EXchange names for phone numbers

[Zepp]

Southeast Michigan was still using telephone exchanges into the 60s. Our number was YUkon 26831.

I don't remember when Michigan Bell stopped using the old exchange system, but when my folks sold their old house in the mid 80s the Western Electric wall mount phone still had the old YUkon 26831 number disc in the middle of the rotary dial. Those phones were built like tanks! We had that phone installed when we moved in back in 1965 and to the best of my knowledge it had never needed service in better than two decades.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I have an old flip date reminder that was used by my grandfather at his business for many years. It has his company name and address on it, and the phone number is listed as 26, that's all! No exchange is listed. Man, those where the days.

 

[Michaelson]

Mine was 'Elmwood', and my wife's was 'Yellowstone' back in the 50's and early 60's in Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky. We even had a party line at my house, sharing the line with 4 other families on our block.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Ours was MO for Mohawk.

 

[Twitch]

In the 50s St. Louis party lines were common. They were less expensive than dedicated single family lines. Imagine have 4 houses on 1 line today!!

 

[fortworthgal]

A while back I looked us up on that exchange. Our current number would have been something like Pershing 8-9252 or something. I can't remember now!

I grew up in an extremely rural area - closest neighbor was about a mile away, my high school senior class had about 22 students. We had a party line up until about 1993 or 1994, complete with a rotary dial phone! It is so funny to think back about it now. It wasn't a huge problem although we did have one neighbor woman who used to always claim she had an emergency and had to use the phone, but was actually just gossiping with her friends. lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here in Maine, there were still quite a few manually-operated non-dial phone exchanges into the sixties and seventies. My mother was an operator at the Central Office in Belfast, ME until that exchange went dial in 1964, and most towns had completed the changeover by the early 70s. But the last manual exchange in the state -- and for that matter in the entire US -- didn't go out of service until 1983 (!), and the switchboard used by that exchange, in the town of Bryant Pond, is currently on display in the lobby of the Maine State Museum in Augusta.

My exchange growing up was KIngswood 8 -- and I've been known to give my current number as LYric 6...

 

[EdinLA44]

Where I grew up, we had exchanges up until about 1970. I can still remember it, SKyline 3 - 6513. Too bad it's still not that way.

 

[The Reno Kid]

I still use and exchange name

I have two vintage phones: A 202 (1931) and a 653 (1940). It was a fairly easy exercise to scan one of the original dial centers. I looked up the exchange name from Ma Bell's recommended list (online at http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html) The number on my vintage phones is ORchard 7-XXXX. It's a minor detail, but what's the point of having the things if you're not going to enjoy them. They are both hooked up and I use them all the time.

Oops! I meant an exchange name.

 

[raiderrescuer]

Telephone Eschanges

fftopic: A wee bit...
My Grandmother was the Official Federal Weather Lady for a small town here in Oregon and during W.W.II the Telephone Exchange switchboard lady overheard my Grandma's conversions.
It seems that to keep the calls short during the war they would just read off a preset series of numbers.
The Operator assumed it was Nazi Code and called the F.B.I. and they came and interviewed my Grandma...the conversation was short when the Feds realized what was going on.

 

[Rosie]

Ha, me too. My beginning number is 57 but that wasn't used. I've decided to start using KRandall3, my mother thinks I'm nuts.

 

[The Wolf]

Good one, Rosie

The only other KR___ word I could think of was KRemlin. That just didn't seem right. KRandall is a good one. It sounds golden age.


Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Rosie]

Thanks

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Well, they wouldn't have used "KRandall" because it could be confused with "CRandall." How about KRaut? lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Or KRamer, which sounds appropriately New Yorkish.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Well, for New York it should be KRamden. lol

 

[J.S.Udontknowme]

HUxley7-5301 was ours. We only had to dial the five numbers to make a call.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Ours would have been WHitecliff 8-3555 back in the 60s, but they had already begun to move away from the "named" exchanges and I learned our home number as just numerals.

 

[Rosie]

Well, they wouldn't have used "KRandall" because it could be confused with "CRandall." How about KRaut? lol

Very good point. I didn't think of that. I was just envisioning myself writing the number out. I've only given it out once since coming up with that and I wrote it down. Note taken.

 

[Rosie]

Or KRamer, which sounds appropriately New Yorkish.

Thanks Lizzie, I think I will use that.