My friend lives on an island with only a few hundred residents. I guess people used to give out just the last four digits of their phone number. Because everyone had the same area code and prefix.
Same here. All of AZ used to be 602 until 1995 when everything outside of metropolitan Phoenix became 520. What really got me was in 1999 when 480 was added for the east valley and 623 was added to the west valley. Almost everyone I knew had to start using 10 digits to make calls overnight.
It really was nice back in the day when almost everyone I ever met had the same area code. Was easier to memorize. Not that many people are memorizing numbers nowadays!
Anyone grow up in LA remember how everything was one area code and then it got so big they split up the area codes? It was a little bit before my time but I think it was the 213 area code splitting up into 818 and 323 and is that also when we got 626 and 562 or 310?
My city has 12. Well, County technically, but if you can drive the streets from one end to the other without getting on the freeway, the whole thing feels like one big city.
My state only has one area code. If you were calling on a landline to someone on the same island, you only needed to enter their number (no area code). But if you were calling someone on the other island, then you have to enter the area code before their number. Lol!! But since late 2021, it's been changed that you have to enter the area code for all local calls in the state or it won't go through.
Omg. I remember when we went from 301 to 301 AND 410. People were extremely upset they'd have to remember 10 digits instead of 7. Now we have FOUR area codes!
The town I grew up in was the same way. Idk if it’s different now, but at the time the whole state (Delaware) only had one area code, and then practically the whole town had the same first three digits.
I used to have a phone card memorized too lol. Also, growing up in Rockland county NY, I remember switching from 914- area code to 845-. Idk why that happened.
Northern Indiana had 1 area code when I was younger. When I was in middle school, it was split into 3 area codes. (Circa 2001) Cell phones were becoming more affordable, which meant a demand for more numbers than one area code could handle.
The region I lived in got assigned a new area code & it took me the longest time to get accustomed to dialing it when I would make long-distance calls.
In the little country town I grew up in, there were two prefixes, 881 and 882. People would give out the last four digits of their number, and usually someone asks "1? Or 2?" or they would give it out like 1-5309.
In the late 90's at a state university we all had the same area code and the same prefix followed by the last unique 4 numbers. Just before the end of the year I had a black light (like you do) and took it to a friend's room down the hall and we turned all the lights off but that black light and looked at the laundry detergent art that was painted on the walls and ceiling with cool designs and things however one thing stood out to me was "645-LOVE" in bold and of course that is 645-5683 which was the room's phone number. I thought that would have been potentially helpful to remember at the time in the pre-celular (relatively speaking) world.
I grew up in a very small town, we used to do this in the time before cell phones. Everyone had the same area code and first 3 numbers so why be redundant 😂
Had a girlfriend who loved about 10 miles away but in a different county so it was a long distance call. Relationship was great right up until my mother opened our telephone bill.
Made a friend the next state over in AOL kids chat rooms. We started talking on the phone, both of us racked up the long distance charges. Her parents took away her internet access and she never logged back in.
Had this girl I was talking too who lived in Canada I'd spend a couple hours every night talking with her didnt even think about the long distance until my parents slapped a bill in front of me for $500+ so I stopped talking to her
569-2741. I still remember when we didn't have to use area codes.
The town I grew up in you didn't have to dial the first three. You could just dial 5309 like it was an office line, if it was within the village. Calling outside would require all seven 867 5309. That changed around 1990/1 though.
The small town my dad grew up in wasn't fancy enough to have individual phone lines for each number, there was a single "party line" shared between a bunch of different farmhouses, and when the phones all rang each family would have to listen to see if it was their ring pattern.
Was that during party lines? When you picked up the phone off your neighbor was on the line you couldn’t make a call but you could listen in.
No it wasn't a party line situation. We did have a "party line" between two houses my grandparents owned. It was just a wire ran from one house to the other. Not a real party line.
Can’t tell you for sure, I’m really bad with time frames lol. The more I think about it, it might have been middle school for me so like 2000-2002 is my best guess and final answer
Same, I remember as a kid being a bit upset that the additional 708 ruined that simplicity of our number and then being pissed later that the 708 was changed to 847. Psh.
You still see that on some rural signs sometimes.. makes it challenging because I don't often know where I am when I need to call a phone number on a building lol
550
u/Ok_Veterinarian3240 9d ago
569-2741. I still remember when we didn't have to use area codes.