My Thoughts, Exactly:

So, are you used to dialing 1-818 for local calls yet? I’m surprised at how much of a pain it has turned out to be, and am already tired of that screechy tone in my ear when I forget to dial the extra four digits. Having said that, I’m sure it won’t be long until we’re all saying, “I remember when you could dial a number down the street and only use seven digits!” At which point, some young person will look at you like you’re Fred Flintstone incarnate, dramatically roll their eyes and write you off as the biological antique you’ve become.

In talking about this new change, my kids were shocked that telephones even existed when I was growing up, thinking that early ’60s man must certainly have used a combination of signal smoke, mirrors and drumming on hollow logs to communicate. I hated to burst their snarky little bubbles. Then again, that is my job as a parent.

Nevertheless, in writing last week about the change in dialing 818 phone numbers, I got to thinking about other changes in communicating by telephone over the years. For example, I (vaguely) remember phone listings beginning with two letters. When you gave someone your phone number, you gave them a name, plus a single digit, followed by four other numbers, as in Glenn Miller’s big band hit, “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” or the title of the Elizabeth Taylor movie, “Butterfield-8.”

Prefixes used in our area included THorndike for Burbank listings, CItrus in Glendale, CHurchil in La Crescenta, and SYcamore in Pasadena. I couldn’t find what La Cañada’s old exchange was. Anyone out there know? Anyone? Bueller?

Long before the advent of smart phones, iChat, VOIP, wireless handsets, call waiting or answering machines, clunky, rotary-dial telephones were hardwired into the walls of your home. You couldn’t unplug them, much less walk around the house with one. If your phone (which, by the way, you rented from the phone company each month because owning one was illegal!) had a long cord on it, you might be able walk into another room, close the door as tightly as you could on the cord, and get at least some privacy from snooping siblings and parents.