Whether you embrace yours with the same loyalty you attach to the Ohio State Buckeyes, your hometown or your alma mater is another matter.

Columbus has 34 ZIP codes. Westerville has three. Dublin has two. Even tiny Amlin and Brice have one each, but Upper Arlington doesn't have its own. Neither do Bexley, Gahanna, Grandview Heights or Whitehall.

So there could be a Dublin 43017 television show about teen angst, but Upper Arlington 43221 would be a bigger bit of fiction. Codes that begin with 432 carry a Columbus address even if they're in another town.

Valerie Camill has ZIP-code pride.

"I love it," said the Galena resident of her 43021 ZIP code. "I guess you associate it with the city you're in. I'm proud of my city and what's attached to it.

"I can't think of one I'd rather have," she added, although she "always thinks of Dublin on St. Patrick's Day because it's 017" and the holiday falls on March 17.

Camill's ZIP-code pride extends to Gahanna, where she lived for almost 20 years and where she still works for the city. The U.S. Postal Service attaches a Columbus address to everything in 43230 because that's where the post office is, but it includes addresses in Gahanna. Still, she said, "All I need to do is see 43230 and my heart swells with pride."

Back in 1987, Upper Arlington city leaders promoting a "We Are UA" motto asked the post office to designate a branch for the suburb, which is served by post offices in Columbus. They wanted their own ZIP code.

It didn't happen, but Patty Gallagher, U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman, said letter-writers should feel free to write Upper Arlington, Bexley and Gahanna on their envelopes -- as long as they get the ZIP code right.

Dublin philanthropist Jeff Davidson said he's not particularly fond of his ZIP code. "Whether it's 43017 or 43568, who cares?" he said. "I think people look at it as a mail identifier. You've got to put it on the envelope to make sure it gets delivered quicker."

But, he added, "I'd love to see a competition between ZIP codes; 43207 outbids Upper Arlington, for example, in giving to the poor, which is my big thing."

Gahanna Mayor Becky Stinchcomb, like her counterparts in Upper Arlington, would love for Gahanna to have its own ZIP code, Camill said.

She added that American Idol winner Ruben Studdard's telephone area code "showed up on a T-shirt and people latched on to that." Camill sees similar potential for a ZIP-code T-shirt.

Bexley Councilman Mark Masser can't quite take the whole ZIP-code thing seriously, but jokingly said, "43209, I know it by heart now."

He said he'd wear a 43209 T-shirt, "but I guess I wouldn't play it in the lottery." And he'd prefer another number only "if it's 00001, something easy to remember."

But, he conceded, people do form an attachment for one reason or another. The number is ingrained in their memories. When they see listings by ZIP codes, they are drawn to theirs.

Developer Joe Ciminello doesn't see that. "Sure, I like my ZIP code," he said of his 43054 New Albany number.

Still, "I'm a numbers person, but an allegiance to a ZIP code never crossed my mind before," he said.

Former Marble Cliff Councilwoman Lynda Murray is another ZIP-code fan. "I love my ZIP code," she said of 43212.

Enough to wear it on a T-shirt? "That's a color question," she said, noting that whether it made fashion sense would depend on the shirt's color and logo.

And she professes no ZIP-code envy: "We are generous and we are willing to share our ZIP code with other communities."

Zone Improvement Plan codes were created in 1963 to keep postage costs down by allowing automation; postal workers no longer need to memorize just about everything mail-related.

In 1983, the Postal Service added four digits to ZIP codes, then 10th and 11th numbers in 1993.

But we'll leave those to the postal bar codes. We've run out of room on our T-shirt.

mrozenman@dispatch.com