story: telephone talk

Do you remember

your old telephone number?

1949 rotary phone

Linda remembers...

My first phone number was Fairmont 8125L, this was in the 50's when I lived at 71 West 18th.
Obviously there weren't alot of telephone's at this time.

My friend across the street had Express in front of her number instead of Fairmont so I am not exactly sure what the word meant. I had another friend who had Dickens in front of her number. Also you had to go through an operator to make a call.

Those were the days that the operators could listen in to your conversation!

1950 telephone operators

Then our family phone number changed to Trinity6 9494 in around 1960's.

Then Trinity6 changed to 876 (mid 60's)... and if you look at the number 8 it corresponds to the letter T and the number 7 corresponds to the letter R.

TR for TRinity.

876 9494.

Then, of course later, came the area code 604.


*photos from Vancouver Public Library

Special Collections Historical Photographs