Writer's Block: Your Username

[furrbear]

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I've always been something of a telco geek, including, back then, knowing all the prefixes that went with each central office.

Mid-1980s: I was moving to a new place on Fort Worth's west side and called SWBell to arrange phone service. The representative rattled off the new number, "377-something."

"377?," I asked. "Is that a new exchange?" "Yes," she answered. "Umm, are the last 4 digits 2327 (BEAR) available?"... "Great, I'll take them.

Thus I started with 377-BEAR, handy since US Hwy 377 ran nearby.

About a year and a half later, I was moving closer to downtown, next to the museum district, to be closer to the hospital where I worked. Being the same central office, I got to keep the same phone number. But the association with Hwy 377 no longer fit.

So, one afternoon, taking a break from a Numerical Analysis take-home final, I started playing to see if the letters associated with 377 spelled anything. WOO-HOO! EUREKA!!!
I now had FRR-BEAR for a phone number. (That's where the double-R comes from.)

It worked. I'm bearish and certainly furry. Fast-fwd to the '90s: Moved. No longer had that number, but the nickname had stuck, so the online moniker "FurrBear" fit.

Comments

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[curmudgn]

I like that.

I enjoy confusing people by writing my phone number as GL3-nnnn, or telling them it's "GLendale 3-nnnn." That's the exchange I live in, and have since 1976. (Mind, around here AT&T dropped using exchange names in their published materials about 1970, but I once got my hands on a 1966 phone book that still had 'em all listed, so I copied the list and learned them by heart. I can still call GReenwood, FAirfax, COngress, WAlnut, TWinbrook, ATlas, TEnnyson, and a bunch of others.)

[dewittar.livejournal.com]

I loved knowing all those exchanges but I was never as clever (or geeky) to come up with something interesting.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

FRR-BEAR, All that's needed is U.

Corny? Hell yeah, but it got me called back for a date.

[envirobear.livejournal.com]

Is *THAT* what I need to do to get a DATE?!? *GRIN*

[rockybear02.livejournal.com]

VERY COOL! And I do love that icon...