  Msamslex Member Username: Msamslex Post Number: 57 Registered: 06-2007 |
Early 60's, Ours was TY-77XXX N. Clarendon N. of Grand River. Grandmother's was UN-3XXXX LaSalle, Puritan, U of D area. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1583 Registered: 12-2003 |
The preponderance of "64" in B'ham-B'field numbers came from the old MIdwest exchange... (Message edited by pffft on July 18, 2008) | ||
Larryinflorida Member Username: Larryinflorida Post Number: 2103 Registered: 02-2007 |
Mr. Belvedere was using "Call Tyler 8-7100" til what, the 80's? lol. | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3651 Registered: 10-2003 |
To answer the original question, the article I posted at the end of the other thread explains how the exchange names were derived. Any connection to to local geography (WOodward, UNiversity) is a convenient coincidence. GOL, where on Kelly was Walnut? I thought it was on Van Dyke north of Gratiot. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 98 Registered: 05-2008 |
Jcole, we were also LAkeview! Seven Mile and Schoenherr area! | ||
Birwood Member Username: Birwood Post Number: 111 Registered: 10-2007 |
Ray1936 and Sussex, how could you guys forget Twin Pines Dairy and Milky the Clown at TExas 4-1100 Birwood was WEbster5-8307 and later BRoadway 1-9228 | ||
Dlb Member Username: Dlb Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2007 |
I lived in Redford Twp and had KENWOOD. KE4-5068 | ||
Maof2 Member Username: Maof2 Post Number: 78 Registered: 06-2008 |
Did anyone ever call the "old" numbers and if you did, what or who was on the other end? | ||
Shovelhead Member Username: Shovelhead Post Number: 8 Registered: 04-2008 |
GReenleaf 4, Farmington FIeldbrook 9, Novi-Northville GEneva 7, South Lyon GLenview 3, Plymouth (?) MArket 4, Walled Lake FEderal, Pontiac NOrmandy, Ann Arbor ACademy, Brighton | ||
Parkguy Member Username: Parkguy Post Number: 306 Registered: 04-2007 |
We now have a 273 number, which was BRoadway in Rosedale Park, I think. I moved here after the change was made. I grew up with a PArkway number in Wayne. I still remember my uncle's phone number from way back when he lived on Scotten near Clark Park... a TAshmoo number. Why in the world I remember that, I can't explain... I think the named exchanges made it easier to remember the numbers. Heck, I think I'm going to start telling people my number is BRoadway 3-xxxx. Why not? It wouldn't make any difference when you dial. Get retro! | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 146 Registered: 05-2005 |
As a kid growing up in Center Line, ours was SLocum 7-23xx. I think most of Center Line and South Warren were Slocum exchanges. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 2552 Registered: 04-2005 |
Lodgerdodger, we were 7 Mile and Kelly. Other people in the area had VEnice. My sister used to live on Manning and Joann. Right on the corner. As a kid we used to walk up to Schoenner and the next corner over and go to the store. It was an old house, and they sold penny candy and comics, as well as other stuff, I'm sure, but that's what I remember. I think it may have been on Pelkey. That was your neck of the woods, wasn't it? | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 99 Registered: 05-2008 |
Pelkey was my street. Do you remember Jo's Beauty Salon? | ||
Richard_bak Member Username: Richard_bak Post Number: 82 Registered: 04-2008 |
***Did anyone ever call the "old" numbers and if you did, what or who was on the other end?*** I just did. My dad answered and said get home quick, Dave Wickersham was beating the Kansas City Athletics, 3-2, behind Jerry Lumpe's three-run homer. Very Twilight Zone-ish........ | ||
Maof2 Member Username: Maof2 Post Number: 83 Registered: 06-2008 |
richard, omg, i didn't expect that. too funny! | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 2554 Registered: 04-2005 |
LD, I sort of remember the name, but not where it was or anything. Do you remember the house on Joann that was always painted with dots? I think it was pink and black | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 72 Registered: 01-2008 |
BEechwood-45789 You can't call up a dead Marvelette. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1584 Registered: 12-2003 |
Mike, I don't know that I agree after reading that article that names like WOodward or TAshmoo are only coincidentally connected to Detroit. It sounds like there was a big national list Michigan Bell could choose names from, but that they did choose names with local resonance is clear. Surely Tashmoo has no meaning outside of SE Michigan or Ontario... | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 394 Registered: 12-2006 |
At Moross and I94, we were Tuexdo 1. My job was on Forest & Crane, WAlunt 5. And I forgot about Twin Pines exchange being "Texas"! TEXAS??? Screwy, ain't it? | ||
Soomka1 Member Username: Soomka1 Post Number: 106 Registered: 02-2007 |
Ray1936, in an emergency didn't you also have the option of running out front and pulling the lever on the "fire box" on the corner? We had one on the corner of Terry and Mackenzie back in the 60's. I always wondered what would happen if you pulled it until one of the kids in the neighborhood did one night and sure enough, the fire department showed up and within an hour or two, they figured out who did it. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2359 Registered: 12-2005 |
