Telephones
The cover of the 1972 telephone directory for the southern Iowa city of Centerville. Note the number of exchanges included. Also note the time and temperature number written on the cover by my mother, noting the need to dial only the last five digits of the local phone number. (Don't try to dial it now...it has changed!)
In Moulton, served by the Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative, you only had to dial the last four digits.
Other Pages
These scans are rather large (around 65-85K). I have tried to compress them to reduce their size while still maintaining legibility.
» A full-size
version of the phone book cover
» The table of contents
» Party-line and other instructions
» The local calling area
» The table of contents
» Party-line and other instructions
» The local calling area
Other Phone Stuff
» Centralia, Missouri gets dial telephone service in 1954:
» How to Dial a Phone (Centralia, Missouri, 1954)
» Missouri area code changes in 1971
» A 1950s Automatic Electric dial phone
» Automatic Electric wall phone, still extant in Centralia, Missouri in 2001!
» A three-line Automatic Electric desk phone
» Long distance slip from Columbia, Missouri (1966)
» Newspaper article on seven-digit dialing in Columbia (1971)
» How to Dial a Phone (Centralia, Missouri, 1954)
» Missouri area code changes in 1971
» A 1950s Automatic Electric dial phone
» Automatic Electric wall phone, still extant in Centralia, Missouri in 2001!
» A three-line Automatic Electric desk phone
» Long distance slip from Columbia, Missouri (1966)
» Newspaper article on seven-digit dialing in Columbia (1971)
Mark RobertsOakland, California
E-mail: Please see the Contact Information page.