JUniper 7-5423 was my phone number when I was growing up. Or mostly was because by the time that I came along, exchange names were on their way out, although they could still be found in ads and in the phone book. I just never heard anyone say them, or at least not seriously. (At one point in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Maggie is asked for the telephone of the hotel, the Mansion House, which she gives as Mesalia 32, so I've said that on stage a bunch of times.)
Because I'd only read them, in my head my number was "Juniper-7-5423," but I've recently heard people (okay, actors, whatever) running the five numbers together, so it would be "Juniper-75423" which just seems harder to remember to me and I have no idea which was preferred. Perhaps, it was an either/either thing.
David is kind enough to make me calling cards ever since the time he saw me give someone one of my deposit tickets for my checking account because neither of us had any paper handy. (I tore the account number off of the bottom, but he was still appalled.) He lists my contact info and this blog's address and includes a pretty little graphic. They are lovely and much nicer looking than my boss's business cards. And because David has heard me rant about the tiny type on business cards (tons of white space, medium grey print the size of bacteria - what is up with that?), they are in a nice, clear, easy to read, reasonable font.
And now they'll have my exchange on them! David mentioned The Telephone Exchange Name Project the other night and sure enough David Pescovitz posted a link to the TEN Project on Boing Boing yesterday which David forwarded to me. I reviewed Ma Bell's list of Officially Recommended Exchange Names, got all misty-eyed about JUniper, and then selected BLackburn for my mobile number. My office number begins with "57" which was reserved for radio operators which means that it has no historically correct exchange name, so I've "created" KRypton for my office number.
The next time you see me, be sure to check out my spiffy-retro calling cards.
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6 comments:
My phone number growing up was NIghtengale 8-0424. That's always stuck with me, even once no ne ever used the old exchange designation anymore.
As late as the early 80's there were still a few people in the pentagon who rememberd their numbers as OXford 5-xxxx or OXford 9-xxxx
DElmar (something; it's been a long time) was the exchange we had when we first moved to Kansas City. DUpont 1-xxxx was the phone number we got when we moved across State Line Rd. to the KS suburbs when I was still in grade school.
I remember that my Grandmother's phone said "SPruce 3-0275" on it.
John C.
KE7-1350 - when I was a kid living in Chevy Chase DC in the late 60s & early 70s, that's how I memorized my home phone. The KE was for Kensington, but it was not Kensington MD & I was never told to memorize it as KEnsington 7. They eventually converted the letters to numbers generally, so my old number gradually became 537-1350...
Lori
I'm a little younger, apparently, but always loved phone numbers that spelled things. I had friends in high school whose numbers were EKE-WOW2 and GOD-0GOD.
That was the best number ever.
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