Did your telephone number begin with a word?

[Scott Burrows]

 

 

 

PIoneer 3-5275

Did your telephone number begin with a word? Those a decade or more younger than I am are already stymied by this question. The first two letters of the name were generally capitalized, and corresponded directly with the first two digits of the telephone number on the dial. This system started sometime in the 1930’s, and slowly crept across the continent, and lasted until the early 1960’s. More about the 60’s later is this story; and read the last paragraph request before throwing this story in the recycle bin, please?

 

The first phone number for Burrows Garage was 10M, as you can see in the photo of the building circa 1933. Incoming calls to all the local phones were handled by a telephone operator, who would plug the jack connected to the wire that had the incoming call into the socket numbered 10-M, and then depress a small lever on the console that would send an A-C charge out of the office, up the pole to one of the many wires held in place by a glass insulator; you’ve certainly seen them in period movies and black-and-white photographs. It resembled a tree with perfectly horizontal limbs and the shiny leaves of slightly blue-green glass. This pulse traveled all the way from Sulphur to Sligo, where the phone hanging on the wall of the shop would tinkle, rattle or ring.

The next phone number at Burrows was 2233, which is displayed on the side of the tow truck in the second photo graph. Local calls at this time could bypass the telephone operator switchboard by dialing the appropriate four digits to connect to anyone else in the Sulphur telephone exchange. And, your conversation was not always private, because as many as three other phone numbers might be on your “party line!” And, any and all could pick up their telephone handset and join your discussion, welcome or not! It did not take long for Burrows to get a “private” telephone line, as the others on our line were tired of the midnight ringing from the state police and trucking companies needing services or towing in the wee hours of the night.

 

As early as I can recall, our telephone number at the shop was PIoneer 3-5275. That’s “PI” 3-5275. This occurred sometime in the late 1950’s. I remember reading in the front pages of the current Henry Co. phone book, and reading the various phone exchanges. In addition to the Sulphur “number-name” I remember that LaGrange was BRown 9; the alpha characters for New Castle were FI, but I cannot recall what the associated name happened to be. Likewise, UP for Pleasureville and VI for Eminence; I do remember that the Milton Metz call-in radio show had the number JUniper 5-2385, because we seldom missed listening to his shows, which were every evening Monday thru Friday, except when pre-empted by some basketball team coached by Adolph Rupp.

If you ever watched the “I Love Lucy” situation comedy, you may recall that they made the telephone number for her and Ricky Ricardo MUrray Hill 5-9975, or you may have heard the Marvelettes sing, “I've been waiting, standing here so patiently, for you to come over and have this dance with me; and my number is BEechwood 4-5789. You can call me up and have a date any old time." Music history lesson now concludes, and we go from television back to telephone. But, … remember, the three fastest forms of communication are: telegraph, telephone and tell a woman.

 

In 1962, the Henry County Local broke the news that the alpha-numeric phone numbers would by replaced by all digits. Residents would no longer be able to identify the neighborhoods or areas that the telephone exchanges were representing. The manager for Southern Bell, John Stone, explained in a news release published by the Local that there would be fewer wrong numbers dialed because the numerals are not similar in sound to each other as often as are letters (???). And, in looking to the future, dial calls may eventually be made to other countries, as many users will likely want to reach out to INDIA for technical support on their toaster-oven.

 

This change led to the formation of an “Anti-Digital Dialing League” (sounds like the title for an Avengers Movie) which remains in existence today, fighting for the rights of telephone users to have non-confusing area codes placed on their phones. They are worried about the 7 area codes that are soon to be forced into ten-digit dialing EVEN FOR LOCAL CALLS! And, if you have your caller ID blocked, that adds another four or five digits to your dialing requirement. My fingers are already growing tired.

 

REQUEST: If you would, please comment with your phone ALPHA prefix, as you may recall that I couldn’t remember those for Henry County, much less the surrounding communities. Thanks for enduring.

[Pdgx]

The Body Shop was HIckory 7-3081.  The House was MAyfair 7-8214

[mooresbp]

Our was RAndolph

[KY Nick]

Scott,

 

Ours was TWinbrook. 5-8245.  Which worked out great for us..... Guess why?  

 

I have several other numbers for the old Louisville towing companies and will post them next week.  We are the only one left in Louisville that had letters for a phone number.  Maybe we should put that on the trucks again.    

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by KY Nick

[KY Nick]

LeRoy J. Miles the first towing company in Louisville  WA-4306

Floyd & Son Wrecker Service, in Louisville,   WA-5235 and CL4461

[Turbo4whl]

In Southeast Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia some old numbers:

 

LEhigh 2 ****

KIngston 4 ****

LUdlow 3 ****