Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Where I'm from (NJ):

Craig = kreg
Graham = gram
aunt = ant
good morning/how are you = what's up, asshole?

I associate "warsh" for "wash" with the Midwest, because that is how my grandmother, from many generations IL/IN, pronounced it.

niall ferguson - "Ni-Yel Fer-gus-son" I cant even see how else you'd say it.
rian johnson - Ree-ann.

Oh wait I get it now, do some people say "Neil" for Niall? Am I wrong? lol.

Nigh-All

wash = 'worsh' used to be a thing in SW pennsylvania, eg I-70 and I-79 meet up in worshington

i used to think this sort of thing was fading away but then i met my mom's neighbor. she's a few years younger than me, and a grandmother, and kinda hot, and incredibly nice, and literally every single pittsburgh stereotype you could imagine wrapped into one. she's amazing

How bout them Stillers

i was worried that niall = neil

and that rian = ryan

but i'm relieved to hear otherwise

How bout them Stillers

oh, they're goin all the way

wait, Rian Johnson is pronounced Ryan, right?

"ree-ah-nuh"

Rhiaaaaaaaaaaa non

i was worried that niall = neil

It is? Or at least it should be, because that's the Irish pronunciation, compare with Niamh for instance - need gyac or darraghmac to confirm though. Anyway it's how the Niall in Niall Ferguson is pronounced.

wait, Rian Johnson is pronounced Ryan, right?

He pronounces his name as "Ryan" though I keep wanting to say "ree-ahn" like Rhian from Wet Leg.

It is? Or at least it should be, because that's the Irish pronunciation, compare with Niamh for instance - need gyac or darraghmac to confirm though. Anyway it's how the Niall in Niall Ferguson is pronounced.

Now seems to be an opportune moment to mention my all time most hated mispronunciation (I'm always going on about this, here and elsewhere): it's Auld Lang Syne NOT Auld Lang Zyne.

Which, coincidentally, is also my most hated song of all time.

Only interesting (probably not?) to UKers over a certain age, but:

In 1958 this all changed with the introduction of the STD system, standing for Subscriber Trunk Dialling, in which every city, town or rural area was allocated its own code and numbers could now be dialled directly. The codes were based on 0 followed by the numbers corresponding to the first two letters of the place on the phone dial. Therefore, for instance, Cardiff = CA = 22 = 022 and Newport = NE = 63 = 063, as per the standard circular rotary dial.

We had something similar in the US... for instance, my childhood phone number would have been Highland-36992 in the 50's, but by the late 60's the HI in Highland had become 44 (as it is on the dial/keypad)
You'll still see old signage with that old system, there's a liquor store in Redwood City that still has it painted on the back wall

^^^(But my town wasn't called Highland, I'm not sure where those old names came from)

Except for especially small towns, a given community would have had more than one central office, and thus more than one two-letter code. So, coukd be Highland was a later-disused name for a neighborhood, or some archaic local hero whose fame lingered into the 1940s but not beyond.

In the 1960s when the phone company began replacing the charming prefixes with a fully numeric system, a group called the Anti-Digit Dialing League was founded. This San Francisco group mounted a light-hearted campaign against the "dehumanization" of the telephone system through the elimination of prefix names.

I used to notice phone numbers on TV shows and movies in the old days were KLondike 5-xxxx. Later I learned 555 numbers weren't used for real numbers so they used them in movies/TV. At some point much later I realized KL is 55 on the dial.

btw, my land line also starts with 44, and it's referred to as Hilltop here.

i was worried that niall = neil

It is? Or at least it should be, because that's the Irish pronunciation, compare with Niamh for instance - need gyac or darraghmac to confirm though. Anyway it's how the Niall in Niall Ferguson is pronounced.

― John Donne In Concert (Tom D.), Thursday, 20 July 2023 06:40 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

would always default niall to ny-al fwiw

if he was snippy about that id ask him where his fada was

Later I learned 555 numbers weren't used for real numbers

Did they carve out an exception just for this? Old shows always had 555 numbers and I never knew if they reserved that particular prefix just for fictional shit

(They used to always use obviously fake currency too... I recently found a newer "motion picture" $100 bill on the ground and flipped out, it looked so real from a distance)

I only found out a few years ago that the area codes in north america (three digit regional prefix before a seven digit phone number) were just allocated as they were needed and aren’t strictly geographical

I grew up in 515 (then central iowa) and was surprised that montreal is 514

They intentionally don't put similar area codes in the same region, to avoid confusion. "I know he lives in LA, was that 212 or 213 area code?"

I’ve just sung it a bit more in my head and realized I was singing Uncle Love actually. Had to look up the lyrics to Mr Briggs and now I remember- makes more sense with the new album tbh

I’ve realized shockingly late this isn’t the Blur thread, sorry

Most US area codes had either a zero or one as the middle number (for simplicity and easier memorization). 212, 202, 314, 703, 314, etc.

As numbers proliferate and overlays for mobile numbers proliferate that is changing.

But you can still see relic phone numbers from the days of GRamercy, etc. Pretty sure my home town's prefix originated in an alpha name, I just don't remember what it was.

