We're the one for you, New England ...
By adamg - 1/18/08 - 3:17 pm
Boy, remember when phone commercials had drama? But does anybody remember what happened between Dad and Jill?
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In today's world...
... the daughter would be "twittering" with Jill and e-mailing mom and dad. Plus, we'd know what the issue was because one of the kids would have blogged about it extensively on their Myspace or Facebook pages.
Also, who knew...
... there was a time when commercials didn't feature Peyton Manning.
PFLAG...
would have been an option for mom and dad, so they wouldn't have ever kicked Jill out of their lives.
A couple more theories on what horrible thing Jill did
Lisa posts three theories, one of which we've already discussed here.
Oddly enough
Hee. Ironically (sort of), my older sister Jill (her real name, I swear) was living #2 and #3 of Lisa's theories by the time that ad series came about, and subsequently did the first one some years later. I was the only one in the family she told about number three just before she moved to San Francisco around that time, so those ads hit kind of close to home for me when they aired.
I remember that commercial!
It always made me nervous. I thought Jill was a lesbian. But today I think Jill probably was a Scientologist.
Or
She came out as a Yankee fan.
Guess who came to dinner?
Perhaps she's Derek Jeter's mom?
Ahhhhh yes......
who can forget? I remember that commercial quite well, before the break-up of "Ma Bell".
Phone exchanges matched to neighborhood names?
FA3-6810. My parents WR phone number from 40's to 80's.
West Roxbury exchanges were Fair View (FA or 32) 3-xxxx. Presumably based on Bellevue Hill?
Revere grandparents (same era) AT4-0589
(Atlantic or 28 4-xxxx).
And another related question: How many cookies did
Andrew eat?
Jamaica Plain - JA4 or JA2:
Jamaica Plain - JA4 or JA2: 524 and 522
Empire= Hyde Park
361 or 364 = EM1 or EM4
lots of bsinesses were called Empire ... like the Empire Lanes Bowling Alley
Empire Lanes
The sign is still there on River Street (took this photo today). What's interesting is that when the building was turned into offices in 1990, they kept the slope of the lanes, so the floor slopes from front to back, at least, according to this report.
Medford's exchange was...
...EXport-5, my father tells me. He said that when he was young the exchange was MYstic-# (which made more sense, as Medford is on the banks of the Mystic), but they changed it in the late forties. Burlington's was BRowning-2 and -3 (and neighboring Bedford had BRowning-5). I don't think I've ever seen any businesses up that way named Browning anything.
8000
Of course!
Malden and Marblehead
My dad was from Malden, where they regularly referred to the phone exchange as DAvenport-2 (322). I actually have an old metal sign from his business (which was started by my grandfather) with the number given as DA2-xxxx. And if I recall correctly, the 631/639 exchanges in Marblehead, where I grew up, were known by the true townies as NEptune-1 (the 9 was introduced much later).
Speaking of phone exchanges:
In Lincoln, MA, where I grew up, the telephone numbers all began with CLearwater-9
(259)
Fairview
I used to live on Fairview St. in Roslindale and I think we had a 325 number.
Why do local monopolies needed to advertise anyway?
If I recall correctly, there was some regulatory heat around that era on why a local monopoly needed to increase their advertising budget. (I also remember some sort of NYNEX parody that had the tag line "We're your only choice New England...")
I think the the story about Kathy, Jill, and their parents ended by Kathy tricking her dad by setting up a three way call. First Kathy called Jill, then her dad, and then she added Jill back onto the call her dad was so overcome by hearing Jill's voice that he was overcome with regret asked her if they could put the past behind and start rebuilding their relationship.
(See? advertising to consumers was about selling them upgraded services, not just reminding them to call on their flat rate plans.)
My hunch is that
businesses, etc., often feel the need to advertise themselves flamboyantly in the yellow pages or wherever, because business isn't so good for them, and they're hoping to lure more people. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The More You Know *
The More You Know *