Old Oklahoma City Phone Numbers

[therondo]

I have an old map of Oklahoma City from the early 1960s, and for phone numbers, they use two letters and 5 numbers ex: VI 3-6182. I was curious if anyone could give me some insight as to what the letters stand for? I that they stand for numbers and I do know that the VI stands for Victor (My mom grew up around Hefner and May and her phone number began with Victor.) Possibly a list of the abbreviations? Any information or insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

[USG'60]

Victor, Winsor, Mutual, Melrose, Central, Orange, Garfield .......uh, that's all I can think of right now. It is easier to remember 2 letters if they MEANT something, I think.

[windowphobe]

I still have a Windsor (although it's technically my second one).

Others: Jackson (52x), Parkview (72x), Sunset (78x), Skyline (75x), Swift (79x), Greenfield (47x), Pershing (73x).

[therondo]

Thanks so much! How about PE?

[therondo]

Never mind on that! Thank you two so much!

[USG'60]

Pershing. Just to finish it.

[therondo]

OK, HA and NE. I'm trying to get them all if I can. :-D

[flintysooner]

SH = SHadyside (SHadyside 5 was one of my favorites although I never had it.)
NE = NEwton (I did have it once.)
I don't remember OK or HA though.

[UnclePete]

GL=Glendale
SM=Smallwood
PR=Prescott
GA=Garfield
PE=Pershing
FO=Forest
RE=Regent
JA=Jackson
CE=CEntral
TR=Trinity
WH=Whitney
OR=Orange
My phone exchange when we got dial was GLendale, and we didn't have it long and it was changed to SMallwood. There was a concerted effort to get many phone numbers starting with a 7. P or R or S.

[ctchandler]

Wasn't "NE" Neptune? That's what I remember, and it was a Moore exchange. By the way, for us really "Old" folks, remember when the phone numbers were five digits? My first number was 65941 then Bell changed it to 85941 and once more to 45941. Shortly after it was changed for the last time to ME-45941. And my mother had that number till she moved to the MU (68) exchange in 1976.
C. T.

[Pete]

As a kid growing up near NW 63rd & Meridian, our number was PA1-2837, which later became the ubiquitous 721-. I went to Putnam City and almost everyone I went to school with had a 721- number.

And I can still picture our yellow wall-mounted rotary phone in the kitchen, with the PA1- sticker in the middle of the dial.

[flintysooner]

Wasn't "NE" Neptune? That's what I remember, and it was a Moore exchange. By the way, for us really "Old" folks, remember when the phone numbers were five digits? My first number was 65941 then Bell changed it to 85941 and once more to 45941. Shortly after it was changed for the last time to ME-45941. And my mother had that number till she moved to the MU (68) exchange in 1976.
C. T.

In Moore for a long time we had to drive about 1/2 mile south to use our neighbor's phone or we had to drive a mile north. But we got our first phone 63 or 64 and ours was NEwton. Later we became SWift.

I remember Neptune though but don't recall us ever having it. Maybe the name was changed and I don't recall.

I found this web site:
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

[UnclePete]

I remember calling 5-digit numbers. We had to go through the operator and our number was 216R. When we got a dial, the installer just took the front center out of the phone and put in a dial. This was in Nicoma Park. We had moved up here from near McAlester, and to call down there the Nicoma Park operator would connect to the Shawnee operator, she to the Wewoka operator, and then Wewoka operator would connect to McAlester who would ring the phone in Haywood (only 1 phone in the entire town). Phones were for important messages only like death or critical illness notices.

Wasn't "NE" Neptune? That's what I remember, and it was a Moore exchange. By the way, for us really "Old" folks, remember when the phone numbers were five digits? My first number was 65941 then Bell changed it to 85941 and once more to 45941. Shortly after it was changed for the last time to ME-45941. And my mother had that number till she moved to the MU (68) exchange in 1976.
C. T.

[Double Edge]

My grandmother's number at NW 32 and Shartel was Sunset

[skyrick]

My grandmother's number at NW 32 and Shartel was Sunset

Wow! My Grandma lived at NW 33rd & Olie (2 blocks west of Shartel) and her's was JAckson

[Jim Kyle]

When my family moved to NW 20 and May in December of 1946, they got a phone number of 29694. Some years later, it changed to 92-9694. The next change was to WIndsor 2-9694. Finally that became 942-9694, which stayed the number through the rest of my parents' lives, and through the time my youngest son lived there. He sold the place in 1999 and moved to Oregon. I don't know whether anyone has the number now, 11-plus years later.

The fascinating thing, to me, about all that was that the number stayed essentially the same, just with additional digits at its left end. WI, of course, is the same as 94...

