Area Code Trivia

Quote: AZDuffman

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!"

Try this one. Dad, this 7 watt CFL bulb costs $7 a year to operate, so we are just going to leave it on 24/7 for safety in this dark spot. There is no need to turn it off as it is better to have it on all the time when you need it. Besides a $28 motion detector will take 4 years to pay back.

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..

My dad was born in 1914 on a farm in W VA with no
electric. When he left in 1934 there was still no electric
or phone. He joined the Navy and got out in 1945. He
finally got married in 47 and got his first phone and
first car.

My dad never hit any of us kids, my mom did all the
hitting. But we were far more afraid of the old man.
You did not want to piss him off with a LD call. He
would go ballistic, it was like stealing money from
his wallet, he would say. Dads in those days were
way more intimidating than they are now. And it
worked well, I did what I was told and never got in
trouble.

Waste of time.

He has four sets of shop lights to light the main room of his house, except he can't stand them being on. He practically gets the shakes.

Also has 2 small lights in the room. I had both on at once once and he went crazy. I tried to explain that the buld cost probably $.01 per hour to run. He just starts saying, "give me the penny!"

Legend has it his day unplugged a clock that uses $.01 per month of electricity. This would have been 1950s maybe, so I doubted it was even that much back then.

He wanted my brother to re-wire the aforesaid big lights so he could put only 2 of the 4 on at once. This would not be a bad idea from a lighting standpoint, but he wanted it because of cost. I asked my brother if he explained the payback period and he just shook his head.

Quote: AZDuffman

Also has 2 small lights in the room. I had both on at once once and he went crazy..

This is not unusual for the oldest generation.
When they were growing up, or their parents,
electric bills were much bigger when compared
to earned income. All utilities took more of their
income then they do now.

So they were constantly told turn a light off and
not electric wastefully. My dad was always turning
off lights and fans and TV's. He was fine when we
had a coal furnace, but as soon as we got gas, he
was a thermostat nut. Always turning it down as far
as possible, drove us crazy.

Quote: Pacomartin

My error. It's hard to believe that a population of 8 million only needed one area code. I think only 800 exchanges are possible (since you can't start with zero or one) so there are only about 8 million possible combinations of 7-digit dialing.

But they held on with single area code until 1984 when the 718 area code was created.

When was 646 added?

646 was added on July 1, 1999. Story archived here

Quote: boymimbo

646 was added on July 1, 1999. Story archived here

Thank you

Quote: Tomspur

When was 646 added?

The original 86 created in 1947 (9 of which were in Canada) was expanded to include Hawaii, Alaska and Caribbean in 1957-58.

Bell Telephone was broken up into Baby Bella on January 1 1984
Area code 818 was split in January 7, 1984 in Los Angeles.
Area code 718 was split in September 1, 1984 assigned only to Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island (not Bronx)
Needless to say the splits in urban areas were wildly unpopular.Chicago was never broken up under the old system.
There were only 16 area codes left. Over the next 10 years they allocated those 16 plus an area code '456' that was non-geographic to test the system and see if they could make it work without the 0 or 1 in the middle digit.

They had allocated 900, 800, 700 and 600 but not 500 yet.

The first 'overlay' was developed in 1991 in suburban Washington DC. I was working in MD at the time and we had different area codes in the same office which we thought was ridiculous. We also had wires that looked like this:


By 1995 they test run with '456' was complete , and they quickly doubled the area codes with the restriction listed by 2001. In some cases they were adding new area codes every few weeks. New York City '646' was one of this group.

Just for a bit of context, it is quite amazing how New York residents either present or past place tremendous stock in the area codes they were prescribed. My wife landed in NYC on or about the year 2000 and she got a "646" code. When i met her she lamented that she was not lucky enough to get a coveted "212" code. Now that we live in Vegas, have done so for 4 years, do you think my wife is willing to give up her "646" area code number? Not a chance in hell. She will even fight through phone stalkers, countless wrong numbers ect. than get a change of number. In fact, once she told me she would just as soon divorce me as change her number........that kinda put the loyalties of a New Yorker into persepctive for me :)

Quote: Tomspur

Just for a bit of context, it is quite amazing how New York residents either present or past place tremendous stock in the area codes they were prescribed. My wife landed in NYC on or about the year 2000 and she got a "646" code.

The original area codes were given in 1947, and the first new one was added in 1948 for the INDIANA suburbs of Chicago. Nobody minded in chicago since it was a different state, and the people in Indiana suburbs wanted something to distinguish them from Indianapolis. So it was non-controversial.

For the first 37 years they only broke up states. Cities that were too small to rate their own area codes now got them. Once again it was fairly non-controversial.

But the year (1984) that Bell Telephone broke up they had to split the other two large municipalities (NYC and Los Angeles). Now all hell broke loose, since you knew immediately if you lived in Manhattan or one of the boroughs. Same problem in LA. When the original system was almost full they broke NYC again with a 917 area code. The Bronx had originally been grandfathered into 212 with Manhattan, now they were terrified of getting a BRONX area code which would immediately brand them as not just an outer borough, but as THE BRONX.

Starting in 1995 they began the new system where the area code didn't need a 0 or 1 as second digit.

The Seinfeld episode about the new 646 area code was broadcast on 30 Apr. 1998, but it was still new enough in 2000 that people were still hoping to get a 212 number.

Last spring Vonage sued to have the right to use any area code they wanted. Clearly the 212 area codes will sell for a huge markup, but the 646 area codes will not be far behind. Be prepared for your wife having a hissy fit as she loses her beloved exclusivity.

I understand that 212-121-2121 is already being used as a scam.