What did it mean when people in some places in long ago times

[raccoon]

had phone numbers that started with a name? Like, "Pennsylvania 5-6000" or whatever?

I'm chronologically gifted, and I never in RL heard a number like that, only in TV or movies.

:shrug:

[Rosie1223]

1. The word was like an area code, I think

Numbers were like that in the 1950s -- you dialed the first 2 letters of the word, then the rest of the numbers.

[raccoon]

2. Well thanks. I was around in the 50's but that must've been something

they didn't do in my area.

[Rosie1223]

5. I'm not old enough to remember it either

But I do remember at my grandmother's house when you only needed to dial 5 digits to get someone else in the same small town.

[LeftyFingerPop]

7. Yes, for some exchanges, it worked like this...

If the phone number was, say 657-2122, you could just dial the last 5 digits...72122.

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. The word represented the first 2 digits of the phone number...

Pennsylvania 5-6000 = PE5-6000. Looking at the dial pad, PE is 73, so the phone number is 735-6000.

Edit correction: "PE", not "PA".

[Arkansas Granny]

11. That's right. Our prefix was Mayfair which changed to 62X-XXXX.

You can sometimes hear people in old movies asking the operator for phone numbers using a name as a prefix to the number.

[blogslut]

4. heehee

It's Pennsylvania 6-5000

An awesome Glenn Miller tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0m6i1HQxN8

[Aristus]

6. That was back when there were far fewer people with telephones.

The name usually came from the area of the local telephone exchange and transfer station (for land lines. They disappeared with the advent of fiber-optics.) In this case, a station on Pennsylvania Avenue, or Street, or whatever. The first two numbers corresponded to the first two letters in the name, which you could dial. That's why telephones had letters to go with the numbers. (Now they're used for texting. Who knew? What foresight!) And the name made it easier to remember the number prefix.

I think it would have been cool to pick up the phone and say: "Operator, get me MAdison-5-5379, quick!" like some detective in an old movie. Modern technology is wonderful, but sometimes has less character than the old stuff.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. 8 digit phone numbers were so hard to remember back then that they >>>

>>> thought converting the first to numbers to represent a word would help. Like in the area I grew up in, 832-1234 became TErrace-2-1234.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Operator, give me Butterfield 8 ...

I always thought that was so cool when people asked for those types of numbers in old timey movies. I wish we could revive that custom.

[Lars39]

10. My first phone number...Sherwood 4-2188. :^)

[suninvited]

12. Operators are standing by

[bikebloke]

13. Still used here.

In DC area, the number for the weather forecast is still WE6-1212, WE for WEather. It's been that number all my life.

[Blue Diadem]

14. It was just a few years ago that we began having to dial the full numbers here.

We were able to call anyone with our same first 3 numbers by dialing the 3rd of those numbers and the last four, as in x-xxxx. It changed when we had to dial the area codes for all numbers. While that doesn't have anything to do with your question, I remember thinking it was strange when we moved here, difficult to get used to and difficult to change once we developed the habit.

Our prefix was Oxford when I was a kid.

[Inchworm]

15. Same here

Changed in late 80s - early 90s. It threw old people off their rockers!

NO! My phone number didn't change.. you just have to dial ALL 7 numbers now! hehe

:hi:

[Blue Diadem]

21. Ours was late 90's maybe even early 2000.

Sometimes my brain still tells me to dial 4 digits if I have to call the town hall. :crazy:

[Iggo]

16. Telephone exchanges.

Out here on the coast (at least in L.A.) when I was a kid it was Richmond 9, or RI9, then the rest of the phone number.

[Left Is Write]

17. Tidewater 4-10-09

:D

[Gormy Cuss]

18. The exchange names were spoken to operators

back before direct dial was common. The names identified different exchanges and often has some local reference but the idea. When I was a kid the phone still had the two letter exchange printed on it but it was longer after anyone used the designation anymore. My mother remembered using them.

[Crabby Appleton]

19. When I was a kid our number was Hudson - 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names

[LeftinOH]

20. The number at the Hotel Pennylvania in NYC is still PEnnsylvania 6-5000

(212-736-5000)