The little changes

[jducoeur]

First of possibly a number of messages about the slightly insane extended weekend we've just been through. We'll start with one of those dippy observations that strike you when you're in the middle of far more important things: the weirdest thing about traveling to Connecticut nowadays is that they still use seven-digit phone numbers. Half the times someone gave us a phone number (and we have exchanged a vast number of phone numbers in the past few days), they'd give seven digits and stop, leaving me with a perpetual case of, "Yes, but where's the rest of it?" Somewhere along the line, I got used to these ten-digit things we have here...

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I think I just barely remember when we could dial just the last 4 digits in-town (Orono, ME.) Or possibly my mom only told me about that; reply hazy, ask again later.

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the memory. When I was six, my phone number at West Point only had four digits. When I was eighteen, my MIT phone number had five digits, but that was centrex/dormphone system. It hardly seems fair that as I age and memory becomes trickier, I need to remember more digits.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

But now there's Speed Dial!

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Works well until somebody asks me my phone number and I have to find all the digits lurking somewhere in a little used part of my brain. My kids used to handle that for me, but they grew up and left home and expect me to remember stuff for myself now. ;-)

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

My home town in VT was 5 digits until about 1990 (7 for the rest of the state), but now you have to do all 7 for the local area as well as add the area code if it's long-distance within the state.