I grew up in a small mid Western town that did not get dial service until late in the 60's. Most of the numbers ended in W or R. My home number was 672R. I was once told the W stood for white and the R was red and that told the operators how to plug in the wires at the central office.

Can anyone verify that?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maxwayne,

Vtail will know.

Possibly two-party service and one party got rung out on the red and the other on the white.

My dad explained to me how there were several bell sequences used for a multi party line with the same number.

W and R were two of the many bell sequences, but there were many others. So your number was 672R while someone else would have 672J and someone else 672W, all with different bell sequences of short and long bells. You only picked up if you heard your bell "letter" sequence.

For example, My dad's bell sequence was one short ring and three long rings. They didn't pick up unless they heard their bell sequence.

So that is the reason for the letter at the end.

Wow, thanks for bringing back that memory. My dad has been gone for over 20 years now.

Gotta go, just got a call from BUtterfield 8

MU(rry)5-4762 (early 60's phone number. Yeah, still remember it)

CHerry 2 2432 Wow I can't believe I remember that.

Even better, my sisters house number, of her address, is also 2432. What are the odds of that happening?
.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
MU(rry)5-4762 (early 60's phone number. Yeah, still remember it)

But alas, it's the 80's and Jenny is calling you.

My phone number in suburban Chicago in the early 1950S was 5873. Local drugstore was 1.

PE(ennsylvania)6-5000.

I understand that’s the name of a famous tune too.

RI(riverside)7-0182 was my parents number in the late 50's and early 60's. No help for your question I know but the fact that I remember it is weird.

Jim

My Grandmothers number in Savannah was 233-1401, an ADams(23) exchange. All was well until the USPS invented Zip Codes. Primary Savannah Zip code was 31401, Since there were only two exchanges (23) and (35) she started getting 1000s of calls at her 23-31401 number.
Didn’t take long before a new number was assigned.
Billy

Ours was OX(bow)3-5779

CUmberland 8-4427. Early 70’s in Philly.

WIndsor6-2820

AL5-2627. I can't remember the "AL" name.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
<snip>
You only picked up if you heard your bell "letter" sequence.

For example, My dad's bell sequence was one short ring and three long rings. They didn't pick up unless they heard their bell sequence.
<snip>

My experience. Out in the rural Midwest, farm people were lonely. Most of ‘em, especially housewives, picked up to listen, even if it wasn’t their ring sequence. With every pick-up the volume declined a bit.

Ludlow1-8568. Still remember my father getting upset when I told someone our number was 581-8568. Demanded I tell the person it was Ludlow1. No amount of logic would change his mind.

Even as early as the 50's in thr suburbs of DC we were populous enough to be using seven-digit phone numbers, prefixes/exchanges were JEfferson-2, -3, and -4. Next door, in Arlington, they used JAckson-3, -4, and -5, knowing someone's phone number gave you a pretty good idea of where they lived. The names were converted to numbers, e.g. JE2 -> 532 in the mid-60's. About that time, it became mandatory to dial the whole seven-digit number even if you were in the same exchange as the called party.

I remember being surprised when I went to school in Ann Arbor in 1968 where they used five-digit phone numbers universally.

Of course, now it is almost always ten digits required, and with no guarantee of geographic association.

WRT to the question posed in the OP, I believe I have seen old-time plugboards where the red and white bayonet plugs were of different lengths thus completing different circuits in a single socket, much as how you can identify the left channel on a stereo by partially inserting the phono plug.

My guess is that W stood for your work phone while
R was your residence phone. Back in the 1940's in Traverse City, Michigan, my parents home number was 430F2 while my dad's business number was 430F1
(if the phone rang twice, then we would answer it
at home with a simple "hello" greeting. If it rang
once, my dad would use his company greeting, Home
Heating Company).

That's my best guess.