Exact change ?

[skfullgun]

I remember when phone numbers were like MurryHill5-1234. And you had a party line.

Yep. I had to learn our phone number in first-grade - GLendale3 (GL3).
In about the fourth-grade, something changed with the phone company and it became "453", which is the same thing!
And you are correct, you could tell what neighborhood someone lived in by their phone exchange! All the "rich" kids lived in GLendale1!

 

[Army 1911]

I grew up in Johnson County Kansas which is a suburban county to Kansas City Missouri. Our phone number was Endicot 2 2921 which is a Kansas prefix. When calling home long distance, before direct dial, we would give the number as Emerson 2 2921. That was a KCMO prefix. Even when calling from western Kansas, that was a far cheaper call For some reason.

My dad knew the reason as he was the field services manager for 4 states.

 

[45tex]

We never had a party line but my grandparents did. The phone would ring and grandma would say nope not our ring, we are 2 shorts and a long.
And their east Texas address was a name and RR2 plus the zip. Rural Route

 

[Haystack]

We never had a party line but my grandparents did. The phone would ring and grandma would say nope not our ring, we are 2 shorts and a long.
And their east Texas address was a name and RR2 plus the zip. Rural Route

Growing up, our address was just our name, Rt 1, city. We sometimes even got mail delivered that just had Dad's name, and city. The post office used to serve people. Not anymore.

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

634-5789

 

[45tex]

Growing up, our address was just our name, Rt 1, city. We sometimes even got mail delivered that just had Dad's name, and city. The post office used to serve people. Not anymore.

When I think about it today, maybe it was just less people. I'd go to the Piggly Wiggly with Grandpa, we'd find what Grandma wanted and to pay Grandpa would get a blank check from the clerk. Nothing on it but the banks name. All he would do was sign the check and we would be on our way. They filled in the amount and the account too I guess
It was a different world

 

[Haystack]

When I think about it today, maybe it was just less people. I'd go to the Piggly Wiggly with Grandpa, we'd find what Grandma wanted and to pay Grandpa would get a blank check from the clerk. Nothing on it but the banks name. All he would do was sign the check and we would be on our way. They filled in the amount and the account too I guess
It was a different world

Daddy's checking account didn't have preprinted checks. Just the banks name. There were pad's of blank checks at the bank and everybody used the same checks. Everyone just signed their name. And I don't think the bank EVER made an error on the account.

 

[Axxe55]

When I think about it today, maybe it was just less people. I'd go to the Piggly Wiggly with Grandpa, we'd find what Grandma wanted and to pay Grandpa would get a blank check from the clerk. Nothing on it but the banks name. All he would do was sign the check and we would be on our way. They filled in the amount and the account too I guess
It was a different world

Daddy's checking account didn't have preprinted checks. Just the banks name. There were pad's of blank checks at the bank and everybody used the same checks. Everyone just signed their name. And I don't think the bank EVER made an error on the account.

I remember those. My first checking account in the mid 1970's was like that.

 

[Sasquatch]

We never had a party line but my grandparents did. The phone would ring and grandma would say nope not our ring, we are 2 shorts and a long.
And their east Texas address was a name and RR2 plus the zip. Rural Route

I grew up in the country - I still remember the address - we had a Rural Route address long before they ever went to street number / name...

Route 3, Box 645, Beaverton, OR 97007

Now the house I grew up in doesn't even exist. Was bull dozed and sold off years ago.

 

[Sasquatch]

Oh, and party lines? We had one up until the very end of the 80s or early 1990's - I was in elementary school when we got our own dedicated phone number. We had a rotary phone on the wall until about 1993, when we upgraded to a touch-tone phone you could blugeon someone to death with, and still make a long distance call.

 

[Army 1911]

Daddy's checking account didn't have preprinted checks. Just the banks name. There were pad's of blank checks at the bank and everybody used the same checks. Everyone just signed their name. And I don't think the bank EVER made an error on the account.

Those were called counter checks.