WHEN I WAS A KID

When I was a kid, our home telephone number began with Melrose - the letters ME on the phone.  This was called our exchange.  The rest of the number was:  0643.  Yes, that was it...the whole thing was ME-0643.

Some time when I was older, everyone had to add the number '1' after their exchange.  ME on your phone translates to '63'.  After we added the '1', our number was 631-0643.

We never heard of area codes.  If you wanted to make a long distance call, you called the operator ('O') and told her where you wanted to call.  Not only did you tell the operator where you wanted the call to go, you had to say "station to station" if you were paying or "collect" if you wanted the receiver of the call to pay.

I never made a long distance call until I was in the Army.
*o*