You Know You Have Been in NoVA Too Long When ... (Chesapeake: apartment complexes, theater)

[Flamingo13]

Thanks stpickrell - although if you get a Tracfone, they are all 571 area codes as far as I know.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Someone recently arrived. You know, someone pretending to be Northern Virginian, as evidenced by their 571 area code. Although, of course, the status of a 703 vs. 571 number is nothing like that of a 202 vs. the other area codes in Manhattan. I'm sure my Maryland friends think that of the poor slobs with 240 numbers.

yeah, the difference between 202 which is DC and ANY Manhattan area code would indicate something I guess.

BTW, I am old enough that 212 was my area code growing up - it was the whole city, not just Manhattan.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

yeah, the difference between 202 which is DC and ANY Manhattan area code would indicate something I guess.

BTW, I am old enough that 212 was my area code growing up - it was the whole city, not just Manhattan.

You should be "Brooklyn-Born Grandad." Or, if you were really old, "New Amsterdam-Born Ancestor."

I recall when I lived in Atlanta in the '90s how weird it seemed to have to dial 404 to call anyone.

It's true that living in this region, one gets inured to motorcades and the like, but I still love the view from the GW Parkway of the various memorials over the Potomac.

Oh, here's another one: You know you've lived in the DC area too long when someone says "Georgia," and you think of Yuschenko instead of Ray Charles or Charlie Daniels.

[mcknigs]

Originally Posted by yamota

when you picked up your prescription at People's Drug, then you went shopping for clothes at Bradlees and electronics at Luskins, then you went to rent a video at Erol's

You must have lived near where I grew up.

[hilsmom]

sometime mid-90s was when MD split into just 2 area codes. I had to learn to dial 410 to get my parents at work (they worked in northeastern MD) instead of 301. And this was because I went to school far away and I had to dial long distance. I think 10-digit dial became a necessity in the late 90s, around the time I moved up here, about the time cell phones took off.

[mcknigs]

A lot of the reason for 10 digit dialing was fax machines using lots of numbers.

I remember when you only had to dial area codes for long distance, not for local calls between NoVA, DC and MD suburbs of DC. Then I remember needing area codes for local calls, but only if calling between VA, DC and MD. When it finally became necessary to use 10 digits for any call, it was a strange feeling to use an area code to call people in the same office building I was in.

[choff5]

Originally Posted by mcknigs

You must have lived near where I grew up.

We also forgot checking the ads and going to Hechinger's every weekend as a new homeowner.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by LocalGuy61

It doesn't seem like it was all that long ago when one, calling from NoVA, didn't have to dial any area codes for DC, or the close-in parts of Montgomery and PG Counties. The 7-digit number is all that was necessary well into the 1980s.

I'm thinking that when I first moved here, I didn't have to dial the area code "703" to make a local call.

[TulipGrl]

You remember Hechingers.
You remember the giant Giant.

[lasershen111]

You were around when there wasn't any road construction......Haha! Good one right... :-)

And if your currently think that 1hr commute each way... To go 20 miles... Isn't that bad.