When asked or given, Venturians don’t include the area code with their phone numbers.  Whether home, mobile, or business; people in Ventura assume “805” is a person’s area code.  Some trucks don’t include it across their painted sides (unless they work in Los Angeles County too).  When asking for your number, store clerks start over if you offer an area code first.  In greater Los Angeles, an area code is expected as part of any phone number.  Angelinos are a little curious if it’s not 310, 818, or 323; and nostalgic when it’s 213.  If they hear an area code that’s not familiar, and the circumstance isn’t obvious, like talking to someone from Santa Barbara (805), Orange County (714), San Francisco Bay Area (415, 510), or New York (212), they might ask about the area code.  Perhaps the caller “immigrated” to Los Angeles from somewhere else in the US or Canada.  It could be an interesting story.  Of course between ever-multiplying area codes cropping up, various telephone plan schemes, and various other common possibilities, there may not be an interesting story.  In any case, if a caller doesn’t offer the area code when providing their number; in LA, it’s considered . . . well—“provincial.”  Angelinos think, “Isn’t it quaint that people live in a world where there’s only one area code, one common identifier.”  In Ventura, it seems the only place it’s declared is on one of their locally brewed beers.  If a person’s area code isn’t 805 and a Venturian hears an LA-based area code declared, he or she may feel a little sorry for the person, for the stressful urban life with which any Angelino must contend.  Moving from Los Angeles to Ventura, with my LA transplant mobile number, I’m learning to begin with the phrase, “Area code 310 . . .” before offering the rest of my phone number.  As we sail Kandu away from Ventura and into other countries, we won’t often have a phone number to offer.  Whether Venturian, Angelino, or simply American; one might think, how quaint or how cut off it is to not have a phone number or to have one from another country.  When that happens, when giving our number, we’ll be sure to include the country code along with however many digits their phone numbers have.  Contrarily, we won’t expect our American friends, Venturians and Angelinos alike, to automatically include their country code as part of their phone number, because we already know it, or perhaps because, . . . well, dare I say—provincial?