The fire pull boxes had a mechanical spring-wound clockwork kind of device inside. On the outside of the box there was a three digit number for that box, inside a cam with those numbers on it. When you opened the door pulled the lever the clockworks would start rotating and the cams would cause a switch to close in the sequence of that box number, if the box was "386" there would be three closures, a delay then eight, then six. In each firehouse there was a machine wired to all the boxes, sort of like a ticker-tape machine. a roll of paper would start moving and holes would be punched from the electrical signals coming from the box. There would be (in the above example) three holes--eight holes--six holes punched on the tape several times. The Firemen had a chart with the map location of each box by number. That system was made obsolete by 911 service. A company called Tarnow electric got the job of taking all of the boxes down. In the early 80s you could go to their building and buy them for $25 each. The cast iron poles were just left behind. A friend and I harvested a few of those to go with our boxes. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 2372 Registered: 08-2007 |
Anyone remember the "party line?" I can't remember if we had one when we moved to Detroit or not. We probably did but I can't say for certain. However, when I lived in Virginia and Pennsylvania we had them. I remember that if you were getting a call there was a certain ring tone for your phone. Maybe 3 short rings or 3 long rings, 1 short ring and 2 long rings - whatever. You had to listen real close and not pick up the phone if it wasn't for your house. In VA we had a 3 household party line and seemed like anytime my grandma wanted to make a call - the lady down the road was on there "gossiping" as she put it! And long distance calls ALWAYS went through the operator. You never dialed those yourself. When you got through you couldn't talk in a normal voice, you yelled. When technology started changing and you could hear really clear over the lines, my older relatives always mentioned what a clear connection we had. They could hear us like they were right next door - they would always say that! | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 100 Registered: 05-2008 |
Painted with dots? Nope, I don't recall...a precursor to the Heidelberg Project? We used to skate at Joann Park in Winter. | ||
Kville Member Username: Kville Post Number: 112 Registered: 04-2007 |
I thought it was interesting that some named exchanges had the same first digits, so you dialed the same numbers, which confused the issue. We had a VEnice exchange (VE9-1681). Someone called once when I was about 12 or so and not recognizing my voice, asked "Is this VErmont 9-1681?" I knew that they both started with the same letters, but I said, "No." I then asked my mom, "could our number be VErmont 9-1681?" She hesitated and said, "No, not exactly." A few minutes later, the same person (a friend of my mom's, I found out) called back and asked "Is this VEnice 9-1681?" I said "yes." Then she recognized my voice and it became kind of a joke. There was also TEmple and TExas and some of the other duplicates listed above. That made life more interesting. (It didn't take much to amuse me back then.) Other cities had the same thing. | ||
Parkguy Member Username: Parkguy Post Number: 308 Registered: 04-2007 |
I think that exchanges with identical "letters" as the first two digits never shared the third digit. So you couldn't have a VErmont 2-xxxx and a VEnice 2-xxxx. My mom was an operator for a while before I was born. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 2558 Registered: 04-2005 |
LD, I used to walk my nephew to that little park when he was 3 and I was 7. As long as I looked both ways when crossing my sis never had a problem with me taking him 2 blocks away to play on the swings. Now I'd be sent with a contingent of Marines and if we weren't back in 15 minutes, an Amber alert would be issued. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1463 Registered: 12-2006 |
Parkguy is correct. My grandparents in upstate NY lived in a city where the two exchanges, numerically, were 235 and 237. But in the two-letter days they were known as BEdford 5 and CEdar 7. Bell did this to reduce the chance of misdialing. The whole word-plus-five-digits system was based on a 1920s study by Bell Labs which concluded that people could not, in general, remember a number if it was longer than five digits. We now know that's not true, but that belief persisted for many decades. | ||
Dday Member Username: Dday Post Number: 906 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: quote: quote: quote: quote: quote: quote: I also lived on Pelkey, between Pinewood and Manning (1977-1994...but I left for the service in '84). Used to skate at Joann(actually Calimera) Park in the winter and made frequent trips to the party store on Schoenherr and Manning. The two guys that bought that store from the old lady (Granny) were still there as of a couple years ago, but the built a store across the street. Asher's is now on Groesbeck in Clinton Twp. The neighborhood doesn't look too terribly bad except for my old block which looks like shit..... Good memories of that street, lots of friends from the Boy's Club. I don't remember the polka dot house either, but I had a couple friends from Richard that lived on Manning and Alcoy and also Tacoma and Hickory. I also had a Freep route that went from 7 to Manning on Hickory and Pelkey | ||
Paczki Member Username: Paczki Post Number: 64 Registered: 02-2007 |
WA 54264 | ||
7_and_kelly_kid Member Username: 7_and_kelly_kid Post Number: 224 Registered: 12-2007 |
VEnice 9 4583........I didn't think anyone was going to mention VEnice. |
