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Do ou have a seven digit number?

Once a number is plugged into my contact list, I just have to touch the screen twice to call someone. I assume my phone knows how many digits it has to dial, since it never seems to get it wrong. That is, if I actually want to speak with someone. Most times a text message will suffice, as I don't have to worry whether or not the person I am contacting will be able to pick up the phone, or not. They will get the message when they get it.
 
In my city there used to be an auto parts store named "688 Parts." The name was their original phone number. It seems truly unambitious to set up a numbering system limited to 999 subscribers. Even though there have been a few mergers and name changes, one of the stores still has the phone number 388-6881.

When I was in grade school, I kept hearing adults give their phone numbers with a word for the pre-fixe. The parts store would be Elgin8-6881, where E and L corresponded to the 3 and the 8 on the dial. Numbers in the 92X exchanges were Walnut.

When I asked about this funny thing of phone numbers with words in them, I was told that when 7 digit phone numbers were introduced, people thought it wasn't possible for people to easily memorize that many numbers, so the prefixes were mnemonic devices.
 
I grew up with a party line... Loved my sister's teen years.
Her screaming "I'LLGETIT!I'LLGETIT!I'LLGETIT!I'LLGETIT!" while we tried to hear it if was three rings, pause, then two, or two rings, pause, then three, or four,...
Dialing out involved a conversation. Not with the operator, but getting the old biddies off the line so we could dial, knowing they'd be picking the line up again to listen in... Went through a number of whistles back in the day, too. Call a friend, give the code word, he'd put the phone down, i'd try to rattle the neighbors' windows through their eardrums...

Now, i usually dial seven for local calls. Rarely have to dial a 1 before the seven, if it's on the extreme end of the county. But most of my friends are transplants, so their area codes reflect the previous command (or pre-pre-command) where they bought their phone and just kept the number through transfers...
 
Rhea said:
Mumbles said:
It's been 10 digits where I've lived for...I don't even remember how long. Boston went that way a while back, when they basically decided to use overlapping area codes instead of constantly splitting "617" into smaller and smaller areas, as I recall.
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I grew up with a 617 phone number. :) the switch was some time after I left in 1991.
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Yep. Found a wikipedia entry on the subject, here. It was 2001 when the overlaid area codes showed up, and 10-digit dialing became mandatory. Also, 617 *really* shrank from most of the state to basicallyBoston and a few surrounding towns.
 
I did not realize that there were some areas in the US that still used the 7 digit numbers. We got rid of our land line a couple of years ago. All of my contacts are on my cell phone so all I have to do is touch the person's number that I want to call and the phone does the rest of the work. This has been the case for many years in Georgia. I'm pretty sure even Georgia's most rural areas use the 10 digit numbers. I assume that Rhea lives in a very rural area if she still can use the 7 digit numbers. No?
 
Bronzeage said:
In my city there used to be an auto parts store named "688 Parts." The name was their original phone number. It seems truly unambitious to set up a numbering system limited to 999 subscribers. Even though there have been a few mergers and name changes, one of the stores still has the phone number 388-6881.

When I was in grade school, I kept hearing adults give their phone numbers with a word for the pre-fixe. The parts store would be Elgin8-6881, where E and L corresponded to the 3 and the 8 on the dial. Numbers in the 92X exchanges were Walnut.

When I asked about this funny thing of phone numbers with words in them, I was told that when 7 digit phone numbers were introduced, people thought it wasn't possible for people to easily memorize that many numbers, so the prefixes were mnemonic devices.
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We stayed at the Canungra Hotel for our wedding, and on the wall in the guest lounge they have a framed 1920s poster advertising the hotel. The phone number is 'Canungra 5'. I wonder who the first four subscribers were - our best guesses were the police, a local doctor, the railway station and rural fire service.

Canungra is still a small town, but I rather doubt that they could get away with single digit numbers today :)
 
Keith&Co. said:
southernhybrid said:
I assume that Rhea lives in a very rural area if she still can use the 7 digit numbers. No?
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Well, it IS Rhea... It may be that they've gone to 10-digit in that area, but her calls go through by sheer force of will.
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LOL, well, my force of will is indeed legendary!
I live in an area where, in approx the size of Connecticut, the average population density is 75 people per square mile. I don't think of us as being super duper rural, but it's true that getting to a town with a population over 50,000 takes at least a 2 hour drive. And it's true that most of the roads in my town are dirt and the fire department is volunteer, and the town supervisor has a still in his garage. And where the easiest way to get someone's phone number is to call the town clerk and ask her if they have a hunting license with their phone number on it.

And it is true that when I lived two towns over about 15 years ago, where they still have a town-level municipal phone company, my sister once called asking for my number and they told her, "well, I could give it to you, but I just saw her drive by, so she won't be home right now."
 
Rhea said:
Keith&Co. said:
Well, it IS Rhea... It may be that they've gone to 10-digit in that area, but her calls go through by sheer force of will.
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LOL, well, my force of will is indeed legendary!
I live in an area where, in approx the size of Connecticut, the average population density is 75 people per square mile. I don't think of us as being super duper rural, but it's true that getting to a town with a population over 50,000 takes at least a 2 hour drive. And it's true that most of the roads in my town are dirt and the fire department is volunteer, and the town supervisor has a still in his garage. And where the easiest way to get someone's phone number is to call the town clerk and ask her if they have a hunting license with their phone number on it.

And it is true that when I lived two towns over about 15 years ago, where they still have a town-level municipal phone company, my sister once called asking for my number and they told her, "well, I could give it to you, but I just saw her drive by, so she won't be home right now."
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Your neck of the woods?
 
Not quite, but... well, yeah, kinda.
 
TSwizzle said:
couch_sloth said:
My cellphone area code is the same one as the area I live in. If I call someone else in that area (who has the same area code), I don't have to plug-in the area code when calling them
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I am surprised at that as I thought the requirement to dial area code had been rolled out everywhere.
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Just a few days ago, it started requiring me to 'dial' the area code first for all calls; from my cellphone. But I can still use just the 7 digit numbers from my land-line.
 
Didn't bother getting a new land line when moving a decade ago, been 10 digits ever since.

A side antidote: I did help my parents sell their house 2 years ago and it came with a free wall mounted rotary phone that still worked. It gave the realtor a good laugh.
 
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