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Absolutely!

I remember two area codes back when Worcester county was stil 617 but all my life WMass has been 413.I think the 508 came in the late 80's.

According to the link below, Massachusetts never had a single area code. It had 617 and 413 to begin with. I'm old enough to remember not having to dial 1+area code to call your friends.

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2016/09/19/more-iphones-5-intriguing-stories-behind-mass-area-codes/25415193007/

You’re right! It was two, my mistake.

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No problem

At least since the 40s it's been 617/413 I wasn't here when/if there was just the one, but i remember the progression of first being able to call everyone in town by the last 4, then you had to dial all SEVEN numbers even IN town (gasps), and then central mas switched from 617 to 508 in the mid 80s.

That's what it was. Two area codes, but you didn't have to dial anything but the 555 5555 number in the area code you were in.

I am old enough to remember not needing to use an area code and not needing to dial +1 either. I am only 41, so perhaps the phone company filled in the blanks for us.

But I am also old enough to recall calling 411 and hearing a LIVE person answer. The same was true if you dialed 0 (zero) for the operator.

I also am old enough to remember using a rotary phone (before push-button). And I remember when the phone company mailed out notices informing people that they would no longer be officially supporting them (yet they continued to work).-- Now I am curious if one would work. hmmm.

I remember the 2 area codes. In fact I remember when the exchange used be a mneomonic for what area of the area code you lived in. And that is how you gave your number. For example, Lucy and Desi's number on I Love Lucy was 212 685 9975 and one would say Murray Hill 59975. You knew the apartment was on the East Side in the Murray Hill section of the city. Our exchange in our section of Pittsfield began with 44, so we would gave our number as Hillcrest x xxxx.

Yep.

Good ole 617

Lol what about 857 tho?

• {Pepperidge Farms had entered the chat}

the fact that you forgot about 413 is peak MA

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I remember a video shown in school introducing the whole idea of numbers and area codes. Until then, letters and numbers, like JE4-0867 (Holyoke) or CE5-1235 (Wellesley) or LA7-1928 (Newton). Old enough to remember party lines too- your ring is two longs and a short, someone else’s was too shorts and a long, et c. Pick up to make a call, someone already talking, you hang up and wait. In Holyoke back in the day you could dial only the last 5 digits for local call.

Yes I remember 617 and 413 only.

Bay State calling

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Well, if you’re old enough to remember the Kennedy assassination you’re old enough to remember life before area codes. Maybe dead maybe not. If you’re old enough to remember no dial, only ‘Number, please?’ you’re probably already dead. 😕

I'm 37 and remember all of this too! I also remember the cordless phone I used to talk to my friends, and who the last person I ever called without having to dial the area code (my 7th grade boyfriend) and the first person I called using it (my BFF) LOL

Dial pulse / rotary dial is supported by the equipment but it’s usually configured to be disabled. There used to be a lot of false 911 calls with people dialing ‘9’ with the touchpad and then bouncing the hook switch twice to rotary dial ‘1’ ‘1’.

I grew up with 4-digit dialing. Anywhere else in 617, it was a toll call and you had to dial 1+ 7 digits.

My area code has been 617 for years, I don’t even live in the state anymore but I won’t give it up

Just dialing the last 5 numbers will get your party connected in town. You would dial all 7 if they were adjacent towns. Dial 1+ if the town was plus one town away. If you wanted to the commonwealth was divided into two area codes 617 to the east and 413 to the west.

The only telephone co. was New England Telephone and you had to rent your phone from them and it was permanently attached to the wall and if you were fancy y had a long cord and could walk around while on the phone.

936-1234 was New England Telephone weather forecast 637-1234 was New England Telephone time, updated every 10 seconds I’m 50

fun fact about 413:

>Because of the low population density of western Massachusetts, 413 remained in its original configuration even as the eastern portion of the state went from one area code to four from 1988 to 1997. As a result, 413 is the only original numbering plan area of Massachusetts that still maintains its original boundaries, and is one of the few original area codes (not counting those that cover an entire state) that has never been split or overlaid despite the proliferation of cell phones and pagers, particularly in and around Springfield. The projected exhaust date for 413 is 2041

from Wikipedia.

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We don’t talk about 857.

My mom proudly kept her wired rotary phones well into the 2000s, until she realized pulse dialing service cost MORE once digital, touch-tone became standard. I also remember that we had a big regional AT&T building in town, you could peer in the windows of the back room where the mechanical switchers were and watch the rods of the switchers moving up and down because someone somewhere was dialing.

I remember not having to dial an area code. My father worked for NE Telephone. I still have the rotary phone we would use.

Even in the 90s my grandfather's town in North Carolina was mostly party lines and a small switchboard office downtown handled any out of town calls. Most people were used to just picking up the phone, tapping the hook twice until an operator came on, chatting with them for a little while and then eventually asking to be connected to whoever they were calling. The women (of course) who worked there routinely listened in on calls and grandad's (5th) wife would spend most of her mornings in the phone nook gossiping with the operators and neighbors on the same party line, expressing shock at the news in her formal lilting southern debutante voice.

Yup, good old 617

I remember there being 3. It was nice to not have to dial the area code.

As a fellow old of the same age, I remember all of this as well.

I remember when you picked up the receiver and an operator asked you what number you wanted. When I was three I told her I wanted to talk to Grandma, I don’t remember how but she was able to figure out who my grandparents were, in another town, and connected me. The family talked about it for years

Fun fact about the New England Telephone time & temperature number -- you could dial 637 and any four numbers. I remember a friend said to dial NERVOUS (which translated to 637-8687), but eventually I'd always just dial 637-1111 because it was easiest.

Lol why not?

