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Hello friends, I was listening to the 1981 song, “867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone just now. Essentially, it’s a song about calling a number found on a men’s bathroom wall. I always pictured it carved into a stall with a knife: “For a good time, call Jenny. 867-5309”. The funny thing is, for some time in the early 80s and beyond, it was a fad to call this number and ask for Jenny. People with this phone number had to change it because they were getting so many calls asking for her. Radio stations then started to obtain the phone numbers to get call ins. In the 2000s, the numbers even started going on online auctions for significant amounts of money, tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, which caused legal issues as phone numbers are considered a public resource. To circumvent, people tied the number with a “business”, which they could then sell along with the phone number. Anyhoo, what the song really got me thinking about is the fact that it does not contain an area code. If you were around in the 80s when “Jenny” came out, you didn’t have to dial area codes unless you were calling long distance. So, if you were calling Jenny for a good time, you just dialed 867-5309 and you would just assume it was for your town, county or whatever defined the borders of your area code. Thus, Jenny was obviously a local girl. If she were from out of town, the vandal would have had to write or carve an area code, and Jenny would have likely received less calls for a good time as long-distance rates applied. These days, we have to dial area codes, even for the area we are in. Thus, hooligans who wish to shame and harass ex-girlfriends would now have to write ten digits instead of seven. That’s three more digits worth of dive bar bathroom vandalization for every tearaway in America. When did we start dialing area codes and why? I’m assuming it has something to do with cell phones. Whatever the case, that little bit of extra work really did sneak up on us.
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