[flintysooner]

A friend just told me that their prefix in far northwest Cleveland county was NEptune that later became SHadyside. That's after 5 digit calling of course. So that area must not have been out of the Moore switching station

[Double Edge]

Wow! My Grandma lived at NW 33rd & Olie (2 blocks west of Shartel) and her's was JAckson

Shartel might have been the dividing line. I think her number was either SU3-8128 or SU4-8128.

My understanding too was that you originally dialed the 5 digits only, and they later added the named prefixes. They lived in their house from the '20s to the '70s. Don't know when they got their phone but I think they had the same 5 digits the whole time.

My grandparents on the other side had some old painted wooden truck sideboards in their garage for a business they had in Blanchard I saw when I was helping them clean it out in the '70s. I think the phone number on it was 89. They said before that on hand cranks, they were on a party line and it had something to do with long and short rings generated by the crank, like one person's code might be two short and a long ring but everyone who picked up, could and did listen in.

[skyrick]

Shartel might have been the dividing line. I think her number was either SU3-8128 or SU4-8128.

My understanding too was that you originally dialed the 5 digits only, and they later added the named prefixes. They lived in their house from the '20s to the '70s. Don't know when they got their phone but I think they had the same 5 digits the whole time.

My grandparents on the other side had some old painted wooden truck sideboards in his garage for a business he had in Blanchard I saw when I was helping them clean it out in the '70s. I think the phone number on it was 89. They said before that on hand cranks, they were on a party line and it had something to do with long and short rings generated by the crank, like one person's code might be two short and a long ring but everyone who picked up, could and did listen in.

Yeah, Grandma was JAckson4-5015 as long as I knew it, from '59 to '92 when she moved into a nursing home; probably for years before that too. She was on a party line when we moved to OKC in '61. Her next door neighbor, Mrs. Meeks, used to get mad when me and my sister would pick up the phone no matter what code rang.

[ljbab728]

My grandparents on the other side had some old painted wooden truck sideboards in their garage for a business they had in Blanchard I saw when I was helping them clean it out in the '70s. I think the phone number on it was 89. They said before that on hand cranks, they were on a party line and it had something to do with long and short rings generated by the crank, like one person's code might be two short and a long ring but everyone who picked up, could and did listen in.

You're correct about the party lines. That's what we had when I was growing up in Norman (JE - Jefferson). You had to listen for a special ring when someone was calling you and you could indeed listen to other peoples calls.

[ctchandler]

A friend just told me that their prefix in far northwest Cleveland county was NEptune that later became SHadyside. That's after 5 digit calling of course. So that area must not have been out of the Moore switching station

That makes sense, my girlfriend lived at 89th and Portland. Her dad owned the farm there. I think it was 350 acres. I think the first three digits really indicated the exchange sub-station since Ne for Northwest Cleveland county is the same two digits as Ne for the rest of Cleveland county. Probably a way for people to relate to a geographic area. My friends numbers all started with NE9 and my girlfriend's number was NE-92171.
C. T.

[ctchandler]

You're correct about the party lines. That's what we had when I was growing up in Norman (JE - Jefferson). You had to listen for a special ring when someone was calling you and you could indeed listen to other peoples calls.

We were on a four party line but it was in town and you didn't hear a ring unless the call was for you. You could hear other people if you picked up the phone and they were on a call. Private lines were hard to come by in the fifties but one of the parties cussed my teenage sister out because she was on the phone. When my mother reported that it happened (she didn't know who it was) we received our private line within a week. I moved to far Northeast OKC in 1975 and we had a four party line till the late 70's or early 80's.
C. T.

[ctchandler]

Shartel might have been the dividing line. I think her number was either SU3-8128 or SU4-8128.

My understanding too was that you originally dialed the 5 digits only, and they later added the named prefixes. They lived in their house from the '20s to the '70s. Don't know when they got their phone but I think they had the same 5 digits the whole time.

My grandparents on the other side had some old painted wooden truck sideboards in their garage for a business they had in Blanchard I saw when I was helping them clean it out in the '70s. I think the phone number on it was 89. They said before that on hand cranks, they were on a party line and it had something to do with long and short rings generated by the crank, like one person's code might be two short and a long ring but everyone who picked up, could and did listen in.

My girlfriends phone system was the type that it rang with a certain type for each recipient. I didn't know that until one day early in my relationship (dating, talking on the phone) that it rang in that many homes and what I would do is when I got home from school, I would dial her and let it ring till she got home, usually only a five to ten minutes. After about a week or so of that, one of the people on her party line picked it up and informed me that it was wringing in everybody's home. I was pretty embarrassed and never did that again.
C. T.

[USG'60]

Hey, CT, was that the place at 89th and Portland where we used to have "gang" fights?

[papaOU]

Did SUnset cover a large area? You guys referring it a near n.w. while my aunt has lives in the 2100 block one block east to Rockwell. Today when I call I have to think SU9-9@@@