I remember being the 1st family in the neighborhood to get a television.

A little 6" round screen Olympic. Folks came from all over to see it like a
rock star. I think we got 3-4 channels in the beginning.

Jay Sonin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 6:31 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] NY City Phone exchanges; was - Tone-Arts Records


> You know, now that you guys have got going on this riff, I do remember
> letter-number phone numbers being exchanged even when I was old enough to
> notice such things, which means early 70's. Our home number where I grew
> up was 967-2652, and I definitely remember my parents giving it out as
> WO7-2652 and me being told to remember that before going to kindergarten,
> which would be circa 1971. I also remember when we started saying
> 967-2652, shortly after that. I'm not sure if that coincided with an ad
> campaign for area codes and 10-digit dialing or what. I'm pretty sure area
> codes and 10-digit numbers were in force before then.
>
> Where I live now, the long-time exchange was 279, and you still notice on
> old-timers' fridges and walls that they just have 4-digit numbers written
> down, the assumption being the first three numbers are 279. In the case of
> "newer" numbers like my home number (issued 1994), that would be written
> down 8-XXXX (since the "newer" exchange is 278). I noticed this same trend
> up where my wife grew up, where the exchanges were 376 (6-XXXX) for the
> immediate town and 377 (7-XXXX) for most of the surrounding farm land.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 11:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] NY City Phone exchanges; was - Tone-Arts Records
>
>
>> Hello, Peter,
>>
>> I grew up in Forest Hills--my family owned the same home from 1921 until
>> I sold it in 1981.
>>
>> When I was moving in 1981, I found a record (telephone bill) from the
>> 1930s, IIRC, that showed the telephone number to be BOUlevard 8076.
>>
>> When you ended up dialing that, it was 268. One step that seemed to have
>> occurred in the 1940s or 1950s was the splitting of exchanges (might have
>> occurred sooner).
>>
>> If you notice the "U" in BOUlevard is "8" so when they went from
>> BOUlevard to BOulevard 8, the original numbers did not change. They added
>> at least a BOulevard 3 and one other number, but it escapes me--I think
>> it was BOulevard 1, but I'm not so sure as I am of BOulevard 3.
>>
>> As an aside, someone moving into the neighbourhood did not like getting a
>> phone number that started with "BO" when he used deodorant, but that's
>> another story.
>>
>> In the 1950s we also had LIGgett numbers, and those became LI4 numbers,
>> and then 544--an overlay, in a sense of the 26x numbers.
>>
>> I had 268-8076 until about 1975 when I wanted more features and had to
>> change my number as the 268 exchange was running on old equipment. The
>> 520 exchange was another overlay and I suspect was an ESS.
>>
>> I took a step backwards when I moved to Aurora, ON, the first time in
>> 1981. I had the original 727 exchange and, at that time, you could dial
>> people in that exchange by merely dialing four digits. At that time it
>> was in the 416 area code and dialing Toronto was long distance.
>>
>> I did not get touch tone until I moved to Glendale California in 1983 and
>> got a number in the 213 area code. That was changed within a year or
>> three when the 213 code split off the 818 code.
>>
>> When we moved back to Aurora in 2004, no 727 numbers were available. We
>> have three numbers (one line) in the 751 exchange and my business line is
>> in the 713 exchange. Now this is in the 905 area code but Toronto is a
>> local call (and the monthly rates are higher, but the calls are cheaper).
>> Interestingly, while calls from the 905 area code to the 416 area code
>> are local, calls within the 905 area code across different "spokes"
>> radiating from Toronto are toll calls...so our cell phones are 416
>> numbers.
>>
>> What is interesting about this is how soon memory fades about how things
>> were and how technology used to be operated. I'm seeing this already with
>> our magic sound reproduction boxes that appear to many to be arcane magic
>> rather than simply a former, pervasive technology. I recall most of my
>> friends knowing how to mount a cartridge in a turntable. Fewer knew how
>> to align a tape recorder...but some did.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
>> Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
>> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
>> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>>
>