 
Dorothyd
Member
Username: Dorothyd
Post Number: 29
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 5:31 pm: |    |
Grew up on Maxwell (Gratiot and Van Dyke area) and it was WAlnut. Later moved to Six Mile and Gratiot area where it was DRexel. |
Soomka1
Member
Username: Soomka1
Post Number: 107
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 6:20 pm: | |
56packman, that was a great explanation of the fire pull boxes. Do you have a picture of yours handy? |
Buyamerican
Member
Username: Buyamerican
Post Number: 644
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 6:23 pm: | |
56packman, I have 3 of those solid brass, heavier then heck, ticker tape machines from the old Central Office on Macomb. When a box alarm was pulled, the ticker tape was activated at Central Office. |
Vetalalumni
Member
Username: Vetalalumni
Post Number: 1050
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 6:58 pm: | |
AIR, in Rosedale Park in the 70s, we had KE (53) and VE (83). 272- and 273- were also popular. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3421
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 6:59 pm: | |
The old police call boxes worked the same way. Beat officers had to make an hourly "pull" on an assigned quarter. The number of the box punched out on a paper tape at the precinct station exactly like the fire alarm tape. The tapes were kept for 30 days. They also had a time/date stamp on the gizmo.
We didn't have these new-fangled radio things in my day.  |
Lpg
Member
Username: Lpg
Post Number: 36
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 7:23 pm: | |
My aunt who lived in Southgate had a party line. Seems she shared the line with someone who never got off the phone. She always had to ask the party to let her use the line to call out. I remember in the mid-50's my aunt calling her sister who lived in Eastern Europe. The operator had to call the long distance operator who called the overseas operator. Once her sister was located the process was reversed and a few hours later the phone rang and she proceeded to shout into the phone. It seemed everything had to be repeated at least twice. The good old days. |
Caldogven
Member
Username: Caldogven
Post Number: 175
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 8:06 pm: | |
Our old number at Mack and Gratiot was MElrose 1382. |
Swede1934
Member
Username: Swede1934
Post Number: 52
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 9:22 pm: | |
My family had a TOwnsend 8 number when we lived on Highland in Highland Park, right next to the Michigan Bell switching station. You could hear the switches working all night. I believe the building is still there, but the new electronics are now completely silent. |
393bird
Member
Username: 393bird
Post Number: 31
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:11 pm: | |
Another Redford Township.
Kenwood number
Lived on Ivanhoe. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 2560
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:41 pm: | |
7andKK, I mentioned it in my second post. Z was a VEnice.
Dday, My sis lived over there back in the early to mid 60s. that was definitely the party store, though. I remember the old lady who ran it. There was also a big brown house on State Fair east of Schoenner on the north side of the street that was kind of dilapidated, and always had an old rug hanging on the front porch. We always thought it was haunted. Do you or LodgerDodger remember that place. |
Dday
Member
Username: Dday
Post Number: 907
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:54 pm: | |
quote:7andKK, I mentioned it in my second post. Z was a VEnice.
Dday, My sis lived over there back in the early to mid 60s. that was definitely the party store, though. I remember the old lady who ran it. There was also a big brown house on State Fair east of Schoenherr on the north side of the street that was kind of dilapidated, and always had an old rug hanging on the front porch. We always thought it was haunted. Do you or LodgerDodger remember that place.
Past Wish Egan on State Fair? |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 2563
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:56 pm: | |
Yes, east of Wish Egan on State Fair |
Dday
Member
Username: Dday
Post Number: 908
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:58 pm: | |
quote:7andKK, I mentioned it in my second post. Z was a VEnice.
Dday, My sis lived over there back in the early to mid 60s. that was definitely the party store, though. I remember the old lady who ran it. There was also a big brown house on State Fair east of Schoenherr on the north side of the street that was kind of dilapidated, and always had an old rug hanging on the front porch. We always thought it was haunted. Do you or LodgerDodger remember that place.
Past Wish Egan on State Fair or do you mean west of Schoenherr? There were bungalows on the south side of State Fair. The park was on the north side just E of Schoenherr. I don't remember there being a house like that, but that was a long time ago...LOL. Also, your sis was living in that area a little before I got there |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 403
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 12:04 am: | |
Caldogven: I used to work at Melrose Linen. I always wondered where they got the name. LOL |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 6986
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 12:38 am: | |
jjaba was DAvison 4-2919.
jjaba, Proudly Northlawn and Schoolcraft.
jjaba, Proudly Westside. |
Jgavrile
Member
Username: Jgavrile
Post Number: 158
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 12:43 am: | |
I remember some of the little tricks you could do on the phone.
To make the phone ring and set the ring volume. you dialed 711,waited for a dail tone, then dialed 6 and hung up. The phone you were on, would ring.
