On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 01:45:54 -0500, wrote:

When I was young, phone numbers has a WORD at the beginning.
If you're over 60, you'll probably remember this:

For example:

Hilltop5-5555 = hi5-5555 which is 445-5555
Spring2-5555 = sp2-5555 which is 772-5555
Worth8-5555 = wo8-5555 which is 968-5555
Orchid3-5555 = or3-5555 which is 673-5555
Victory1-5555 = vi1-5555 which is 841-5555
Tiger4-5555 = ti4-5555 which is 844-5555

These seemed to make it easier to remember phone numbers, and the words
were usually simple words that were easy to remember. The word was
assigned by the phone company. It seems they stopped doing this around
the mid 1960's. I wonder why they stopped?

Anyone know the reason?

Of course you can assign your own words. But no one will know what
you're talking about unless they are at least 60 years old.

For example,

762----- can be SOund2 or POny2 or SOuth2 ROund2, POlice2 etc.....
536----- can be LEmon6 or JElly6 or KEndra6 .... and so on....

If your number is 536-1234 Just tell your friends to call LEmon6-1234.

When we were young, if the middle digit of the first 3 digits was a 0
or a 1, then it was an area code. All area codes had a 0 or 1 as the
middle digit and all central office prefixes had a 2 thru 9 as the
middle digit. Only 2 thru 9 had letters on the standard dial/keypad.
When they started running out of prefixes in big cities, they dropped
the use of letters. Much later, they started running out of area
codes that met the 0 or 1 rule, so they changed to a computerized
system with lists of valid area codes and prefixes. Now, the 0/1 rule
is completely gone.

Regarding party lines mentioned by others, they were indeed used to
save wires. It cost a lot of money to run a pair of copper wires from
a home all the way to the local central office up to five miles away.
When phones changes from a luxury item to a necessity, it took time to
run all those new wires, too. Someone mentioned listening for your
special ring. However, there was an interim step where you shared a
line with others, but your phone didn't ring unless the call was for
you. That was implemented by putting the signal on just one of the
two normally balanced (neither wire grounded) phone wires. One home's
bells were connected from "red" to ground while the other home's bells
were connected from "green" to ground. The actual call took place on
the balanced red/green pair for both parties. Using a twisted pair
balanced line avoided hum and interference.