When I call my primary care physician, nine times out of ten I get a busy signal. It must be the only phone in Massachusetts, business or residential, that doesn’t have call waiting. Back in the day, when busy signals were common, I wasn’t making business phone calls; it wasn’t that much of an inconvenience to call my sixth-grade best friend back. Now it’s supremely annoying, because I either have to hit redial until the call goes through, or remember to make the call at a later time (when I’m just as likely to get a busy signal).

I’ve tried to express my irritation, in a gentle sort of way, to the receptionist when I finally do make contact. “Something must be wrong with your phones,” I say. “I’ve been trying to get through all morning, and I keep getting a busy signal.”

“The phones have been really busy,” she says.

“Yes, but there only seems to be one line open,” I say, “and the voice mail don’t seem to be working.”

“Oh, I don’t think we have that,” she says. “We just answer the phones.”

Right.

So the last time we had this conversation, the nurse practitioner I was calling was not available, and I asked the receptionist if she could call me back. She asked to confirm my phone numbers.

“Home is still 5-1234?” she said. “And work is still 5-6789?”

It took me a little while to follow, but presently I realized she was assuming the first two numbers of the local exchange and confirming just the third number of the exchange and the final four numbers. Back in the fifties, where my doctor’s office is apparently temporally located, everyone in town had a phone number that started with “46.” Many phone numbers still start with “46,” but there are new local exchanges and cell phones located in different area codes so you can no longer assume that the local area code applies, let alone the local exchange.

Husband said, “I’m surprised she didn’t ask you if your number was still ‘Klondike 5-1234.’” That inspired me to Google what the two-letter exchange code actually was, and that’s how I found this. We’re HOmestead-5. I’m definitely going to start doling out my phone number that way.