re: #369 Anymouse 🌹

No, that was when I was a child and pre-teen in my small town in Michigan. General Telephone bought out the co-op phone company and gave everyone seven digit numbers.

That said, you still couldn’t make a direct long distance call: When you dialed a long distance number (starting with “120,” not “1”) an operator came on line asking for “number please.”

She was asking for your number, not the one you were calling, so you could be properly billed for the call.

That system in my hometown went away in 1980, when GTE finally put in direct dial long distance there.

I can remember six-digit numbers. We went from GLadstone-2562 to EMerson 3-2562. Another number to remember! No area codes then, though.