For many suburbanites, a new area code means they can no longer delude themselves or fool other people, though some try. Elizabeth O'Toole of Wilmette, Ill., a Chicago suburb, says her husband retains a cell phone with downtown's 312 area code as a way of clinging to their days of city living. If you're 847, forget about it. Wilmette is 847. An area code is an identification badge.
Cultural references are ubiquitous.
The 818 area code includes Burbank, which is in the San Fernando Valley, while the 310 area code includes Beverly Hills. Lockheed Martin and the phone companies have tried to ease some the pain associated with new phone numbers. The introduction of the 718 area code in 1985 for residents of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island was memorably traumatic to many New Yorkers and abetted Manhattan snobbery because the island retained the 212 area code that had embraced the whole city. The 212 code is once again under attack, but local phone company Bell Atlantic Corp. this time is being subtle about it. Whether this will offer comfort remains to be seen.