Shame.

😑

Ha, just playing. 857 still better than 774 or 339.

Same.

My town had their own phone company for ages. You used to be able to dial just the last 4 digits to each someone in town.

We’re the one for you New England, New England Telephone. Part of the Nynex family.

Party lines as late as the 90's? That's kind of mind blowing.

Same age, can confirm that your memory is spot on.

Watching 617 shrink was a lesson in politics.

617 used to extend westward to about where New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts meet. Each time 617 got too crowded, the less important people got a new area code. Now 617 is really small, but it includes Boston.

A friend’s parents continued to rent their phone well into the 90’s, until they realized they’d paid something like $3,000 for a rotary phone over the years.

They called the phone company and thankfully they stopped the charges.

Me too! The town I live in now, you could dial 5 digits & that’s it. The last number of the exchange followed by last 4 numbers.

Unlocked "🎶New England Telephone"🎶 jingle memory

I have my grandmother’s old address book that she started using in the 60’s, and our neighbor’s number is in there as “Fairview 5-####”. I checked my cell phone, and it’s the same number I have for her, except I have the whole 10 digits. Hasn’t changed in 60 years, through all the phone number changes and updates.

You guys remember Tremontaine?

Eastern mass? 617 covered it all. 413 was like near upstate ny to everyone east of worcester. My area code changed 3 times while growing up. 617-508-978

I remember when calling my grandmother in Springfield (from Waltham) required an operator. Then we got Direct Distance Dialing and my precocious sister (four years old) ran up the phone bill calling Grandma. Before that the operator made her get an adult on the line.

i love that! i've had the same cell number for 20 years, and i guess that will probably become more common now that numbers are portable, but it's just not the same thing.

You used to be able to get cell phone numbers with 617 area codes back four decades.

once in a while in college we'd call 411 for cooking advice. Not like we could look it up on the web. "How long do I cook corn on the cob?" The people were always happy to help.

Remember no area code phone numbers? That was a wild time. Then MA only had 021 zip codes until they introduced 024, the whole Northwest area changed.

Lol I remember being a kid and my parents telling me we had to start dialing "the whole number" so instead of 1234 we had to dial 448 1234. Then 978 came 😆 We spent a lot of time in rural mountains in western maine so there's a chance I'm combining memories of having to add the 864 to the 1234 too idk I'm 40 it's all mushy in my brain now

Yes! 508 came before 978 right? I'm trying to remember. (82 baby)

We had a rotary phone in the kitchen for ages in my parents house. My mother only finally got rid of it because dialing 911 took too long on it when my dad passed (2008).

Glad I didn't imagine the 4 digit dialing 😅

> We had a rotary phone in the kitchen for ages in my parents house. My mother only finally got rid of it because dialing 911 took too long on it when my dad passed (2008).

I am really sorry for your loss.

911 can sometimes be awful to use. You end up explaining yourself 2-3x, then wait for what seems like forever for anyone to come help, and in that whole time, you could imagine ordering and receiving a pizza sooner.

I recall once, dialing 911, and they ask you what your emergency is. You take all the time answering their questions and explaining the issue, only for them to transfer you to another 911 despatch because odds are you were talking with the state despatch. Then you end up re-explaining everything all over again.

And of course, once you have explained everything, there is the waiting. I swear, you will see 4 cops show up for a routine traffic stop, but call for help, and you're wondering where they are (likely at someone's routine traffic stop). The same thing for the fire department. I once called for a neighbor (thankfully no one was home), and metaphorically speaking, we could have hosted a full neighborhood cookout using the flames, well before the fire department finally showed up.

But I digress. You have my sympathy. I do believe the system in place needs reform. Not just local reform or state-wide reform, but on a national level.

Thank you. It was a very long response time unfortunately too bc the crew covering was on the other side of town and it was 4 am, and the 2nd emt was brand new. Poor guy. They came to the funeral and I gave them both huge hugs (dad worked for the town so the paramedic knew him). It can be very frustrating and I have our hometown non emergency line programmed in because of the routing just in case, but we needed police this fall and they responded really quickly which I felt was a good sign. The town also built a huge new fire/medic facility a couple years after my dad passed and the team is much bigger now, which I'm grateful for for other families. <3

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Moved from W MA to Cape Cod in ‘81, made that area code transition just fine. Went to college in 617 in ‘88 right when they changed it, then left the state for 10ish years the next year and remain confused to this day.

Happy to be back in 413 now.

Yes, I remember 2 area codes.

Do remember when you didn't have a stamp so taped the money for the stamp to the envelope and dropped it in the mail?

Oh yeah, 781 and 978 came about in the late 90s. '97 or '98 I think. Spitballing here, but 508 was sometime in the mid 80s.

I remember when you didn’t need to use any area codes for Mass.

only one area code really matters, though

617!!! But we didnt even have to use the area code when calling local

I remember 617 and 413. That’s two area codes.
If there was ever only one in MA it must have been nearly 100 years ago by now.

>I am old enough to remember not needing to use an area code

That's still true in the 413 if you use a land line. I just tested it out. I successfully called a Hadley number from Holyoke without dialing the area code.

&#x200B;

Thank you

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Yup. Mermaid or Nervous. I liked to use Mermaid. Needed the stimulus of looking for the letters. Probably wouldn’t have that problem today.

617 and 413 are an interesting case, because early area codes had lower numbers in higher populated areas. (212 for NYC, 213 for LA and 312 for Chicago). So theoretically Eastern mass should have gotten 413 and 617 should have been reserved for Terre des Dragons

I never heard of using Mermaid -- love it!

WMA always had the higher priority area code on account of the central location and prediction that Springfield would grow to be the size of New York.