On pay phones , it was pretty easy to get a free phone call.
One way was to have a paper clip,unfold it, stick one end in one of the holes of the mouth piece, touch the other end to the little curved finger stop on the dial. This would fool the phone into thinking you put in a nickle.
The other way was a little more destructive. You took a pen knife and bared the wires that connected the handset to the pay telephone. Then you touched the bare wires to the same little finger stop on the dial, and presto! You got a dial tone.I think that this is the reason they eventually added the metal flexible sheath to the handset cord.
I don't know if there were any more little tricks like that?
Our house in Highland Park had a standup pedestal phone when I was a kid. That was my favorite phone. Made of steel with the separate ear piece you held up to you ear and talked to the mouthpiece on the stand,with the dial at the base. The bells were not in the phone, they were in a metal box that was in the wall. That phone was replaced with a metal desk phone that had the combination speak and hear in the single handset. On the base was the dial,and the bells were still in the wall. Not until the black square plastic type desk unit were the bells moved into the phone itself. Truly all these units were indestructible. The phone company made the best mechanical devices in the world. You could throw them, beat them, drop them, nothing hurt them. |
Caldogven
Member
Username: Caldogven
Post Number: 176
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 1:31 pm: | |
Eastsidedame:
Melrose Linen sounds familar, where was it and when did you work there? |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3425
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 2:05 pm: | |
"I don't know if there were any more little tricks like that?"
Remember the '83 flick, "War Games", where Matthew Broderick ("David") uses the beer can pull tab to get a dial tone on the pay phone? |
East_detroit
Member
Username: East_detroit
Post Number: 1856
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 3:21 pm: | |
I'm certain that 77 was PRescott. Maybe different in different places. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 2570
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 6:56 pm: | |
Dday, it was on the east side of Wish Egan, East of Schoenner on the North side of State Fair |
Umtim
Member
Username: Umtim
Post Number: 33
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 9:32 pm: | |
Mt. Clemens was HOward.
We had the party line. Had to wait for the neighors to get off till we could make a call. Had to listen for your ring. Actually only dialed 5 numbers to make a call in your HOward exchange. And if you wanted to call someone on your party line only dialed three numbers. |
Shovelhead
Member
Username: Shovelhead
Post Number: 9
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 - 10:26 pm: | |
To add to the free phone calls.
Drop a penny in the nickel slot with your left hand, then "karate chop" the coin release button with your right hand. IF you timed it right, the bell sounded and you got a dial tone.
My Mother worked for Ma Bell and didn't believe me that it worked. Proved it to her and a co-worker in the lobby of her office. |
Dday
Member
Username: Dday
Post Number: 911
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 6:20 am: | |
quote:Dday, it was on the east side of Wish Egan, East of Schoenner on the North side of State Fair
Don't remember that house. Was it a corner house? There was an empty lot at the corner of Hoyt and State Fair on the north side. I'm coming up this weekend. If I have time, maybe I'll pop over and see what I can see |
Slick
Member
Username: Slick
Post Number: 19
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 10:03 am: | |
Eastside dame and caldogven,
Melrose Linen, I beleive was at the corner of E Warren and Moran. Right across the street from my grandfathers house. 3404 E Warren, large brick house still standing, family does not own it.
When we weren't watching the cars zip down warren, we watched the laundry swing past the second floor windows. It was a laundry Melrose comes to mind after all these years. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 2582
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 11:28 am: | |
Dday, it was an old rundown place in the mid 60s, so it very likely is gone. It may have been a flat, upstairs and downstairs apts., but the same rug hung on that porch for as long as I can remember. It was on a clothesline slung between two pillars or posts on the porch |
Jazzfan
Member
Username: Jazzfan
Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 11:34 am: | |
Grosse Pointe had two:
TUxedo and VAlley |
Dianeinaustin
Member
Username: Dianeinaustin
Post Number: 71
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 12:47 pm: | |
8 Mile and Southfield on the Detroit side was KEnwood. BR and VE were in around there too. In Lincoln Park my grandparents were DUnkirk. |
Stinger4me
Member
Username: Stinger4me
Post Number: 238
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 4:30 pm: | |
Twinbrook exchange, McNichols and Mound Rd. area. |
The_rock
Member
Username: The_rock
Post Number: 2444
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 4:48 pm: | |
Our Birmingham exchange was MIdwest (4-9089)
Before that it was just 4 digits, 4526. That's really going back.
