Before World War II, party lines were the dominant form of phone service, especially in rural areas. People could pick up their telephones and listen in on their neighbors’ conversations.
Until the 1950s, local telephone numbers consisted of an exchange and a 5-digit phone number. A New Yorker might be listed in the phone book as “CHelsea 4-5034″, and someone wanting to call him would dial (once dial service was available—until the 30s phone calls had to be manually connected by a switchboard operator) CH4-5034 (this is apparently where the letters on the phone come from). When the phone company began running out of memorable exchange names and tried to replace it with “all-number calling,” it sparked an intense outcry among urban users, who considered all-numeric calling to be de-humanizing. Under intense pressure, AT&T backed down and allowed existing exchange-name-based phone numbers to stay in the phone books in some urban areas until the 1980s.
Update: So apparently everyone except me already knew all of these things. One person helpfully informed me that “that post makes you sound about 12 years old.” Well, when I’m 80 I’m sure my grandkids will be fascinated to read this post and learn about how things were back in the good old days.
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