Re: CHAT: postcodes

Christophe wrote:


>En réponse à Tristan <kesuari@...>:
>
>> >
>> I know someone who can recite just about every phone number she's ever
>> need to call and then some... I have *no* idea how she does it...
>>
>My friend knows an awful lot of phone numbers. I've nearly never seen him
>checking his notebook to find a phone number. And yet he's unable to cite
them,
>unless he actually composes them on the phone. It looks like what he
remembers
>is the hand movement done to compose the phone number, not the number
itself!
>
That seeems likely; I think I do it too.  But the oddest mixture of old
numbers sticks in my mind:
The house in Sioux Falls where we lived until 1944:  2902.  But not the
number where we lived from 1944-57. (4 digits with a final J-- it was a
party line at first)
The main laundry in SF (mentioned earlier) 4, and the butcher shop my mother
called almost every day- 114.  Nothing else.
My aunt and uncle in Minneapolis Minnesota-- WAlnut 3548 which struck me as
ultra euphonious.  Visits to Minneapolis were my first contact with named
exchanges like that.
1949-1960 either away at school, the Army, or other Wanderjahre. Nothing.
1960-65 I had 3 numbers in NYC, but only remember the prefix NEvins 8- of
one.
Of many years in Ann Arbor, only my own number (for 13 years) 663-8999, and
best friend in Detroit (whom I still call). (For years NOrmandy 3- was the
only Ann Arbor prefix; by the time I lived there, there were3 or 4 new
exchanges and they'd gone all-numeric. And now there are umpteen.)
My mother's number in Florida (395-3693, easy; but unused since her death in
1991),  my sister's number in Fla.  They keep changing the area code,
however, which screws things up.
A friend's number here in Saugatuck, 857-4165, easy because all numbers here
are 857, and his own mnemonic:  "We bought the house when I was 41, and I'll
retire when I'm 65".
I used to remember the two lumberyards I dealt with for 8 years, building
this house, but since it has become 98% finished they've slipped away.
And used to know my driver's license no. (M plus 12 digits) as it was
required on checks at the grocery store; but since getting a bank debit card
in 98 or so, I no longer write so many checks and have to peek to be sure of
it.
I've given up trying to keep numbers in a little book like most organized
people (and haven't bothered with the computer)-- the little books had a bad
habit of getting lost.