What Your Area Code Says About You in St. Louis
Remember when they added the 636 area code to our region and everyone freaked out about the idea of making a long-distance call to St. Charles, and then we learned about 10-digit dialing?
Those were simpler days.
With cell phones, no one pays as much attention to area codes, until an unknown number pops up on your phone. If that scam likely tag doesn't also appear, then suddenly you're an amateur gumshoe trying to figure out who the heck this is. In those cases, the area code gives you some primo information, cause let's face it, you're judging when someone is 314 or 636 or 618. (And you'll be super confused when that first 557 pops across your phone.)
So here is our guide to what select local area codes (and some not-so-local area codes) say about you.
557: The newbie
You're very young and this is your very first phone (or you're a telemarketer).
DOYLE MURPHY
314: St. Louis city and county
Before it was just an area code. But with 557, now it's something to lord over others.
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618: Southern Illinois
You claim St. Louis as your hometown even though it's not. (We don't blame you, but it's still a lie.)
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Screengrab via
Google Maps636: St. Charles, etc.
No one from the city ever wants to come to you. Stop asking.
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417: Southwest Missouri
Hey, hillbilly!
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816: Kansas City, Missouri
You think you're better than St. Louis, but you can take your clean city and winning football team and shove it.
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Photo credit: Courtesy
Google Maps636: St. Charles, etc.
You naysay the city of St. Louis for its crime and dysfunction but still come here every weekend for its bars and nightlife.
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618: Southern Illinois
We don't need your pot anymore. We have our own!
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212: New York City
Cool! Someone from New York is calling me.
718, 917, 646: New York City's Expanded Area Codes
New phone, who dis?
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312: Chicago
You're a fool paying to live in Chicago, a city that's much more expensive, colder, hotter and stinkier than St. Louis and has almost as much gun violence.
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DOYLE MURPHY
877: Jail
Your friend just got a DWI and needs a ride.
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660: Northwest Missouri
You're a hick. Unless you're Jess Piper. Otherwise, you're a hick.
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617, 415 or 206: Boston, San Francisco, Seattle or some other popular West Coast city
You're new in town, likely for a few years at Wash U, and odds are good you won't be staying long. We'd get to know you, but you're just going to leave us.
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COURTESY FLICKR/
TONY FAIOLA314: St. Louis and St. Louis County
Your area code is so special that it ought to have a holiday.
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