|
Been called from Delhi lately?
Just when did Pacificans get seven digit telephone prefixes? Someone asked
the other day. I didn't know, so I checked.
The portion of the Coastside that became Pacifica had only 20 or 30 phones
total until sometime in late 1936 or early 1937. Numbers were single and
double digit (Sharp Park 20 was Anderson's Store. C.H. Eakin had Sharp Park
4). The most complicated, like 1-Y-3 were probably party lines, shared by
several customers. Bertha Anderson ran the switchboard from the back of the
store between shoppers. That switchboard now waits for a place of honor in
a museum of Pacifica history.
In 1937 local numbers were upgraded to four digits. Most started with 2. In
February 1947, postwar Sharp Park switched over to seven digit phone
service with the FLanders 5 prefix, or what anyone under age 40 would think
of as 355. (You have to be somewhat over 40 to have been a part of the
Anti-Digit Dialing League, devoted to saving our beloved prefixes like
ELmwood). The Sharp Park Breakers newspaper, which had the unerring nose
for news of an arthritic, blind, deaf and crippled bloodhound, saw no news
story in this momentous change in the local phone service. Ads in the
February 7th issue used the old numbers. February 14 they were new. No
explanation was offered.
The addition of the ELmwood 9 prefix, or 359, can be pinned down exactly to
12:01 a.m., June 19th, 1955. A special Sharp Park directory celebrated the
event. Some years later a few Pacificans began using the 993 prefix, which
always seemed to be just a bit alien to many of us.
In some ways, the birth of the Coastside as an authentic suburb coincided
with seven digit phone service. As tract homes, paved streets, curbs,
gutters and sidewalks proliferated on former artichoke and hog ranches,
phones were in heavy demand. Each added phone multiplied the usefulness. If
two neighbors have phones, they can call only each other. If six neighbors
have phones, each can call the other five.
Today Pacifica has several prefixes. 738 was added some time in 1989. In
recent years 557 has been brought in.
Not all telephone service changes have been improvements. Telemarketing,
which some insist is dying of its own excesses, is one reason more than
half Pacifica phone users don't list their names or addresses in the phone
book. It's annoying to try and call fellow members of your church or club,
find them unlisted, and be forced to create your own list in a grubby
notebook.
Telemarketers rely on those they call. Those not interested are expected to
angrily slam down the phone so the marketer can move on rapidly to a more
likely prospect. I'm retired. Much to the annoyance of my wife, my hobby is
wasting the time of telemarketers. I'm never rude or brusque, but I ask a
lot of irrelevant questions. "How much money do you make?" Seven dollars an
hour is average. I tell them they're worth more and should unionize. I ask
where they're calling from. Telemarketing into Pacifica has been done from
San Diego, Tennessee, Texas, even New Brunswick, Canada. I've had several
calls from New Delhi, India, where they're probably delighted to be paid a
pittance while sharing their accents with random folks in Pacifica.
Telemarketers, who think nothing of calling your home phone, uniformly
refuse to give out their own home numbers. I wonder why? Perhaps they don't
want to be interrupted when they're eating dinner, or while sleeping.
The Reactor is happy to read e mails at Paul@thereactor.net.
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.
|
