Our Town: Nicknames in Cascade’s telephone directory

Cascade, Iowa (KCRG) - Do you still use a phone book? This particular phone book has been in production for nearly 70 years, and there’s something special about some of the listings.

KCRG-TV9′s Danielle Wagner spoke with two longtime employees - Mary Ann Aitchison and Suz Otting - at Cascade Communications to find out what makes the telephone directory unique to Our Town Cascade.

“In this phone book, there are some listings in there that have nicknames of people. That’s kind of how a lot of people are known around town. They were given a nickname, as they were in grade school or younger, and it just stuck with them and that’s what people know them by,” said Mary Ann Aitchison.

“In some cases, they do list both their nickname and their real name. In most cases, it is in there both ways.,” said Aitchison and Suz Otting.

“When anyone signs up for phone service, they get a free listing in the directory, and they can pretty much say how they want it to be listed in there,” said Aitchison.

Mary Ann and Suz estimate about one-fourth of the names in the Cascade phone directory are nicknames. They say that number used to be a lot higher, but the town nicknames aren’t as common with the younger generations, and fewer people are signing up for landlines.

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