[technothrasher]

> you'd ask the operator for something like "WHItehall 1212"

I still remember my mom making me memorize our phone number when I was very young, "SPring 9 0273". It wasn't very long afterward that everybody switched to all number dialing though.

[pbhjpbhj]

In the early 80s I knew two phone numbers - 999 for the police, 555 for home.

The exchange was in a tiny hamlet a few miles away.