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:32:05 -0800

When I was a kid my mom always gave our number as "SKyline two eighty-one eighteen."

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:33:42 -0800

Briank -- If you pull up the entire listing for the state of Maine, Lewiston-Auburn comes up as STate. (I'm MAyfair, in Augusta.)

By: cameldrv

cameldrv — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:37:38 -0800

MErcury 7-XXXX. Kinda cool.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:00:45 -0800

EVergreen 8-xxxx. Love this stuff. ;-)

By: gdav

gdav — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 16:32:30 -0800

I don't need to look my old phone number up 'cos I remember it! FREmantle 6332, aka 373 6332. Central London (near Gloucester Road tube station) in 1968, when I was four! On the other hand, the database doesn't seem to include Mars 247. I'll try again next year... next year... next year....

By: oh posey

oh posey — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 17:02:25 -0800

Jackson 2-0255 - call me if you dare.

By: Jade Dragon

Jade Dragon — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 19:08:08 -0800

Although my phone exchange is a new one, it was instituted only about 6 years ago when I first moved here, it does actually work with my relatively new phone number: I'm at TAylor 8- ninety three forty four...

By: bwg

bwg — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 19:24:49 -0800

Pennsylvania 6-5000 will get you Glenn Miller...

By: whatzit

whatzit — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 21:21:07 -0800

We were doing 5-digit dialing well into the 1990's in Bayfield and La Pointe, Wisconsin. It still takes me a moment to come up with the first numbers of the phone number...

By: arto

arto — Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:58:23 -0800

You know, I used to enjoy the fact that my phone number spelled out a Rude Phrase Referring To Vaginas. I'll feel so much classier telling people to dial "CHerry 4 xxxx"...

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sat, 19 Jul 2003 23:09:32 -0800

Pennsylvania 6-5000 will get you Glenn Miller... Funny you should say that, bwg. (Randall -- love your site!) PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was -- and still is today -- the phone number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. They've had the same phone number (now 212-736-5000) since 1919. Glenn Miller (along with Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and many more luminaries) used to play the hotel's ballroom regularly.

By: bwg

bwg — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 06:12:07 -0800

Thanks Vidiot. I didn't know all that about Miller or the Hotel Penn. Cool.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 09:54:28 -0800

WIndsor twenty-seven XXX which I find amusing because despite my youth of denial, here in Texas we're about as far removed from the Queen of England as one can culturally get without actually picking lice off each other. Well, some of us anyway. They might still do the exchange mnemonic in some rural areas, but timeistight was right - with ten plus digit dialing, trying to bring back this antiquated system for nostalgia sake is like trying to hook a manual typewriter up to an Apple Mac. Ma Bell's old exhange mnemonic is just not qwerty.