I recently had an appointment near my grandmother’s old house. Although I was only 13 when she moved out of that home, I still remember her address and I was able to find the home quickly.
As I drove past, her old phone number popped into my head!
Her “number” started with Harrison-5… or HA-5.
When I told my son this, he asked what I was talking about. “Mom, when were letters included in phone numbers?”
If you’re reading this article on Aging Gracefully, I’ll bet YOU remember when we had “telephone exchange names,” don’t you?
In fact, I’ll bet you remember your old phone number AND old numbers of friends and family, too!
A telephone exchange name, also called a central office name was the name assigned to a central phone office that identified the switching system that it connected to.
These exchange letters were mapped to digits, indicated on the dial telephones at that time.
A common plan used two letters from the central office name with four or five digits following but some larger cities implemented plans with three letters followed by four digits.
In small towns with a single central office, local calls sometimes only required dialing four or five digits without even using exchanges.
The increasing demand for phone service outpaced the scalability of the alphanumeric system and was phased out in the 1960s after the introduction of area codes.
Even though those exchanges were phased out more than 50 years ago, who still remembers this?
I always say that memory is a funny thing – so strangely selective at times!
You might not remember what you ate for lunch yesterday but…
I’ll bet you remember your old phone numbers!
Am I correct? Tell me!
What numbers do YOU remember from childhood?
Share your memories in the comment section below!
Summer has been busy and I am trying to catch up on emails. I know this is way late, but couldn’t resist commenting on this fun topic! My mother worked as an operator when there were switch boards!! Then retired from AT&T oh-so-many years later… She saw the whole gamut of change over those many, many years! She had lots of stories to tell!
Certainly do remember the letter/number system. And party lines. And when I served on our local volunteer fire department, we had a phone system that included a little red button on our home rotary phone that when pressed, activated the town siren!!
Hi Tina! That’s so fun to think about that little red button! Thank you for being a volunteer and thank you SO much for sharing your story!
My old phone number was Atlantic and the last 4 numbers were 2209 then they changed it and I had 281-2209 until I moved to NC,, AH, memories.
Our phone number was TUxedo 4-4228. TU 4 4228. It was so easy to remember. And it was on a party line!
I definitely remember my old number, actually numbers. I remember the changes. I remember my one grandmother’s number but not the other! Is that because one was out of town? She had that letter business for a long time. WO meant Worth. Her number was only one digit different from my aunt’s in the same town…I can still talk to her too; she’s 94 and sharp though can hardly see and hear!
How fun that the two women had phone numbers that were only one digit apart from each other! And you are SO fortunate to still have your 94-year-old aunt!
We lived in Amherst when I was age 8 to 11 and our number started with FA for Fairfax. It was FA-22 something. I don’t remember exactly, but I DO remember we had a party line and sometimes picked up the phone while the neighbor across the street was speaking. It embarrassed me to have them think I would listen on purpose; picking up to make a call while the neighbor was already using the phone was simply a hazard of the party line. I know we had a certain ring to listen for but I don’t remember having a way to know it was already in use.
I have heard others talking about party lines but I didn’t grow up with one myself. Although YOU wouldn’t listen on purpose, I know other people did do just that!