Say you were in the 1920s or 1970s. If you wanted to find a store to buy music or just any store that catered to a specific niche, how would you have gone about finding out what your options were?
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Before the internet, most households were given 2 telephone directories by the local Telephone Company; The White Pages and The Yellow Pages. (Some smaller towns would have these Pages in a single ‘flippable’ tome).
The White Pages was an opt-out directory of personal (ie: residences, rather than businesses) telephone numbers and addresses, sorted by last name.
The Yellow pages was (is?) a list of businesses ordered by category. If you wanted to find a Music Store, you’d check the index for the page of Music Stores, turn to the page, and then you’d see small and large listings for music stores in your city.
[Here’s](https://i.redd.it/h6iokuc0jf301.jpg) an example of what a page of Water Pumps would look like. You’d pay more for a larger, more eye-catching, listing.
There was and is also the option of calling your local TelCo for Directory Assistance, who could connect you to people and places in other cities.
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