August 12, 2004
From the desk of Jane Galt:Insanely cool site
Remember PEnnsylvania-6500? BUtterfield 8? When I was a kid, the older businesses in my neighbourhood (the Upper West Side), often still had their exchange names where the first two numbers of their phone numbers would be; our butcher, the incomparable Oppenheimer's Meats on 98th and Broadway, was MOnument 20246. MOnument numbers (often written MO2-0246) were liberally interspersed with UNiversity numbers; presumably these referred to Columbia and the Soldiers and Sailors monument on 91st & Riverside, although it could also have been a reference to Grant's tomb.
Everyone used to know the name of their exchange -- and if your phone number is oldish, you can too! (My family was a UNiversity family, although there were also a lot of MOnuments in my building. Back then the numbers were fairly geographically localised, but if you've gotten yours in the last fifteen years, it's probably random.) Now here's a guy who's assembled a database of the exchange names. Definitely the coolest thing I've found this week. And it's not just a list of New York exchanges -- he's apparently trying to develop a comprehensive list for the whole country. Check it out.
Posted by Jane Galt at August 12, 2004 5:33 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksMy exchange, growing up, was BOulevard 8.
I'll bet everyone of my generation who grew up in Chicago remembers Hudson Three Two Seven Hundred and Mohawk Four Four One Hundred, and the jingles they went to (the reason I posted as words). Some of them may even remember which was the carpet cleaner and which was the TV dealer - I don't.
And then of course there was the murder mystery wherein the alibi fell apart because of the claim to have dialed a QUeen exchange phone number.
Of note (sort of) is that (212) 736-5000 still rings the same switchboard that it did when the song after which it was named, was written.
Just sayin'.
Triticale,
Just to back you up, the moment I started to read Jane's post, I had that really deep voice in my head singing the HU3-2700 jingle. I think it was Magikist carpet cleaning. I'm sure it was carpeting, but not sure about Magikist.
And right on the heels of the Magikist theme, I was humming "588-2300, Empiiiiiiiiiiire..."
:)
Neato! I was wondering if anyone would ever bring this old system up in weblogs.
Mine was REgent5-2695, in Derby, CT, and I haven't had that number since, well in almost fifty years. What that tells me is that what was drummed into our heads as kids sticks with you if it's got a "singing sound" to it.
DAvis 64148 was mine. With all the phone numbers I need to remember these days, maybe I should make up my own exchange names to help the old memory........
I have business cards that give my home phone as AXminster 4-XXXX, instead of 294-XXXX. Raises a few eyebrows.
Childhood phone number: PArkway 8-6796, in Westland, MI...
I was in New York back in June staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania, and told my friend I had no doubt they still had their PEnnsylvania 6-5000 number, since you'd be crazy to give up a number that was the title of a hit song, even if it was 60 years ago and the big bands aren't traveling to Penn Station by train anymore and staying in the hotel across the street.
The gist of it was, I ended up having to call the number to find out if I was right or not -- I was, they do, though you do get a recorded voice on line, bnt with Glenn Miller in the background (and just as an addentium, I had the ORegon exchange growing up on the east side of Manhattan, though I never could figure out how that name was related to any part of the city).
Put me down for GArden 9, in White Bear Lake, MN.
Eight six seven five three oh niiieeeiine.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
And if you are a _little_ older...
I remember our phone number going from Webster 868, to Webster 0860, then to WOodland 1-0868, and then finally to 961-0868.
The Webster 0868 was very short lived, in the transition from manual operators to rotary dial.
There was considerable discontent about the difficulty of remembering the longer numbers, now forgotten in the rush to make all calls require 10 digit dialing.
"How many cookies did Andrew eat? ANdrew 8-8000."
This was, of course, before people worried about childhood obesity.
Next up, Fun with Anagrams
John Kerry.........Jerky Horn
John Edwards.......Jed Who Darns
Edward Kennedy.....Naked Dry New Ed
Bill Clinton.......Claw Minion Till
Hillary Clinton....Chill Nor Latin
George Bush........Bugs Her Ego
Laura Bush.........Blush Aura
Dick Cheney........Key Chin Dec
Ralph Nader........Had Plan Err
Howard Dean........Heard Own Ad
Michael Moore......Chrome Lie Mao, Roach Mile Moe
"I had that really deep voice in my head singing the HU3-2700 jingle."
Funny, I started thinking of the Standard Improvement Company jingle (Kansas City)
"Standard, bom bom bom bom bom, Improvement Company, at Westport 17100." and the little cartoon guys that sang it. (It's not so charming written out.)
Years ago, I had read what the exchange was for my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, and I couldn't remember. It's VIking (not sure what that signifies). KU numbers are UNiversity6-____.
As I live halfway between Mpls and St. Paul, it should come as no surprise that my neighborhood is neatly divided into the MIdway-4 and MIdway-6 exchanges. And during the day, I'm in CApitol-3.
We really gotta bring back the old names. Even a cynical youngun like me finds 'em charming!
re: My name. I was surprised to get a matchbook with a JUdson prefix.
Triticale
How about the Melrose 5 - 5300 for some place in the Melrose section of the Bronx?
TomCom
Plaza Hotel NY PLaza 9-3000
It was on the stationary I thought it was very classy.
John
In Sacramento early 40's: "The Morrisy Company - Phone Main 1".
How about 4685, then 24685? No prefix. That's the way it was in my Michigan home town, from my early childhood until sometime in the 1950s?
Of course one remembers one's "first" i.e., home phone number: I know I do, to this day, since my parents drilled it into me over and over in case I ever got lost and needed to call home. The old named exchanges made good mnemonics, though: numbers just don't have the same cachet.
Jay C.
(nee CRestview 4)
Northeast Ohioans who grew up during the 60s, 70s and 80s knew where to call for aluminum siding: "GArfield 1-2323!"
the idea being that each of us would suddenly green card lottery know a lot more about the other past what they merchant account look like, which is all you can really know green card about a stranger when you meet them (aside accept credit card from maybe cues you get about where you see usa visa
Sounds as if some of us grew up listening to WGN or other Chicago area stations.
Call NA-2-9000! Call now!
Do the names Augie, Evelyn and Herman mean anything to you?
I grew up with MAyfair 1-6647 (Nassau County, Long Island), my husband with SHeldrake 3-1282 (Rogers Park, Chicago).
Our present exchange begins with 4 (G,H,I) 6 (M,N,O).
I'm still trying to figure out what it might have been originally.
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