Jumpstart and direction change (those under age 50 will probably not remember these):

Telephone exchange names; the seven/all-number system came in in early/mid- '60s; the leading two numbers remain, but who recalls what they stood for?


VIctor (84... )
WIndsor (94...)
CEntral (23...)
GReenfield (47...)
JAckson (52...)
GArfield (42... not sure of this, but I think it was NE side)
MUtual (68...)
SHadyside (74...)
SWift (79...)
MElrose (63...)

There are probably more. For a long time the first three numbers couldn't be (or just weren't) ones or zeroes probably to avoid confusion with area codes (which used to have 0 or 1 as the second numeral). I remember 840- coming in about 1966. And this marked a partial end to trying to see if your phone number spelled out anything on the dial/keypad. 1 had no associated letters and 0 was only kind of... Z.

It used to be that WKY or KOMA (probably the latter) had call-in contests, specifying one or the other exchanges as the one(s) eligible. Not just be the first (or 50th) caller, but from a particular exchange. "Shadyside or Swift!!!" echoes in my head until this day. (My family was/is VI... and how did they know before caller ID?)

Another qualifying call-in rule was the total of your phone number...and at that time, that meant only the last five numbers. "If the digits in your phone number add up to..." We were (my parents still are) 21 by that reckoning.

I don't remember a damn thing about chemistry or math from algebra or beyond, but I could drone on on stuff like this for weeks...