Do you remember when 508 was new?

Do you remember when aread code 508 was new?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 86.7%

  • No, but I remember when 781 and 774 were new.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No, but I remember when 857 and 339 were new.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • wut

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • This board is too MA-Centric. I rage quit!

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • Total voters
    15

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Why, yes. Yes, I do.

I also remember when they used letters in front of the numbers. So that tells you how old I am.
 
This pole is really kind of a nostalgia inducing chuckle for me. My town Gloucester didn't get past the 4 digit number until early sixties thus for most of my childhood my phone number was 1099. With no dial. To make a call I picked up the receiver and an operator immediately says "number" please. I gave her the number and she started in pulling out those stretchy cables and plugging them in the right hole. I believe we got a dial phone around 1964. And our 283 (Atlantic 3) exchange. So we were 283-1099. I can't remember if the (617) kicked in at the same time or a little later.

This was all shortly after I returned from the civil war.


Cheers

---------- Post added at 03:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:55 PM ----------
Undertaker #59* said:
Stupid poll on the way...
Click to expand...

Simpler if your poll q is "Are you old?"



Cheers
 
BostonTim said:
This pole is really kind of a nostalgia inducing chuckle for me. My town Gloucester didn't get past the 4 digit number until early sixties thus for most of my childhood my phone number was 1099. With no dial. To make a call I picked up the receiver and an operator immediately says "number" please. I gave her the number and she started in pulling out those stretchy cables and plugging them in the right hole. I believe we got a dial phone around 1964. And our 283 (Atlantic 3) exchange. So we were 283-1099. I can't remember if the (617) kicked in at the same time or a little later.

This was all shortly after I returned from the civil war.


Cheers

---------- Post added at 03:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:55 PM ----------



Simpler if your poll q is "Are you old?"



Cheers
Click to expand...

My mother was actually an operator back in the day. Interesting about using 4 digits, when I was a kid in the Berkshires, you only dialed the last four if you were in the same town. You dialed the first 3 if it was the next town over. You dialed the area code if it was beyond that. It was "long distance" if it was out of the area code. My grandfather was a retired lineman for NET&T and part of his retirement was unlimited long distance, so anytime someone had to call long distance, they would go to his house. Also, The old folks used to say Crestview 4 instead of 274.
 
bmooney54 said:
My mother was actually an operator back in the day. Interesting about using 4 digits, when I was a kid in the Berkshires, you only dialed the last four if you were in the same town. You dialed the first 3 if it was the next town over. You dialed the area code if it was beyond that. It was "long distance" if it was out of the area code. My grandfather was a retired lineman for NET&T and part of his retirement was unlimited long distance, so anytime someone had to call long distance, they would go to his house. Also, The old folks used to say Crestview 4 instead of 274.
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The difference being we didn't have an exchange at all for so long. Once we got the exchange, same as you, four digits only for Gloucester, 7 for out of town.


Cheers
 
Darth Despot said:
I do recall when the whole state was 617 but 7 digit dialing was standard (on a rotary phone) when I learned about phone numbers and stuff.
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The state extended beyond Woostah :rolleyes:. 617 and 413 were the original area codes in Mass in 1947. 413 retains its original boundries, whereas 617 has been split up several times.
 
PatsFanLisa said:
Why, yes. Yes, I do.

I also remember when they used letters in front of the numbers. So that tells you how old I am.
Click to expand...

As do I. You only needed to use 5 digits if you were in the same town.
We were DI-22864 (still have that number imprinted on my brain).
 
Anyone remember "party lines?" Not the call 1-555-123-4567 for a good time lines, but lines you would be sharing with your neighbors. I remember growing up my parents had a party line.
 
In Lowell, we had 5 digit dialing in the "section" of town that you lived in. Highlands calling Highlands = 5 digits. Our number was If you wanted to call us from another section (Acre, Pawtucketville, Belvidere etc.) you added 45 to the front so our number was then 452-6959. This was around 1976-1982 -ish.
 
Joolz said:
Anyone remember "party lines?" Not the call 1-555-123-4567 for a good time lines, but lines you would be sharing with your neighbors. I remember growing up my parents had a party line.
Click to expand...

More goofy nostalgia, thanks Joolz,

Back to my narrative: In Gloucester, two friends/neighbors, Frankie Mitchell And Davie Ingersoll shared a party line. used to call both of them all the time. Can't remember breakfast, but their numbers were 363J and 363W. Meanwhile, as late as the late as the mid 80's, our hunting camp in Hardwood Flats (Elmore) VT shared a phone with two other parties. One party picked up if the ring was: 1 space 1 space 1, we picked up if the ring was: ring ring space ring ring space ring ring space, 3rd party: ring ring ring space, etc.

Crazy,
 
Joolz said:
Anyone remember "party lines?" Not the call 1-555-123-4567 for a good time lines, but lines you would be sharing with your neighbors. I remember growing up my parents had a party line.
Click to expand...

I do fun times lol

~Dee~
 
I remember when they went from 4 to 7 digit dialing.
now I try to figure out why my wife won't get rid of our landline phone that gets nothing but spam calls (so much for the "Do Not Call Registry")
 
Crank calls?

I remember crank phones... unofficially.

My father was with the telephone company when rotary phones were a new thing. For a while there was a vast surplus of pre rotary turn the crank to power the generator to wake up operator telephones floating around the telephone offices. These could be taken home if one was nostalgic or had some use for them.

My father set up a very small crank phone network for the local kids so we could chat without tying up the 'real' lines.
 
I certainly recall it, and in possibly the first hacking ever, someone discovered a sequence of numbers you could dial that turned into a massive conference call, with every party that dialed in able to converse with others.
 
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