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From: 74066.2004@compuserve.com (Larry Rachman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: What are 700 and 555 Numbers?
Message-ID: <15446@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 90 14:21:04 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 884, Message 8 of 10


A few earlier entries in telecom have speculated on why 555-1212 is
often used as the equivalent of 'foo'.
 
Well, back when I was a kid, all the Bell System (!) ads that showed a
phone showed the phone number:
 
                       311-555-2368
 
I remember a pre-DDD advertisement that just showed the NNX, and
someone told me about an *old* phone book that gave as an example:
 
              "...ask the operator for MAIN 2368"
 
 
At the ripe old age of 12 or so, a friend and I spent hours in his
photo darkroom, creating the perfect
 
                     --------------------------
                    |   AREA CODE              |
                    |      311        555-2368 |
                     --------------------------
 
dial cards for our phones. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
 

Larry Rachman
74066.2004@compuserve.com
 

[Moderator's Note: '2368' with variations was always the number used
for example purposes in advertising, along with 'area code 311'. There
were a few ads which also made use of QUincy as an exchange. You know
how far people got calling that!  I think one of the very old ads I
remember had Mr. Jones at QUincy 2368 trying to make a long distance
call to Mr. Smith at ZEigfield 8632. It explained how he would go
about doing it, and what to tell the operator.  PAT]