Community Chat

[abbeythe 8th]

I'm old, so yes I remember when we began using zip codes.

[jaxs mom]

No I don't remember a time before zip codes, or numbered area codes or phone numbers less than 7 digits 

[PhilaLady1]

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@sunshine45 wrote:

i dont remember a time when there werent five digit zip codes.

i DO remember our first phone number.....will never forget it for some reason. it began with PLAZA (PL).....7 digits total.

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Philadelphia, here.  In my neighborhood, we were GREENWOOD 3 or 7, and TRINITY 7 and 8.  Then GR and TR, then all numeric.

And I remember when my postal code did not exist, then it becamce Philadelphia (insert 2 digit postal code number), PA.  

[151949]

Yep, when I was growing up our address was Pittsburgh, 26,Pa and then it went to Pittsburgh, Pa 15226 while I was in high school. I recall a big media hype to get everyone in the country on board. 

[chrystaltree]

I don't know how mail is sorted.  But sometimes, the fact that mail reaches it's destination is almost miraculous.  9 years ago we sold our home, the home we had been in for 20 years and we moved to a different town about 15 miles away. I had (she's deceased now) a great aunt who lived in FL, she was deep in her 90/s.  I hadn't spoken to or communicated with her in many years.  Well, about 4 years ago, I received a letter from her.  The letter was addressed with my first name and just three letters of my last name, the street address was a mangled version of the street I lived on 5 years previously, there was no town and no state, just the zip code from 5 years before.  And yet....I received that letter!  And it didn't take too long.  If she mailed it on the day the letter was dated, it only took a month for that letter to arrive in my mailbox.  i was impressed and grateful, I wrote her back and sent pictures.  She passed away a few months after that.  I know people like to trash the post office but I think they do an amazing job.

[whitedogs]

We were neighbors in West Philly.  I was Sherwood 7. My husband was Trinity then Greenwood. We all had party lines during WWII and had to pay extra for a private line later on. Yes, I remember sending mail to Phila, Penna. and post cards were one cent. Typewriters had a cent key, unlike computer keypads. And paying 19.9 a gallone for gas when I was learning to drive stick. Automatic transmissions were just coming out but they were expensive. No seat belts and no turn signals. 

[momtochloe]

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@whitedogs wrote:

We were neighbors in West Philly.  I was Sherwood 7. My husband was Trinity then Greenwood. We all had party lines during WWII and had to pay extra for a private line later on. Yes, I remember sending mail to Phila, Penna. and post cards were one cent. Typewriters had a cent key, unlike computer keypads. And paying 19.9 a gallone for gas when I was learning to drive stick. Automatic transmissions were just coming out but they were expensive. No seat belts and no turn signals. 

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@whitedogs this so takes me back to my younger days . . . when the Miata came out I instantly fell in love even though I couldn't drive a stick.  As luck would have it there was a wait list for those things a mile long but I also fell in love with a beautiful RX-7 that was sitting on the lot, also a manual transmission.

I thought my nephew (who had to drive my car home for me mind you) would have to teach me how to drive stick until my mom said she would do it.  I was like "what?" until she reminded me automatic transmissions didn't exist when she learned how to drive . . . yep, good point mom!  

[Shelbelle]

I am guessing it was 1963.

[GCR18]

I guess I never thought about zip or area codes.  Learned a lot here.

[Pearlee]

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@PhilaLady1 wrote:

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And I remember when my postal code did not exist, then it becamce Philadelphia (insert 2 digit postal code number), PA.  

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@PhilaLady1  I think you are referring to the zone  - which was two digits - that people have been discussing here, and that was referenced in the Elvis Presley song  Return to Sender that someone quoted: "...no such zone."