Mickey7

It made it interesting when they started with a name and not a number

https://lemmy.world/post/44546621

Mar 21 at 11:27amWeb
Show threadDaMonsterKneesMar 21
Translyvania 6-5 ew ew ew.
Show threadBarneyPiccoloMar 21
Mine started with ST5, which you had to translate into the number, which was 785. Even as a kid, I knew it was weird. Nobody could ever explain that old tradition of having the letters. Don’t give me a phone number with a combination of letters and numbers, just give me the numbers. Why you got to make a simple thing harder?
Show threadSwingingTheLampMar 21

It was a holdover from when you had to make a verbal request to the telephone operator to connect a call, rather than use a dial. Kind of odd that nobody could explain it.

Wikipedia Link

Telephone exchange names - Wikipedia

Show threadBarneyPiccoloMar 21

Kind of odd that nobody could explain it.

Did you read the Wikipedia entry you linked? The explanation is incredibly convoluted. No wonder nobody can explain it. I just read it, and I couldn’t explain it to someone. It seems like the reasons were logical when it started, but when I had that number in the 60s, making a call was essentially the same as today (except no push buttons), and there was no reason to keep up with those two letters at the beginning. It was just a holdover from the olden days, like Daylight Savings time. We tend to be reluctant to give up old traditions, no matter how pointless they are.

Show threadSwingingTheLampMar 21
I found it easy to understand. The last manual exchange in the US was replaced by automatic switching in the 1970’s, so the reason for the letters is still within living memory for some people. I thought that people who’d used the old system would be able to explain the reason for the letters easily.
Show threadBarneyPiccoloMar 21
Valid.
Show threadedinbruhMar 21

My grandma was from a richer family (that lost everything before she married grandpa). Her phone number was <city code> 2.

That is because <city code> 1 was the phone number of the city hall, and no one else could afford a phone.

Show threadTrackinDaKrakenMar 21

Now, you’re talking old. I think you’d need to be 70+ to remember this.

Kids today: “If you remember making a mix tape, you’re old.”

Show threadCaptPretentiousMar 21
Kids today probably think your old if you burned your own CDs
Show threadkateMar 22
some of the younger people in my gaming group maybe 16-20yo don’t know the difference between a CD and DVD and blu-ray and use the term CD to refer to all 3
Show threadSaveTheTuaHawk6d ago
What? In a forge?
Show thread👍Maximum Derek👍Mar 21

At least in my school, the Simpson’s started us spelling phone numbers with letters again in the 90s. We were “Yuka 2…”

That doesn’t make me not old though.

Mr. Plow | TV commercial

YouTube
Show threadhomesMar 21
oh, yes, 5 digit dialing. Now, you’re old if you remember 7 digit dialing.
Show threadwaggzMar 21
I had to dial 10 to reach schoolmates in the neighboring town and it was long distance charges!!
Show threadaffenlehrerMar 21
My parents still have a 4 digit number, we also had one until the cable company f’ed up about a year or two ago
Show threadcomador Mar 21
Party Lines…
Show threadAnarchoEngineerMar 21
I hooked up an old rotary phone to our landline when I was young and was very sad that dialing 0 did not connect me to an operator
Show threadparzivalMar 21
Now we need 11 digits :(