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Thinking about Hee Haw and remembered the old Phone numbers

J

JD Seller

Well-known Member
Remember Junior Sample's used car sales and the sign with his phone number. BR549

How many of you remember your old phone numbers??? I mean back to with the crank to call phones where all calls had to be placed by an operator?? I was trying to remember our old number the other day but could not. I remember it was a letter and a three digit number.

My Maternal Grand Parents had the only phone in the family for years. Grand Dad got it early because he wanted one for the black smith/repair business. That would have been in the late 1930s.

Just the other day one of our feed customers was laughing at his 9 year old daughter. She was fascinated by her Grand Mother's corded phone. She had not realized what it was before. HE only has a cordless and cell phone, no cords. LOL

How many kids today would know how to use a rotary dial phone??? We did not get a touch tone phone until the mid 1980s here.
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We didn't get a phone until 1954 - and I do remember the number as my brother still has that number at the farm.

We moved quite a few times for work and I remember that we lived on Union Street twice; once in the Midwest and once in the West - but don't remember the house numbers nor the phone numbers of any of our other houses.
 
the other day i was sortig through a drawer of old stuff and found a old black book from my service days had most of the numders and home addresses of the guys i went to boot camp with in 1959
 
Small town, southern MN. Owner was the one-man line crew, his wife was the operator. Party lines, mostly 7 on a line. Our number was 40F161, ring was 1 short, 2 long, 1 short. General or alarm ring in case of fire or other emergency was 5 shorts.
Around 51-52 it was first phone co in county to go dial. Number changed to 3405. Still on line 40, the middle 2 digits. The initial 3 & final 5 set up so had same ring. Chart in book listed who was on each line (middle 2 digits) & the ring code for first & last digits.
Brother & his school buddies looked up in chart to find a number that wasn't used on line each was on, unofficially used that number to call each other.
Also had "rubber neck" button. Just pick up reciever to listen in, but had to push button to talk.
Willie
 
Follow up-
Grandma lived in a smaller town, Ormsby, didn't have its own phone co. Main Street was the county line. People on north side had Triumph phones, next town to the south. Those on south side had St James phones, next town to the north. Never knew why they did it that way, lines crossed over each other. Was long distance to call across the street.
Can't find Triumph in your Randy McNally? State highway #4 divided Triumph from Monterey, they merged & became Trimont in 58.
Willie
 
Yep, ours was 1016-J-2, I think it meant for two rings. Party line, and Aunt Emma once yelled at Mr. Martinez for listening in, he yelled back "This ain"t me, it"s my WIFE!!"
 

Ours was 3 digits 602 I think and this was in the early 60s. Someone said our area was about last to make the change around here. When younger my Mom worked as an operator in town.
 
I can remember before we got a phone, dad having to go into town to call the inseminator - other side of the county. When we did get phone - dialed 0, told operator "Vickeryville 152." When he"d answer, we"d say our name and give a breed. He"d show up on cue later in the day.

We had at least 8 parties. Our ring was two longs and a short. Could hear others on line just walking past the phone, even when hung up.
 
Our number was ENdicott 5-4176. (Remember how they named all the exchanges?) Later, became 365-4176. Many years later they changed it to 365-3088.
 
Our # was 2 . The closet neigbor was 4j .
Pretty small CKY town. Operators knew about everyone and their #s. If the operator knew the party you were calling was not at home she would tell you. A long distance call was a big deal
because of the additional costs. The farm had a party line. Often the other parties were using it ( or listening in)and you had to ask to use the line if you had an emergency(more listening in)
 
Folks number was 2411. Cranked one long and one short. Eight on party line. Sure would like to find a phone book back then. Uncle everytime he called was long distant. Half mile down road was local. Kept the farmers line to neighbors house. Would call neighbor and neighbor would call into town for him.
 
When I was a kid we were on a party line shared with neighbors. I remember times when the line was hogged by a neighbor who liked to go on and on about nothing. Had fun a few times dialing 2 party line numbers so it ran at those two houses. Both would answer and we heard "did you call, no I didn't call, well neither did I.." but the gabby neighbor would visit a while anyhow. We've come a long way from those days.
 

