Before there was Ma Bell there was Keystone - before we had push buttons we had circular dialing - and before we lost our individuality by becoming just a number, we had those charming "exchanges" to cling to as part of our identity. In Manhattan, if yours was CHelsea you knew you were a west sider. If you had a GRamercy exchange you lived on the east side. Many exchanges identified your neighborhood and became status symbols - similar to having a Princeton post office address. PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was the number of the Pennsylvania Hotel and made famous by Glenn Miller's orchestra. And BUtterfield -8 was the number you called for Elizabeth Taylor's services. Our office in the Battery was DIgby 4-5800 but that was thirty years ago - I wonder who has it now. One time when we were still dialing, a firm asked Bell to change their number to reflect 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 for a special promotion they were planning. Bell discouraged them with the opinion that every three year old just learning to count would be dialing them up all day. Later the area code 212 for Manhattan became precious as newer numbers were assigned 646.
A New Yorker relocating to New Jersey tried to sell his 212 number on Ebay. Other nostalgic identifiers were PLaza 4 - TRafalgar 7 - MUrray Hill - ALgonquin - all gone like Joe DiMaggio.
In the very early days a household might be required to share a line with several neighbors - it was called a "party line" - if you attempted to make a call you might find your neighbor in conversation and, of course, you immediately hung up and awaited your turn on the line.........
To be continued.
tjs
Next - The telephone operator.
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