Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 23, 1994 TAG: 9403230128
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And now, after 25 years, comes a new telephone number, even though I'm not moving.
On Saturday, 2,317 residential- and business-phone customers in the Mill Mountain-Riverdale area of Southeast Roanoke will have our phone lines disconnected at Bell Atlantic's main, downtown center on Luck Avenue and reconnected at the Garden City Optical Remote Module on Bandy Road near Garden City Boulevard.
Another 2,000 or so customers in the same general area had their numbers changed in 1991.
I don't want a new number. But, then, it's not my choice.
Don Reid, Bell Atlantic local manager, said it's being done in the name of growth and progress.
"This is just the beginning of what is about to be an explosion of valuable time- and money-saving conveniences offered through the intelligent network," Reid said.
Presumably, he's talking about such services as Caller ID, Call Trace, Call Block and whatever else allows my children to put me on hold while they answer two other lines.
Old C&P, which we now know as Bell Atlantic Virginia, built the Garden City ORM several years ago with the idea of expanding its service capabilities in a growth area. That part of Roanoke and Roanoke County is a through route to Smith Mountain Lake.
As the phone company moves numbers to the GC-ORM, it frees up space at the Luck Avenue main office for additional downtown phones.
And you know what's coming downtown - the new Hotel Roanoke and conference center complex.
I'm reconciled to the health-care adjustment - and so is my former primary care physician, who has now decided to join the network - but this phone number thing is really a pain.
I know my phone number better than my children's middle names. It's also a connection to almost-lost friends. And no matter how well I adjust to my new 427 number, I will never be able to forget the old seven digits. They'll just be more excess baggage.
The good thing that has come out of this was a conversation with a superior customer service representative, Scott Armstrong.
I called his number as the phone company suggested to whine about how the change was causing me a lot of inconvenience. Armstrong made me happy I could help out.
Technology is wonderful, though. Witness the invention of Stanford student Bryan J. Patrie, who has designed a gadget that detects whether the toilet seat is up or down.
If the seat is down, as for female users, the gadget emits a green glow. If the seat is up, it sends a bull's-eye pattern in red to the bottom of the bowl to act as a warning to women and a target to men.
The device is called the His & Her WaterColor Intelligent NightLight, suggested retail $29.95. It runs on two AA batteries and the inclination of men to want to wee-wee in the dark.
If you've been to a Wal-Mart garden shop lately, you've noticed it's filled with Better Homes & Gardens brand items. Since January, many Wal-Mart stores have been set up as BH&G Garden Centers.
According to Meredith Corp., which owns BH&G, about 75 percent of the items in the garden shops, from hoses to plants, will carry the Better Homes name. Meredith gets a royalty from items sold.
Wal-Mart already has similar deals with Popular Mechanics and Sports Afield, which are Hearst publications.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***