Evolution of the Area Code

[Libertarian666]

Yes, and as suggested here, this provides a fossilized record of population at the time that the system was created. Accordingly you can tell that Houston used to be a lot smaller in population than Dallas, as the original Dallas area code is 214 whereas Houston's original code is 713.

I guess Detroit's area code would be 919 if it were being assigned today. :-)

[Mountaineer]

I'm old enough to remember seeing the two-letter codes on rotary phones (growing up, our 3-digit extension was "CAnal-1"), though I don't remember people using them when communcating phone numbers.

I'm old enough to remember phones with NO dials or buttons.  Pick up the small town rural party-line phone and a human would ask what number you wanted to be connected to ... and the neighbors would all listen to the conversation if they were bored.  I can remember my great aunt, an operator, who took me on a tour of her workplace ... all those wires with plugs and the boards with the jacks to plug into in order to complete the call were fascinating.  All the operators sat in a row in front of this long board.  As I remember, all the operators were women.  The phone numbers were simple, e.g. 29J, 75R1.

... Mountaineer

[ns3]

I'm old enough to remember phones with NO dials or buttons.  Pick up the small town rural party-line phone and a human would ask what number you wanted to be connected to ... and the neighbors would all listen to the conversation if they were bored.

You're older than me (and that's pretty old). I remember very well the party line telephone with neighbors listening in but a phone with no dials or buttons? Before my time.

[D1984]

I'm old enough to remember phones with NO dials or buttons.  Pick up the small town rural party-line phone and a human would ask what number you wanted to be connected to ... and the neighbors would all listen to the conversation if they were bored.

You're older than me (and that's pretty old). I remember very well the party line telephone with neighbors listening in but a phone with no dials or buttons? Before my time.

Actually this may have depended more on where you or Mountaineer lived (maybe he lived in a more rural locations) than being "before your time"; several really rural areas and small towns didn't get dial service until the late 60s or early 70s and had phones with no dials and all calls were operator-assisted. The last manual cordboard for local service (i.e. where all the subscribers had to pick up the phone and wait for the operator) was only replaced in 1978 within the Bell System/AT&T itself and in 1983 at the last independent telephone company to run manual service instead of dial.

[HB Reader]

I'm old enough to remember phones with NO dials or buttons.  Pick up the small town rural party-line phone and a human would ask what number you wanted to be connected to ... and the neighbors would all listen to the conversation if they were bored.

You're older than me (and that's pretty old). I remember very well the party line telephone with neighbors listening in but a phone with no dials or buttons? Before my time.

Actually this may have depended more on where you or Mountaineer lived (maybe he lived in a more rural locations) than being "before your time"; several really rural areas and small towns didn't get dial service until the late 60s or early 70s and had phones with no dials and all calls were operator-assisted. The last manual cordboard for local service (i.e. where all the subscribers had to pick up the phone and wait for the operator) was only replaced in 1978 within the Bell System/AT&T itself and in 1983 at the last independent telephone company to run manual service instead of dial.

D1984 -

Yes, I think you are right.

I remember the telephone in my grandparent's farm house in rural western Oklahoma in 1965.  I still have it stashed away somewhere in my attic.  It had a single crank handle and two exposed "ringer bells" and was on a party line.  It would ring everyone on the party line and you answered based on the number of rings (my grandparents were three rings).  I think just one ring coming in, or one complete circular crank turn going out, connected to the local operator.  I remember the phones in Southern California and the Washington, DC area at that time were dial phones.  When my mother called my grandparents from either coast, she always had to connect through one or more operators and the cost was considered pretty high for the time.  Calling, as opposed to writing a letter, was considered a luxury or emergency communications mode.

Of course, that part of Oklahoma did not get electricity until well after WWII (1948, I think) and the nearest paved road is still about four miles away.

I hope this doesn't make me older than ns3 or Mountaineer. 

     

[Mountaineer]

I confess ... some could say I'm "older than dirt"... but they would be wrong since God created dirt before He created man. 

... Mountaineer

[Xan]

As Kris Kringle said in Miracle on 34th Street, "I'm as old as me nose and a little bit older than me teeth."