So far as I can recall, my family and I have always been tied to Ma Bell's apron strings.

We originally had a hand crank system that rang "central" and we told the operator who we wanted to be connected to by name, not their phone number. So far as I know, nobody even had individual phone numbers, just a jack on the switchboard.

The operator (Depending on the time of day, she was one of two old spinster sisters who lived together and their parlor was full of switchboards and batteries) always knew the whereabouts of Doc Steese as well as just about everybody -- and everything -- else in town.

Before switching over, we had a 3-party line so we knew by one long, or one long and one short, or one long and two shorts who the call was for.

When we shifted from the old crank-style and got a real phone number, it was 490. That was in 1944 -- some 12 years later, my qual boat was .... 490. Mere coincidence.

We got phones with rotary dials on them in 1949 and went to a 5-digit phone number, but we didn't get actual dial service in 1952. I never understood why we had dial phones but no dial service - whether Western Electric was overstocked or we were just slow getting the new style central switch.

We went to the 7-digit dialing system in 1956 - just before I left home for boot camp. I can still hear all of the pissing and moaning about having to look up and then remember the number long enough to dial all of 7 digits! Pop was good with numbers, but Mom finally wound up having to write them down on a pad of paper held by some plastic contraption that the phone sat in.

We still had to dial "Operator" for long distance calls - I don't remember when direct long distance dial came into our area, as I was long gone by then.

Ain't technology grand?