Bay of Eagle Fiasco

[Mike Trout]

OK, gang, another mystery from the AT&T system of the late 1960s-early 1970s:

Once upon a time, my brother (who was about ten years old at the time) picked
up the phone and dialed:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0

Somebody answered, my brother let loose with some good Oklahoma slang, then
hung up. The phone rang IMMEDIATELY, and my mother (in another room) answered
on an extension. It was a phone company rep (or so he claimed), who was
absolutely beside himself with the stunt my brother had just pulled. He
refused to say exactly what had happened, other than to say that my brother had
called someplace "you weren't supposed to call" and that it had better not
happen again. In fact, the rep felt that a personal visit to our home might be
a good idea. My mother, understandably bewildered, suggested the rep phone
later when my father came home. That later conversation apparently canceled
the personal visit. Needless to say, my brother found himself in a wee bit of
hot water with my parents.

I've always wondered exactly what my brother did. He doesn't remember it well,
and my parents don't remember enough details to help. They did emphasize how
mad the rep was (although that might have been exaggerated to scare my
brother).

Any ideas? The first digit dialed--"1"--would obviously open access to direct
long distance dialing (which was still fairly new in those days). But the next
three digits--"234"--are not, and I presume were not--a valid area code. If
they were, the last two digits--"90"--would be ignored. I'm assuming the "234"
or some portion of it opened access to SOMETHING. But why would such an
obvious sequence of numbers be assigned to anything? The way kids are, I would
suspect that the number sequence "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0" is probably dialed
several times a day by children--not to mention drunks, curiosity seekers, and
the like.

I'd try it myself today, but I guess my parents made a big impression on us (I
still brush my teeth before going to bed, Mom!). Also note the years involved:
Nixon was president, the nation was in flames, paranoia and heavy government
control ran rampant, and everybody suspected wiretaps, bugs, and illegal
government surveillance. Call me paranoid, but while Nixon was president our
phone was constantly clicking, popping, and going dead.
--
NSA food: Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, SOD & NRO.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." Thomas Jefferson

[Moderator's Note: I just now tried it of curiosity. Dialing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
sent me to immediate intercept with a message saying, "When dialing a call
outside the 312 area, you must dial '1' before the number. When calling
within 312, do not dial '1' first." PT]

[Charles Daffinger]

>OK, gang, another mystery from the AT&T system of the late 1960s-early 1970s:

>Once upon a time, my brother (who was about ten years old at the time) picked
>up the phone and dialed:

>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0

>[Moderator's Note: I just now tried it of curiosity. Dialing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

>sent me to immediate intercept with a message saying, "When dialing a call
>outside the 312 area, you must dial '1' before the number. When calling
>within 312, do not dial '1' first." PT]

Here I got 'the number you have dialed has been disconnected or no longer in
service. If you feel that you have dailed the correct number, please hang
up and try again. Thank you.

-charles
--
Charles Daffinger >Take me to the river, Drop me in the water< (812) 339-7354
cd...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu {pur-ee,rutgers,pyramid,ames}!iuvax!cdaf
Home of the Whitewater mailing list: whitewate...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu

[Pete Brown]

>>Once upon a time, my brother (who was about ten years old at the time) picked
>>up the phone and dialed:
>
>>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0
>
>>[Moderator's Note: I just now tried it of curiosity. Dialing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
>>sent me to immediate intercept with a message saying, "When dialing a call
>>outside the 312 area, you must dial '1' before the number. When calling
>>within 312, do not dial '1' first." PT]

In Sacramento (916-364) I get "We're sorry, your call cannot be completed
as dialed..."

[Moderator's Note: Well here in Eye Bee Tee land, '234' is assigned to the
village of Lake Forest, IL. 234-5678 *was* a working number, but now goes
to the standard intercept message. Adding the '1' on the front causes the
problem, at least until 708 kicks in. PT]

[Peter Desnoyers]

In article <telecom-v...@vector.dallas.tx.us>

cd...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) writes:
> >Once upon a time, my brother (who was about ten years old at the time)
picked
> >up the phone and dialed:
>
> >1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0

I tried it - 9, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0 - and got
tick, tick, tick... (unusual, regular, call progress clicks)
"the person you are trying to reach is unavailable or out of our service
area. Please try ..." and I forget the rest.

Peter Desnoyers
Apple ATG
(408) 974-4469