"I'm going to leave!"

[dalesys]

I wish they'd go back to the old alphanumeric phone numbers...

Tommy Two-Five!

[ADeMartino]

Tommy Two-Five!

"Jenny's" number might start with TOmmy! TOmmy7-5309 or TOMmy-5309!!

[ADeMartino]

Well, nobody accepted my trivia question, so I'll go ahead and answer before the thread gets closed.

MI-5211 was the phone number of Police HQ in the old TV show DRAGNET. Yessir, Sgt. Joe Friday, but in black and white, and long before Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) appeared. The show had a reputation for technical accuracy, and 'dummy' phone numbers on TV back then usually started KL or some other combination corresponding to 55, so there's a very good chance that "MIchigan-5211 was indeed the REAL phone number of the LAPD.

[raudf]

It's really sad that I have my old Monkey Ward's repair phone number memorized. We were known as A&E Signature Service at the end, and when that got bought out by Sears, they changed it to A&E Factory Service.. with the same number

[Docmayhem]

I wish they'd go back to the old alphanumeric phone numbers, which were very easy to remember.

In my continuing quest to become a crotchety old man... I remember that as well.

In fact, since I lived in a suburb of NYC (think high population density) I remember people in Baldwin, NY complaining that they ran out of "BA" numbers and that the new "TN" numbers were hard to remember.

To this day, most of the numbers in Baldwin start with "223" (Baldwin 3) or "868" (TN8).

There's even a taxi company by the railroad station where the sign is old enough to have the phone number as "BA3-####" (Don't want to get them flooded with calls)

[BookstoreEscapee]

Back when I used to read the Babysitters Club books, their phone numbers all started with KL5...which is, of course, 555.

I know my cell phone number but not my landline, since I never use it and don't give it out. I have it in my cell phone under "Me" for the rare occasions I need it. I remember my parents' landline because it's been the same number since we moved into the house when I was two. I don't know either of their cell phones off the top of my head. I also remember the number of Store1, which I left in 2004 (but not Store2, which I left in 2006). I have to stop and think about my current work phone number, and at work I keep a list of the extensions of the people I'm most likely to call taped to my phone. Everyone else I look up in Outlook.

[ADeMartino]

I think there was a certain charm in the old phone-exchange names, too. Or maybe it's just because I'm rapidly becoming an old fart. Somewhere in a closet I have an ancient rotary-dial desk phone, with a sticker on the bottom claiming it had been 'remanufactured' in 1972. So I'm guessing the thing might be considerably older. In the center of the dial, it still has the last phone number to which it was assigned - with a CYpress exhange. The phone is built like a tank, and I know it still works (though dialing into a automated voice menu is kind of a pain). I also have a GTE 'Princess'-style handset somewhere - also with a rotary dial. In bright, eye-searing PINK.

Of course, I gave up having a house phone several years ago. My cell is overall more convenient and I have it with me most of the time anyway. I guess this is what they call 'progress', huh?

[mhkohne]

I think there was a certain charm in the old phone-exchange names, too.

I'm just gonna leave this link here
https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/244