A package was on the front porch from FedEx when I got home from work. It arrived by way of Eric Fay in Garden Grove, CA. This phone was in the Village Road Pharmacy in Long Beach California decades ago. On the bottom of the phone, the phone number was listed as HA 5-6434. I assume they have the same number they’ve always had because they are now listed as (562) 425-6434 (the “H” is the 4 and the “A” is the 2).

At one point, the phone then belonged to (213) 390-4942. Google had no record of the phone number at all, so I called it. A recording of an operator said “lines are temporarily busy, please try again later.” This might explain why. It shows the 213 area code as a tiny section of Los Angeles. It used to be one of California’s 3 area codes. Now, it’s a tiny island in a sea of change.

The phone number could be in one of several Southern California area codes now. The fact that neither the surrounding 323 nor 213 works makes me think the phone number could still be used in one of the remaining area codes. As the new area codes were formed over the years, the number could have been excluded as an option in the newer area code overlays for the once larger 213 area.

On Saturday, I visited Mr. Hayes.