Street Name Signs - where are they?

I didn't ask/say...I just butted in and attempted an answer.     

First the street name, then the zip code, and I think the area code was change while we lived there too...

Some people still have ads/business cards here in knoxville with the old area code marked out and the new one written in.

I remember Memphis being the same way...everytime we turned around there was the same  street name. I dont remember what it was now...maybe Poplar?

haha, Poplar is basically the main street running through Memphis. It runs from downtown to way out East in the 'burbs.

haha, Poplar is basically the main street running through Memphis. It runs from downtown to way out East in the 'burbs.

LOL. We got soooo lost in memphis. Some where in the rough part at 2am too.    Luckily we had tons of maps.

I didn't ask/say...I just butted in and attempted an answer.     

So you did!  Somehow I completely lost track of who made the original point.  Sorry!  

So for Scarlett:

* Prior to 1995 it was just 901 and 615.

* In 1995 the 615 area was split so that the eastern part of Tenn. became 423.

* In 1997 what was left of the 615 area was split again so Nashville & surrounding region stayed with 615 and the rest became 931.

* In 1999 the 423 area was split to add 865.

* In 2001 the 901 area was split leaving Memphis & area as 901 with the remainder of western Tenn. becoming 731 -- Resulting in the map as shown above. 

The changes in the 1990s were really fast and furious.  Fortunately the rate of new area codes has slowed down again just recently.

I lived in TN from 1990-1998, in Maryville, 20 minutes away from Knoxville, it was the 615 then changed to 423 while I lived there. Now the area where I used to live looks like it's in the 865 area code! Well, change is good and that area has had plenty of change!  There's been a lot of migration down south, a lot of northerners wanting to move down south, so there's been more need for a variety of area codes.

Yep, Maryville is 865 now.   One reason why so many area codes were added during the 1990s is the explosion of cellular, fax, pager numbers and so on, as well as increased demand for regular lines in general.   

It was also the case that a whole prefix (the first 3 digits of your 7-digit number) had to be assigned to a specific central office or company.  For example, if a small cellular phone system was set up and was assigned, say, 265 it would be assigned the whole block of ten thousand numbers from 265-0000 through 265-9999, even if only a few hundred numbers were actually needed.   Multiply that over many such instances and you can see how a lot of numbers were vacant but unable to be used.  These days, the system has been altered so that ranges can be assigned by the thousand block, so that same small company might get 265-1000 through 265-1999 leaving 9000 other 265 numbers free.

But the shift of population southward and westward over the years has certainly had an influence from way back.   For example, in the original 1947 area code plan, Florida had just one area code, and even California had only three!

It can be nice when they reserve a whole block of numbers for a certain area. Where my parents live in Massachusetts, the whole town has the same prefix, so you only have to remember the last 4 digits of the phone number as long as you know the town! It's a small town and there are other towns in the area with the same convenience. Very good for people like me who can't remember phone numbers at all!

There are many small towns all over America which are still served by a single prefix.  Back in the old days, many such places only had 4-digit numbers, and even many larger cities could have just 5- or 6-digit numbers (e.g. Washington D.C. and Los Angeles had 6-digit numbering at one time).   

Even as recently as the 1980s there were towns where as far as the outside world was concerned they were 7-digits, but you could still dial local calls within town as just the last 4 or 5 digits.

LOL. We got soooo lost in memphis. Some where in the rough part at 2am too.    Luckily we had tons of maps.

I've done something similar - was driving back from Toronto to Detroit, got through the border/tunnel at like 1am, I had my semi useless cousin co-piloting and on his first ever US visit, my mum and aunty and other cousin sis asleep in the back seat. I 'knew' we had to go left out of the border control, but in my tiredness and my cousin sayin where's the street sign and pointing right - I turned right, looked for signs and then gradually realised I was heading right into some bomb site super rough part ! looked for somewhere to to turn around and in doing so ended up further and further into a shell of an area. I $hat myself and then found a petrol station, pulled into that and $hat myself again when I saw the TWO layers of bulletproof glass from the outside to where the attendant was sitting inside. took me 2 mins to get enough courage together to step out of the car and go ask for directions, I could see various cars and people milling about on the opposite side of the street in the shadows and I was praying the guy sitting 6ft away behind that glass would understand me - he did thankfully and I tried to drive away and out of the area as quickly as possible but without drawing attention to the car! - got to my cousins place about 45 mins later (detroit and its suburbs are massive!) and had a fantastic shot of black label to calm me down!

considering I've done all my US driving without GPS - I've done really well, studied maps and thankfully not got 'lost' as such. Next time I'm over I have all the USA maps on my GPS so it'll be even easier for me, and no reruns of my Detroit incident!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Even as recently as the 1980s there were towns where as far as the outside world was concerned they were 7-digits, but you could still dial local calls within town as just the last 4 or 5 digits.

I'm from rural Georgia, and up until the 404/706 split in 1992, you could dial within our exchange using five digits - 9-xxxx.  I still tend to note numbers for local places at home in this manner - the library number is one that's been stuck to our fridge for two decades now as "9-3950."  After the 404/706 split, we just had to dial all seven digits - it wasn't until last year that we were forced into ten-digit dialing.

It's amazing how long some old things hang around in the telephone system.  At one time many rural areas had 10-way party lines, or even 20-way in a few remote areas! 

I was looking for some information on BellSouth's website the other day, and it seems that even now they still have 8-way party lines in use within their territory.   Probably very rare now, but still in use somewhere.

So far my GPS has served me well in the UK.  It even seems to know the tiny little one lane roads through the countryside.  And she must have great confidence in my driving skills bc she sends me down them frequently.  She has never steered me wrong.

In fact I was meeting some friends at a pub in a tiny village on a small road.  No one else's GPS had this road on theirs but I did.  Everyone else got quite lost and was late.

My GPS is the one thing I couldn't do without here.

Carolyn