Category Archives: history

The Lights are Out Along Hubcap Alley

One of my favorite tools is from the early 1960s: a metal roll-up yardstick that I inherited from my parents. I will delve into its design in a later post, but my preternatural curiosity has me chasing after a different … Continue reading

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Getting my shots

I deliberately sickened myself multiple times in 2023 and 2024, and I’m glad that I did. I opted to take fourth and fifth booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine. I also took two doses of the Shingrix vaccine against shingles, a … Continue reading

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SKyline-1, SUnset-8, and WIndsor-2

In my previous post, I outlined the history of phone numbers in Bartlesville, which became my home in 1989. This post looks at my personal telephone memories from the late 1960s to present. Bell Telephone, including the Southwestern Bell subsidiary … Continue reading

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FEderal-6 and EDison-3

What do the song PEnnsylvania 6-5000, the book BUtterfield 8, and the movie Dial M for Murder have in common? All of their titles refer to telephone exchanges. Bartlesville only used exchange names in its phone numbers for about a … Continue reading

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How to Make Them Pay?

How often do you still use cash? Do you still write some checks? Did you notice credit cards are no longer issued with raised numbers for imprinters? Do you even know what an imprinter is? Do you or should you … Continue reading

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