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From: "Sarah A. V. Kirby" <>
Subject: [APG] REPRISE (Sort of) - Phone Numbers and Zip Codes
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 14:42:25 -0800 (PST)


Whew! Ya'll have been a busy bunch this week. Took me 'til now to catch up and reply.
First some fact-based info, and then a personal party line story.

I am not only a genealogist, but also a librarian in a small corporate library. Our collection is so specialized that I frequently do what is called "original cataloging" - as opposed to copying from WorldCat. Anyway, I frequently use the years of implementation of postal zones, area codes, and zip codes to help date otherwise undated materials.

Here are some key dates and the places online which document those dates. If anyone has a more authoritative source for area codes, I'd love to know about it.

Postal Zones - 1943 (2)
Area Codes - 1947* (3)
Alphanumeric Phone Numbers (2 letters, plus 5 numbers) - 1950s (4)
Numeric phone numbers - begins 1958 (biggest cities first) (4)
Zip Codes - 1963 (1, 2)
Zip+4 - 1983 (1)
Area Code overlays, 10 digit dialing - beginning late 80s, early 90s (personal experience)

(1) http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/significant_dates_in_postal_history.htm?from=postalhistory&page=significantdates
(2) http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100_029.htm
(3) http://www.area-codes.com/area-code-history.asp
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names
*Although area codes were in existence in 1947, they didn't show up in publications distributed for local use until much, much later.

Now for the story.
I spent my early childhood in Midland, MI with a "normal" rotary dial phone and 7-digit dialing. Just before junior high, we moved to a more rural area and had a 2-party line for the first couple of years. Here's the fun part. Just 3/4 miles north of us was the dividing line between our phone company and AT&T. Since we were in another company's district, to call north of the line was considered long distance.

On a party line, if you wanted to make a long distance call, you had to ring the operator, wait for them to answer and give them your name so that they could make sure the call was billed appropriately. Our fire department was north of the dividing line. I always wondered what would happen if I tried to call to report that my house was burning down? Would I have stayed for the operator to answer or run out of the house? Fortunately, I never had to make the decision. We have definitely come a long way.


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Sarah A. V. Kirby
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