Our home phone was on a party line until I was probably twelve, our ring was two short, and even though we were on a party line we were the only ones on it except for maybe a six month period. We could call our whole town and one neighboring town until about 1965, when we got free calling to a second town. It was an especially good thing for me because that was when I started dating a girl from the next town. I still can remember her number. LOL We still have a rotary dial phone on the kitchen wall.
 
Used to talk to the man that ran Barron's Feed and Seed in Seneca, SC when he was about 100 years old. He remembered my Grandpa who died in 1951 and who I never knew. Mr. Barron told me he remembered the store phone number on main street was 11. Used to go there with my Dad to buy seed in the 50's and remember the big pot bellied stove near the center of the store with a long flue pipe running down the wall wired from the ceiling to get all the heat out of it before it went into the chimney.
Richard in NW SC
 
when we first moved into this area the 4 didget system still worked, the worst thing i remember growing up was our only phone hung on the kitchen wall and had a 4 or 5 foot cord on it, you sat on a yellow metal 2 step stool to talk , when i was a teen and got to chasing the girls, mom would hover in the area and listen to every word! now how was a guy supposed to get any action lined up with his mom listening?
 
Six Lakes, Michigan - Montcalm county.
Vickeryville also in Montcalm county. Nothing but a spot on the map now.
 
TH3-5501 was the number we were given when the dial phones came in. I don't remember the how many longs and shorts it was when we had the cranker. Jim
 
I was 12 when we moved to the town were I now live. Our phone was 349, operator assisted calls only. When we went to dial in the late 50s, that was preceded with a zero and became the last 4 digits of out number.

That was Mom and Dad's number until her death in '07. I sold my house and moved into their old place. Now it's my number again! at age 69.

And really weird, last week I placed an order for a new service to my shop. I made no request for a special number. But, my new number ends in 3490!
 
BR549 is the running joke at my local parts house whenever talking about a serial or part number, parts guys are in their 50's, younger people have no clue what we are talking about, I remember when we could dial 7911, 7954, 7955 then hang up and the phone would ring in the house or barn depending where you were calling from, I tried it at a friends shop several years later as a joke and it dialed 911 emergency , they were not very happy.
 
Just a little before my time, my Father had a busy autobody shop so he had 2 phone lines in the Sayre/Athens Pa exchange. The home phone in South Waverly (Sayre) was TUrner 8-7901 and the shop in East Athens was TUrner 2-3011. When my father died in 62' Mom closed down the shop and the home number was changed to 884-3901. I still remember that number very well. If I got in hot water in grade school, the principal had me dial the phone to call Mom.
 
Got our first phone in 1958, when I was 14; 962-M4 on an 8-party line. Our 'ring' was 2 long/2 short. One old woman on the line picked up the phone and listened to EVERY incoming call......
 
The prefix here was BR, not sure if that was the "exchange" or what you call it, the numbers were shorter. There is an old grocery store, still in business down the road one of the brothers was a decorated WWII army veteran, which most of us did not know until he passed away, and his obituary published, the sign over the old store, which sells mostly vegetables, garden plants, flowers and some other things, still has the old number on it starting with the letters AS-____ don't recall the 4 digits after.

The party lines were prevalent in the rural areas around here I'll bet until the early 80's, my grandmother had one over in the nearby mountains, I can recall using that line, knowing anyone could listen in.

I found a 1966-1967 phone book in a closet in our old house before it was demolished, the yellow pages are interesting, lots of those old numbers in it too.
 
The power company asked me for my home phone number. Sat, I couldn't remember it. I have had the same home phone number since 1975, I couldn't remember my cell number, which I've had since 1991. I have lived at my address since 1990 and give them my old one. Finally I gave them a bus. card with all the info. But before I opened you post I remembered the BR549. Its ruff getting old.
 
My sister works for the phone company here.

She told me that there's an amazing number of elderly people who still rent their phones through AT&T.

She's not allowed to suggest cancelling the rental and buying their own phones.

I guess they pay about $30 a month for them!

That shocked me, but I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that a company would take advantage of people like that.

THIRTY dollars a month for a phone you could buy for 20.
 
