New Telephone Numbers – June 29, 1950

I'll probably never get used to not having a land line. It's been a couple years since I finally had it disconnected, and I still miss it.

It was so convenient. I gave my land line number to all of the businesses and organizations that didn't require direct access to me during the day. When I got home from work, I called back anyone that left a message.

Getting rid of it (to save money) meant that I had to give everybody my cell phone number. That means I get calls all day at work. Hilariously, I had my own land line at work the year I started. But my employer got rid of them within my first year to save money. 

One of the nice things about the good old days when everyone had a land line was that Lorain Telephone published a directory. Most everyone I know had a number that was listed. You didn't get crank calls back then. Spam was something Mom made sandwiches out of.

And in the 1950s, when Lorain was growing and Lorain Telephone was adding new interchanges, the company regularly published updates in the Lorain Journal with new telephone numbers. Below are the numbers that were published on June 29, 1950.

Hey, there's my father in there. Mom and Dad had gotten married at the end of April 1950, and had moved into a small house (Uncle Ben's old house) at 305 W. 30th Street that Grandpa gave them. So apparently it took Mom and Dad a little while to get a phone hooked up there.

There are several names and businesses that I recognize in the listings; well-known Lorain surnames; classmate's parents; popular Lorain businesses.

It sure was a different, simpler time, during which Lorain seemed like a small town.