My second "home" was Pontiac, but now I can't for the life of me recall their exchange. |
Newport1128
Member
Username: Newport1128
Post Number: 195
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 5:00 pm: | |
VA = Valley (Chalmers-Jefferson Area and Grosse Pointe Park)
ED = Edgewater (Chalmers-Jefferson area) |
Buyamerican
Member
Username: Buyamerican
Post Number: 647
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 - 6:26 pm: | |
VAlley = Montclair & Vernor, Detroit 14, Mi. |
Jgavrile
Member
Username: Jgavrile
Post Number: 160
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 11:02 am: | |
The weather was WE-21212
The time was GR-21212
Info was just 411
Too bad they still don't have the weather on the phone. It would be handy |
Jgavrile
Member
Username: Jgavrile
Post Number: 161
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 11:09 am: | |
Highland Park had both Townsend and Tulsa exchanges. Not sure where the Tulsa exchange was located??
Had a girlfriend that lived in Southfield. If I called from home it was like a long distance call. They charged you "units". Used to piss my Dad off.
If I called from a pay phone, it was like a local call??,Just a nickle. Never made sense to me.? |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 404
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 1:59 pm: | |
Slick: Nopie, nope.
Melrose Linen was at the corner of Forest & Crane. My mom was the office manager, and later controller there from the early 60s to the late 70s. They never had a woman office manager before, but they took a chance on Ma. She was there 18 years.
The downstairs was the plant, the upstairs had the office. The big boss had a shower, a TV and phone in his private bathroom. Lots of deer heads on walls...we'd name them: "Rudolph", "Blitzen", etc. Yeah, I know but we were kids.
It was a family business and the bosses (brothers & brothers-in-law) were very kind and generous. We had Joey Bishop at our Christmas party one year (mid-60s)! They gave a lot of good jobs to people in the hood, esp. unskilled folks, that couldn't get into the auto companies, etc. It was a big part of the neighborhood.
I said "I" worked there because it was "I" who went with my mom on Saturdays and summers to answer phones and file delivery tickets. The number was WAlnut 5-9200. I still remember it, like it's stamped in my head; I worked there for petty cash and record albums for years.
While I was at WSU (and getting an actual paycheck), I worked at Melrose with the drummer from Adrenalin. He was a route driver, and I did A/R. We'd go to the Red Carpet to see the band play. Every year, Melrose would take the "girls in the office" to the Track at Hazel Park. When I got older, I got to go, too. Fun times on the old East Side.
In the very late 70s, the sons started to take over and they moved the business to E. Davidson. They sold the Crane building to Admiral Linen. |
Lopsidedfrock
Member
Username: Lopsidedfrock
Post Number: 9
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 6:45 pm: | |
professorscott
i can think of 2 designer area codes:
867: Canada's territories. 867 = TOP, as in the top of the world
321: brevard county, FL, home of Cape Canaveral, as in 3, 2, 1, lift off
WHAT DO I WIN? |
Caldogven
Member
Username: Caldogven
Post Number: 177
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 7:19 pm: | |
Eastsidedame,
Now I remember! I passed the Melrose plenty of times going to and from Barbour Intermediate. We lived on Pennsylvania. |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 408
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 10:17 pm: | |
Oh, yeah...
Could you smell the Better Made Potato Chip factor cookin' away at 6AM? Whew!
Slick: I asked my Ma. She said Marathon Linen's on E. Warren. |
Slick
Member
Username: Slick
Post Number: 20
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 2:17 pm: | |
Eastsidedame,
I knew it started with an M. It was a long time ago. While researching the name I came across this link, no wonder Joey Bishop was there, probably flew in from Vegas.
http://www.americanmafia.com/C ities/Detroit.html
Then there was the Home Juice Company on Palmer, allegedly another Mafia owned business.
Love the East side! |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 418
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 2:58 pm: | |
http://metrotimes.com/editoria l/story.asp?id=9490 |
Marlonjb2
Member
Username: Marlonjb2
Post Number: 11
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 3:33 pm: | |
This is interesting. I never knew this. Heck how would I? I was born in the late '80s.
Looks like from what I've seen in this topic, we have a LAkeview 7-XXXX number.
... but yes I do remember the Mr. Belvedere Construction commercials with him shouting CALL TYler 8-7100... but I had no clue that's what he meant by it.
(Message edited by marlonjb2 on July 24, 2008) |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 2628
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 3:54 pm: | |
Marlon, I was LA7-53**. I lived on Maddelein and Kelly |
Rijobo
Member
Username: Rijobo
Post Number: 28
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 9:43 am: | |
Roseville - PRescott Warren - SLocum Hamtramic -TRinity |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 2475
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 10:34 pm: | |
Marlonjb2 - stick around, you'll learn tons of technological history as we lived it from us old timers!
And I say that with all due respect. I'm proud to have lived through the times we did. To be able to see technology proceed the way it has. Our grandparents lived through some wonderful technological historic times and so have we. Wonder what the future of technology will bring for our grandchildren? The sky's the limit! |
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