Old Phone Numbers

[CHUBer]

Can anyone explain the old telephone prefix for Nanaimo: SKYline? (Yes, I know that SK are the letters for 75)

I used to work at CHUB and their number was SKyline 3-4341. (753-4341)

[AllieG]

I vaguely remember (so could be wrong) when thry brought in the 7 digit numbers that having the Skyline prefix would make it easier for people to remember their new number. Plus, not everyone had dial telephones (we didn't) so we'd still have to say the number to the operator and again it was easier to remember the Skyline bit followed 5 digits as the old numbers were 4 digits and a letter (ours was 1303Y - how do I remember that!).

[Spence]

1960 saw the introduction of dial phones in Nanaimo, bringing us inline with Victoria and Vancouver. Previous to that a business or residence with a private line had only numerals in their number. For instance CHUB radio's phone number before 1960 was 2630. If you had a two party line(we did) our number was 1532X and our neigbours about a block away with whom we shared the line were 1532Y. The tone of the ring determined who the call was for, and the requested household would answer. If you lived rural, you probably had 4 party line. Your number would be 2552-R-1 or R-2 3 or 4. the last number was the number of rings, which determined who the call was for. The emegency number for Fire was 54, Police 3100 Ambulance 314. In 1946 the white pages for Nanaimo were printed on 20 pages, by 1959 this increased to 47 pages.

[CHUBer]

Thanks, both of you. Our family didn't arrive in Nanaimo until 1965, so a little progress had been made in that time.

We had a party line for a while. At one point we had to request a change of party line because the other came from a country that didn't speak English and were constantly - hours - on the phone. We thought this was a strange system as we had not encountered this in the Old Country.

[AllieG]

It was so tempting to listen in on a party line, but of course it was a sign of very, very bad manners. I remember my friend won a competition on Gene McCormick's show and had to phone in within so many minutes to claim her prize. Her party line wouldn't get off the phone so she lost out.

[Spence]

We just recently purchased and had completly gutted and renovated an older(builit in about 1948) house on Doctors Rd. in Departure Bay. August long weekend of last year, we had people stop by saying that their grandfather built the house, from whatever surplus materials he could get. Seems the original houses on this lot, dating back to just after 1900 burned down in 1947, as a result of a chimney fire(no insurance) . When they tried to phone the (Departure Bay Volunteer?) fire department, a neigbour was on the party line, and would not get off, and the two neighbouring houses were also lost as well. Must have been a mighty important conversation! Anybody here know where the fire hall in Departure Bay was in 1947, or even if they had a volunteer department back then?