In the 1970s and 1980s I spent time in towns small enough to not even need seven digits (let alone 10). You could talk to your middle-school girlfriend with five numbers. A time-saver because lots of phones were still rotary.

Coming from NJ, which has nine, I was shocked to learn that there's only one area code — 406 — for all of Montana.

xp As late as the 80s my aunt and uncle in rural Ireland had a two digit phone number in their town.

Most US area codes had either a zero or one as the middle number (for simplicity and easier memorization)

not most - all of them! it was built into the AT&T software because nobody ever thought they would need more

"Initially, states divided into multiple numbering plan areas were assigned area codes with the digit 1 in the second position, while areas that comprised entire states or provinces received codes with 0 as the middle digit. This rule was broken by the early 1950s,[22] as NPAs with digit 0 in the middle had to be split, but until 1995 all area codes assigned had none other than the digits 0 and 1 in this position"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan

After the remaining valid area codes were used up by expansion, in 1995 the rapid increase in the need for more area codes forced the NANPA to allow the digits 2 through 8 to be used as a middle digit in new area code assignments, with 9 being reserved as a last resort for potential future expansion. At the same time, local exchanges were allowed to use 1 or 0 as a middle digit. The first area codes without a 1 or 0 as the middle digit were area code 334 in Alabama and area code 360 in Washington, which both began service on January 15, 1995. This was quickly followed by area code 520 serving Arizona on March 19, 1995.

wait, there is a shared area code system covering both the US and Canada? Mexico too?

didn't realise they only changed that in the 90s. my late wife's number when she lived in the US started 562 so that would've been fairly new at the time.

UK area codes changed a lot in the 90s too I guess. Reading went 0734 -> 01734 -> 0118 in the space of a few years

London went one better with 01 - 071/081 - 0171/0181 - 020

And then the last change involved adding either 7 or 8 to the start of the rest of the number, meaning that many signwriters just did of as 0207 or 0208 but it soon didn't matter anyway as a vanishingly small number of calls were made from landlines within the area code.

tbf the London changes happened over a decade, the Reading changes happened in 1995 and 1996. there was the same confusion where existing numbers all had 9 prefixed so people thought the area code was 01189

The first area codes were assigned by population too. NYC, LA and Chicago are 212, 213 and 312 respectively based on their ease of dialing on a rotary phone.

Memphis got fucked with 901.

In my small town, we only had to dial four numbers. And each of those four either began with a 6 or a 7.

Gone are the days when 714 ruled Southern California outside of LA. 714 even abandoned my hometown's exchange, but it's replacement, 949, made the number more interesting. 714-494 became 949-494

Anti-Digit Dialing League

I dialed a sheep
I dialed a goat
I rammed my phone right down its throat

I still miss the days when you didn't have to dial the area code

We're currently the only area code in the state that has to dial the area code for every call, due to the 988 National Suicide Hotline. (The other area codes didn't have a 988 prefix.)

Freakin' Jacksonville. Thanks a lot.

I had no idea there were still areas that didn't have to!

We used to be 305 area code when I was growing up, then they created 407 due to overflow, which we got, and we had to start dialing the full number in the early 90s.

As a weird bookworm kid I would take out the phone book (remember those?) and look at the area code map. Also, apropos a question above, the North American Numbering Plan covers the US, Canada, and much of the Caribbean, but not Mexico or Caribbean islands that are still colonies of European nations.

What a time it was to be alive.

https://i.imgur.com/9EJ4EXK.jpg

I had an old client who had a list of 3-digit phone numbers still hanging up by her phone. (Not the main phone, the basement phone.)

The first area codes were assigned by population too. NYC, LA and Chicago are 212, 213 and 312 respectively based on their ease of dialing on a rotary phone.

Memphis got fucked with 901.

― pplains, Wednesday, July 26, 2023 8:50 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

iirc, one reason -- possibly the main reason -- the major metro areas had area codes with 1s, 2s, and 3s was because, if you had to reach someone in an emergency, it would take less time to dial 212 or 312 than to dial something with an 8, 9, or zero. And having grown up with a rotary phone for a number of years, it indeed felt like a long-ass time to dial a number with a bunch of 9s in it.

One weird adjustment a bunch of Chicago-area businesses had to make with changing area codes was rewriting and re-recording their jingles. All of Cook County was 312 until the late '80s, at which point Chicago proper was still 312, but many suburbs were 708. Later, parts of Chicago were 773, some suburbs changed to 847, others were 630, etc. etc. Anyway, for instance, Empire Carpet's jingle used to just be "588-2300," but after all the area code changes, they got an 800 number, and added the "800" to the jingle. Even though it's been decades since that change, the "800" still sounds odd to me, kind of like how I'm still caught a little off-guard hearing "I'm Only Sleeping" after "Eleanor Rigby," having grown up with the US Revolver track listing.

(I have not researched how Lincoln Carpet -- "call NAtional 2-9000" -- made the adjustment.)

Did they carve out an exception just for this? Old shows always had 555 numbers and I never knew if they reserved that particular prefix just for fictional shit

555-1212 is still used for directory assistance and 555-4334 is reserved for assigned national use. But a set of 100 555 numbers have been officially designated for use in Hollywood, 555-0100 through 555-0199.