On 06/01/2015 01:59 AM, micky wrote:

[snip]

I have to tell you about when my mother moved to western Pa. in 1945,
from Indianapolis. While NYC and probably some other places had dial
phones already, we didn't. So my mother would tell the operator,
OLiver 4-1383 please, or Oliver 4-3343 please,and after a couple days or
weeks, the operator told her, You don't have to say Oliver 4, Ma'am.
They're all Oliver 4.

It used to be that ALL local numbers here started with 657- and you
didn't have to specify that. That lasted until about 1990, when they
installed a new electronic exchange.

I remember when I came home and they had installed dials. They changed
the phone in my parents' bedroom entirely, but the wall phone in the
idtchen they took the top off, connected a couple wires, and attached a
top with a dial.

I lived on a farm about 5 miles from town. We could call someone in town
by dialing 5 digits. IIRC, to call someone on the same party line, you'd
have to dial 14 digits (a 4-digit code to ring the same line, then the
full 10 digits). To call long distance, we finally got to dial that too,
but the operator would still come on and ask for the number I'm calling
from (all 10 digits).

One time I called my best friend and I heard click click, click click
click. I hung up and our phone rang. He had been calling me. The
phone didn't ring at his end when I called.


I've done almost that. I missed the clicks, but someone came on before I
got to dial (and, IIRC, it was the person I was going to call).

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Trying to find God is a good deal like looking for money one has lost
in a dream." [Lemuel K. Washburn, _Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other
Essays_]