Area Code Trivia

Quote: Pacomartin

Seinfeld did a whole episode where area codes in NYC was a major theme.

And the Simpsons did one on Springfield.

In Mex City they did something better. They added one digit to all phone numbers. But the ad camapign "explaining" why was one of the worst I've ever seen. it explained nothing. It boiled down to "from X date on, all numbers will require dialing a "5" first. Because that's the new way of dialing." Really. So we went from 7-digit phone numbers to 8 digits. No need to dial "long distance" to someone across town.

The speculation was centered on this being a means to expand the amount of numbers available. but the campaign did say "5 on all numbers," which did nothing. Later on other numbers were used as a first number. So now they can begin with anything from 1 to 7, I think. Numbers starting with 1 are almost all Nextel radios with phone service.

There are also several reserved codes.

IE: 8 followed by a pair is for toll free.

All three the same is for something special.

A result is, Cape Canaveral got 321, but Vegas was turned down for 777.

We got our area code in the early 60's and
it was a big deal to call somebody without
using the operator. Not that we ever did it,
that was for emergencies only. Then we got
a zip code in 1964 and the world was even
more complicated. Add to that a push button
phone and hand held calculators and the
future was here.

Here's a long article about the history of area
codes. It reminds me that we knew about them
years before it went active in our area. Bell
did a really slow rollout that took years and
years to complete.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/our-numbered-days-the-evolution-of-the-area-code/283803/

Remember when if you dialed a wrong number on a LD call you could and would call the operator for a credit?

Quote: AZDuffman

Remember when if you dialed a wrong number on a LD call you could and would call the operator for a credit?

Hell yes, because the first min was the most
expensive. Remember when we had signals
instead of completing the call? If my dad went
on a trip he would call at a specific time and
let the phone ring twice and hang up. It meant
he got there OK. I knew people that made 1 min
calls where they would unleash a bunch of
info that they made notes on before the call.

LD was very expensive relative to incomes. Free
LD on cell phones was not even dreamed of.

In 1961 it cost 85 cents for the first 3min to call
Boston from DC. 25 cents a min after that. This
was at a time when 3 pounds of ground beef
cost a dollar and a carton of cigarettes was 1.99
and gas was 25 cents a gallon.

Quote: Evenbob

Remember when we had signals
instead of completing the call? If my dad went
on a trip he would call at a specific time and
let the phone ring twice and hang up. It meant
he got there OK.

For all my life until I moved out my grandparents would ring once then we called them back. They lived on the city line, across the street was a boro and I think a toll call. Somehow my parents had a better plan and could call back cheaper. Who knows the packages back then.

So when we went to visit my other grandmather (paternal) which was 100 miles away we rang twice for the safe arrival. At my office a guy and I made a joke of the ring-signal but I doubt the younger folk noticed much less understood.

I remember shortly after I moved away LD got to the $.05/min all the time. At first I got some $40-50 bills for when I would call home, after 5 cents I didn't worry about it, we thought $3 an hour to call was great. Two years later it was free and I had to tell the phone company to yank the LD because every carrier had a basic fee, I wouldn't pay bacause it was otherwise free.

Now I don't even have a land line.

Quote: AZDuffman

So when we went to visit my other grandmather (paternal) which was 100 miles away we rang twice for the safe arrival. At my office a guy and I made a joke of the ring-signal but I doubt the younger folk noticed much less understood.

Most kids don't even know what "long distance" means. I remember they had fancy answering machines that you could call to get your messages remotely, and if there were no messages, they would hang up so you weren't charged the toll call.

I always thought that kids today would have no memories of their father getting the monthly bill and going into a rage around the house. Someone might be calling their boyfriend for two hours every night.

Of course, there is still cases of bill shock. This woman who got the $200K phone bill found out that the phones she got for her two deaf brothers had a hidden caution. They went to Canada and continued to text every few minutes. All the charges were legitimate.



My parents got their phone number in 1958 and they were upset in 1994 when the area code changed. Then about 5 years later they went to 10 digit dialing. They won't give it up for love or money, and it rings all day long with solicitors. All those Do Not Call lists don't do any good.

Quote: Pacomartin

I always thought that kids today would have no memories of their father getting the monthly bill and going into a rage around the house. Someone might be calling their boyfriend for two hours every night.

When I was working out of college but before I was transferresd I would call friends from college, so woould my brothe. My mother called her sister in another state. The bill would come and we would settle up. But my dad still went into a rage about it. I mean, we would pay him but he acted like he was a loan shark who had to chase us for weeks.

I had enough, my brother also had enough. If we didn't pay it would be understandable, but to act this way seconds after he opened the bill was crazy. He went even more nuts when I would just roudnd the numbers in my calls and just give him the total and the benefit of the doubt. He wanted to sit there with a calculator and add it all up (he still does with all his credit cards.) For some reason, it drove him really nuts.

So one month my brother gets a calling card and I made it a point to make super short calls to my friends, just to say when I was visiting. He gets the bill and as awlays goes balistic. Tells me to pay for my calls. Asks if I need a calculator.

"Nope, I can guess at it."

I had two calls for a total of less than $2. I pull out and put like 6 quarters in his hand. Now he is really, really mad. Asks who I think I am. So I show him the bill, mark my two calls, and tell him I even gave a few cents extra. My brother says he made no calls. All the calls were him or my mother.

It got the message thru to him that many calls were his and not to act crazy if family will settle with no problem. But he still goes nuts over other crazy things like lights that cost pennies. I think if he lived alone there would be no lights on, ever.

He can't stand that I have a motion light on at the longest interval (2 mins or so.) I live right on the street and finally told him, "do you know what kind of houses get broken into less? The ones where there is light around them!"

Of course, there is still cases of bill shock. This woman who got the $200K phone bill found out that the phones she got for her two deaf brothers had a hidden caution. They went to Canada and continued to text every few minutes. All the charges were legitimate.

Quote:

My parents got their phone number in 1958 and they were upset in 1994 when the area code changed. Then about 5 years later they went to 10 digit dialing. They won't give it up for love or money, and it rings all day long with solicitors. All those Do Not Call lists don't do any good.

Mine were probably the last on earth to lease their phone. About 1998 whoever was then Ma Bell called and told them to keep the phone.

Got rid of my land line in 1997. Now I use free Google
Talk for all my calls. I remember in the 50's that when
you answered the phone and it was an operator saying
it was LD, your first thought was a chilling 'who died', or
who was in an accident. You never, and I mean never,
called anybody LD just to chat. That's what 2 cent post
cards were for and we got a lot of them.