Back in the "olden days" phone numbers were a name of a towns/state and then 4 digits...such as "Pennsylvania-4099" My question is, how would that number be dialed and/or how did it translate into a 7 digit phone number? I was watching George Clooney in "One Fine Day" and his cell phone number was an "Old fashioned" number like that so I got to wondering...This is actually a question - I don't know the answer so figured this board was as good a place to post as any!

You brilliant trivia folks - don't let me down now!

the first three digits were usually just the first three letters of the town (with the same number-letter correlations as you see on your phone today). This is why 555 didn't correspond to real numbers and was suggested for use on tv and radio... after all, who's ever heard of jklville, lkjville, kljville, etc.

When I was a young girl our phone number was:
Greenwood 7518
Dialed: GR 7518
Before that I'm told it was: 318

OK - let me get this straight...if a number was "Atlanta"-7368 it would be dialed as
A=2
T=8
L=5
then 7368...
Right?

Right Georgia!

In fact, I remember (Ah!) when our phone number was changed from GR3-3524 to 473-3524!
I don't know why exactly - maybe using numbers for the exchange allowed for more combinations than having only letters that had to translate into names...?

(BTW - I also remember when we stopped using zone numbers after the town names and started using Zip Codes! )

When I was young you just picked up the phone and said, "Hey, Ethel, ring Dorothy for me, will ya?"

Catty

Hey Georgia85 , did you know that there are still a few towns in Texas that still use four #s to dial a local call !

Hey doc don't tell all our secrets.

Well now isn't that interesting! How does that get printed in the phone book? Since I work with BellSouth I would be interested in seeing a page from a Texas directory that has those 4 digit numbers printed....

quote:

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Originally posted by Georgia85:
Well now isn't that interesting! How does that get printed in the phone book? Since I work with BellSouth I would be interested in seeing a page from a Texas directory that has those 4 digit numbers printed....

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I would bet they are printed with the 3 number exchange, but dialing said exchange would not be necessary, although I don't see how.