89F222 Three longs was our familiys call signal on party line ,, Went to current # in 1969 .marreid and my ph#was 969-2468, moved to corydon dilipidated farm house 738-3358,, came to this farm in 1984 ,, same ph # but my address has changed 4 times ..
 
738 is our exchange here at Wapakoneta, Ohio but it is in the 419 area code. Back when it hat the letters they were from redwood and think were re that became 738
 
I don't remember exactly,but it seems like it was two long and one short. My mother was treasurer for the local phone company back then and I remember everybody used to come here to pay their phone bill.
 
JD Seller,

As soon as I read your subject - BR549 popped into my head. My parents always watched HeeHaw when I was little. And it was WAY more fun for a kid to watch than Lawrence Welk.
 
Ours was two long, a short and 2 long. Had a old neighbor lady that would sit by the phone and "rubber" on everyone's calls. When they changed to dial, she would sit with her hand on the phone, she could feel it vibrate when someone else on the line got a call, so she could listen! Her daughter would talk to her friend, and when they didn't want anyone else to hear something, they would switch to "pig Latin". Anyone remember that?
 
My new 911 street address and my zip code start out the same, and so when I get asked at a check out for my zip I start rattling the street address off, and tie myself up and can't say the zip code, which is the only number I've had all my life....

The phone co charges about 2 bucks for the dial phone on the wall. Only one that rings loud enough to hear outside, and I'd have to deal with the bare spot on the kitchen wall if it were removed, which would lead the wife to rredo the whole kitchen, so I think continuing to pay the 2 bucks a month is the cheaper route.....

Paul
 
I have a JD ruler from Page Bros. Company in Porter MN. It says to dial 2531 for the phone number.
 
We were on a 4 party line back in the 50's. I still remember our number 4509, and my friends 6803. Funny how I can remember things like this, but everyday numbers don't come to me as fast. Stan
 
I grew up in that area also. Ever make it out to Kranzburg for their saturday night dances or the 4th of July parade?
 
I remember the old battery crank phone. Our ring was 2 longs and a short. Mother would eaves drop on the line and some of the neighbor woman would start talking in German so she couldn't understand what wuz being said. She would get so frustrated.
When the rotary dial came out it was state of the art, but seems to me like it took more technically than if the push button would have been first.
 
Poplar Camp 3R12

Which meant... Poplar Camp exchange, line 3, Ring 1 long and 2 shorts.

Us kids weren't allowed to touch the phone. It was not a toy. One of my most vivid memories involving the old hand crank wall phone was waking up in the middle of the night with that thing ringing furiously, one great long ring. Mom jumped up and after it quit ringing, lifted the receiver and listened for a few moments. When she hung it up, she quietly said that one of the barns in the neighborhood was on fire. Dad was working in St. Louis during the week, and my oldest brothers were in the army, and the two of us kids that were still home were too young to go help. A horrible feeling. I probably never wished more strongly that I was older. That old party line phone was a very good neighborhood alarm.

One of my older brothers helped maintain the Poplar Camp phone exchange before he went into the army. It was an interesting system. One bare single conductor line running through the woods from tree to tree, mounted on glass insulators. A ground rod at each home. You could touch the wire in a lot of places, but you'd regret touching it if someone happened to be cranking a call. Each phone had two round dry cell batteries for talk power. The crank made the ring. In a thunderstorm, you automatically moved to the other side of the room, away from the phone. Lightning would flash outside, and the phone would faintly jingle. It was all the warning one would need. . .

I remember selling that old phone to someone for $5. I'd give $500 for it back. It'll never happen, 'cause they destroyed it to make a fishing worm shocker. It was beautiful - made of oak, and fitted like a fine piece of furniture. I no longer have the phone, but I've still got the memories!

Paul
 
We got telephone service in about 1956, I think. Started right out with a "proper" phone no.- BRowning 3-5261. You could dial local calls to about 3 surrounding towns directly, but had to dial 0 for operator to call long distance. It was a party line- I think our ring was 2 shorts. Everybody was pretty cooperative- after a couple of pickups, everybody would hang up. Remember once dad didn't wait for the routine- Picked up the phone, said "I've got to call the vet", and everybody got off pronto.

