[Reece]

My sister remembers when my grandmother's phone number in the early 1940's in Texas was 4008 and you told that to the "number please" operator, no dial. Then later we had one in Texas in the late forties that was four digits plus J. After that it was five digits and a dial phone. Finally it got a prefix TErminal and five digits. Area codes in those days were just used by the operator: to call out of your home town was long distance, dial "0" and ask for long distance. When the long distance operator came on the line, tell her the city and number you were calling. These days we call Europe a lot and use a long distance bundler that saves us money: have to dial 21 digits but get super cheap rates!