I was one of the lucky teens that got their own telephone line in my parents house ‘back in the day’. This was way before cell phones, computers, texting and all the rest of it. There was no voicemail, or call waiting, call answer – NOTHING! This was even before you had to dial 10 digits to call someone. This was an old fashioned telephone. I don’t even know if my first phone was even touch tone. I do remember my phone number 416-590-9878. Back then, you didn’t have to use the area code, as there were still enough numbers to go around.

My parents still have the same phone number that they had when they moved into their first apartment which I can tell you was 1967. The SAME number. When call waiting first came out my mother wouldn’t get the call waiting because she had to change her phone number. It wasn’t until years later that they offered it in her extension area and she got call waiting.

Back to my story. I remember when I bought my condo I was thinking about not only changing my phone number, but MY AREA CODE. I was going to be “one of those people”. The people that live ‘north of the city’. What was I going to do?

The day came, to move and sign up for home phone service and cable, etc. I remember that when I called to set up my phone number I asked them if I could have the last four digits the same as my cell phone four digits. Flat out – NO! I said, “but I know a lot of people that have their numbers the same”….still the answer was no. She said she could only give me a number that was in her sequence. Okay fine.

So….for everyone number she gave me I had to push the keys on the phone pad to see if it was easy to dial. I must have said no to at least 10 numbers before I came up with the one that I accepted. And away I went. I was now a resident of 905. Gone was 416-590-9878….

It has now been five and a half years….

Funny….to see the growth that has happened in this area in the last eight years. I live on what used to be the site of the Disera Motel. For those of you who used to drive up Bathurst Street past Promenade mall you know what I mean….low rise motel that almost looked like they should rent by the hour and not by the night, but it was the motel in the area before the area. Now the area it sat on and the area around it is moving with the times.