Grandma in Yelm, Washington was 96X. You dialled operator, asked for Yelm, she got the Yelm operator, and you could either say the number or the name of who you wanted- she had them all committed to memory. Called once, asked for Grandma Mittge, operator said "She just went by here on her way to Wolf's Store, I think- try back in an hour or so, she'll probably be home." Ya gotta love small towns.
 
It must have stopped before I started school in the late 1960's. I have seen old invoices dad had from the early 1960's with the old style phone listings on them. Just recently I saw one from mid-1964 from the John Deere dealer in the nearest town to us who went out of business in 1966. The people who ran it had no younger members in the family who wanted to take it over. Probably would have needed to build another location as their existing site was in the middle of the village in pretty much a residential section of town. They were located at the last site most likely due to the proximity to the railroad line.
 
privacy while on the phone? No way.
Ditto on our kitchen phone when I grew up in the 60"s. Mom was right there in the kitchen.

So you would go out the back door, even in the winter, close the door on the phone line. Then mom would open the exhaust fan over the stove so she could listen.

Pete
 
Yeah, I remember the phone number we had when I was a kid, partly because I now have that same number. After my Mom went into the nursing home, she couldn"t have a phone anymore. So rather than let it go to someone else, I had it moved to our land line, and our old home number changed to my cell phone. We use the land line mostly for internet service and for faxes. We seldom talk on the land line and any calls on that number are probably outfits trying to get my Mom to donate money to their various "causes".

When we moved to the country from Spokane in the late 50"s we went from a private line to a 10 party line, and got the number I wrote about last paragraph. Our ring was 3 shorts, and we only had one phone in the house. The phone rang very often, with so many parties on it. We had a neighbor who was very rude on the phone, telling people to get off because she needed to make a call. I think people often "listened in" to other people"s calls, because some of the neighbors sure seemed to know a lot about what other neighbors were doing. You really had to be careful about what you said on the phone.

By the time I was a teenager, the party line went down to 4 parties, which was a lot better, and by the time I went to college, it only had 2 parties, which was fine. A few years later, the phone company came through with new mostly underground lines, and I think all or most of the old party lines were changed to private lines.

I still remember lots of phone numbers from my childhood, but now I cannot remember newer phone numbers worth a darn. It seemed to me that it was easier to remember the exchange as a word or name rather than all numbers. Luckily, my cell phone has a memory that stores a BUNCH of names and numbers for me.

I sure don"t miss the old party line--it was a hassle. But it was the only phone service available in our area at the time.

For the most part, I like having a cell phone. I seldom miss calls, which may or may not be important. On the other hand, it is also hard to get away from phone contact, which sometimes I would like to do. Technology marches on!
 
JD,I stood all day at a auction to buy 3 rotary phones,called my friend who works at the phone co. to check them out and repair them if needed.In 3 days my wife made me take them out of the house,I tried using them and my fingers would always slip out of the holes.I went back to the old push buttons.Ive got a cell phone now and have problems with it also.When we do our taxes this year and they ask me my wifes occupation im going to tell them she is a CELL PHONE OPERATOR,she talks about 3 hours a day

jimmy
 
We were OXFORD 41360 when I was a kid. No idea why I remember that number but struggle daily to remember my cell phone number. I have pictures of my grandfathers tow trucks with the number on the door--1532. Don't know what year the picture was taken but the trucks are late '20s.
 
I live in my grandparents house. When I was a kid, we still had a party line here. Phone on the wall in the kitchen has our number... BAldwin 4-3892.

I guess if we use the old exchange names, the spammers probably are not smart enough to figure out the number.

There is a website out there somewhere that lists all the official exchange names used by Bell System.

Josh
 
We have an elevator at the home farm, manufacturer's name is Stone, I forget the city name, but I rememeber the tag said "Phone 10" I don't know how old it is, always wondered about the phone no.
 
Ours on Dad's farm in North Central Ohio was 1061X. Later on it was 41154. Then later it was changed toally when they went to area codes. When we moved here in South Central Michigan we were on a 2 party line. The only reasson we got that instead of the standard 8 party line was that my wife was Director of Nursing at our local hospital and got emergency calls at all hours. It wasn't too long after that when the president of the hospital called the manager of the phone company and we magically got a private line when none were available. Now nobody even remembers a party line.
 
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