[GreenKeys] This will take you back many years...

[Randy or Sherry Guttery]

Don Robert House wrote:
> I remember I was disappointed when our number was changed from  
> CLearbrook 3 to 253...

I grew up in Los Angeles - which was somewhat of the "wild west" when it 
came to phone service and phone companies.  In most of the country - a 
large city - even a region was usually served by one company - usually a 
Bell company of AT&T.  Los Angeles, on the other hand had several major 
players - not always playing well together. Los Angeles itself was 
(mostly) Bell / AT&T - using Western Electric equipment.  However - many 
of the surrounding communities - such as Long Beach, cities of the San 
Gabriel Valley, etc. - were General Telephone customers - mostly using 
equipment by Automatic Electric. That made for some strange 
"interactions" here and there...

In the early 1950s - within LA itself - you only had to dial 5 digits - 
and they were listed (usually) as (something like) 7-1234.  It was when 
you called some of the suburban areas - like Long Beach, Norwalk, etc. 
you had to use the Exchange "pre-fix".  Norwalk was University, 
Bellflower was Torrey (which you might note is NOT one of the favored 
Bell pre-fixes - not surprising since it was GT); West Covina, La Puente 
and the un-incorporated areas in that area were Edgewood;  Both 
University and Edgewood are on the "Bell list".

Another interesting "thing" out of that era - was that even as mobile 
phones and the age of digital communications were getting underway in 
the late 1970s - calls were still being connected by hand in Bell's 
Avalon (Santa Catalina Island) exchange via a local cord switchboard.

Another "fallout" of the mixed equipment - I had been in a couple of 
switch exchanges - and had never seen a rotary stepper... GT used 
something called a panel switch in many of it exchanges - which steps in 
the X and Y plane - rather than a half-circle like a Strowger.

yeah - brings back a few memories!
-- 
randy guttery

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