Question of the Day, Friday, March 10

Good morning!  And Happy Friday!  I'm ready to get out of here today.

Remember when we had the old rotary phones and you had to memorize phone numbers? Or look them up in the phone book? Well, for many of us, those days are gone; our cell phones store all our numbers for us and we don't even have to think about it anymore. I pick up my phone and push the button for Sandy and it calls my sister. In the car, I press a button, say, "Call Sandy" and it automatically dials her number. I've lost the memory of many phone numbers now. I have to stop and think about some of them. However, I can still remember my parents' old phone number and Rick's parents' number. Of course, I remember our home number as well as Rick's cell phone and my cell number. If I really had to think about them, I could probably remember some others.

So my question this morning is: Do you still remember phone numbers or have you become dependent on your cell phone?

I sure do remember the old rotary phones.

I also remember actually going to a friend's house to see if they were home and wanted to go out and play. Those days are over too. DD finds that whole concept shocking. 

I do remember some numbers. Not many though. It's not like the good old days where you actually have to dial it though. Even if I dial DD's number on my phone, it brings her up from the directory

Oh, I remember the old rotary phones (and some phone numbers from the good old days when we had one). The days when I bothered memorizing phone numbers are long gone, though there are a few important ones I manage to recall in a pinch.

I do remember old rotary phones.. and when u messed up u had to start all over again! And the joy of hanging up on someone.. cant do that anymore.. hahah Phone numbers.. i dont even know mine i have to look every time! i do remember ours growing up.. all us kids do.. 874-5252 we had that # my whole life .. not anymore.. Phone books when they r delivered are a foreign concept to my nieces and nephews.. they think its an amazing waste of paper// 

We had rotary phones, AND a 'party line', remember those?! I am very dependent on my phone now for new numbers, but still remember my 'old' numbers of long ago. The new phones do not let us, or force us. memorize numbers, so it is a good idea to keep important ones written down somewhere. I still have an old 'bag' phone from the 70's, one of the first cell phones!

OMGosh, we had a party line, too! And everybody used to listen in to everybody else's conversations! I walked in on Mom one afternoon and she immediately shushed me....she was listening in on a neighbor's phone call. I went across the street to my friend's house; we were all on the same line, and his mom shushed me....she was listening in, too! 

My mother was probably one of the last people to give up her old rotary phone. :lol3:

Frequently dialed numbers I definitely remember, but cell phone numbers of people I don't call very often I don't' remember.

I remember the rotary phone, too, and I'm not even that old My parents had two old rotary phones when I was growing up. One was a blue-ish green (I think) that hung on the kitchen wall like this one. The other was a table top beige one that was given to us by a great-uncle and still had his phone number on a piece of paper in this little slot above the dial.

I can remember a few numbers but only because I've been using those numbers since I was a kid so they're kind of stuck in memory now

I remember the old rotary phones and party lines as well.  I don't remember phone numbers anymore.  I gave up my landline about 10 years ago and only have a cell phone.  I don't understand why they still deliver phone books either, they don't seem to come nearly as often as they used to.  I know some elderly people probably still use them.  We have 4 main supermarket chains here now, seems like they could put some in those stores for people to pick up if they  want one.

I remember rotary phones! I remember my parents first telephone number. We did not have a party line, but I remember hearing about them, and the jokes. 

I do know a few telephone numbers, but not many. It is kind of sad that we are so dependent on electronic things instead of our brains. 

Telephone Books!! man, who really uses them?  I have on a few occasions, when I need an address for someone whom I cannot find on the web, but that is about it. 

A lot has changed over the past 10 years or so. 

Hehe, I saw a comic where the person saw the delivery guy delivering phone books and asked "what are those?" The delivery guy told him that it was a list of addresses and phone numbers. He said "you know we have the internet for that now, right?". And the delivery guy goes back to the phone book offices and says "guess what I just learned, you guys!"

But alas, several companies still deliver them. The mail carriers hate them and they pay very little in postage so it hardly seems worth it.

I remember my parents' phone number and maybe a couple others. The rest, no way.

The only phone numbers I know by memory are:

Mine - cell

Tom's - cell

My rotary phone number growing up in Brooklyn last used 1969 (NI6-1483)

My rotary phone number when we moved to NJ last used around 1979 (739-0038)

The rest is a blur. Yes, totally cell phone reliant.

I remember some numbers: 

my own

both of my daughters'

my son-in-law's

my ex's

about 4 or 5 numbers from my old job

Otherwise, nope.  I rely totally on my cell phone.  I need to insert my vet's number into my memory lobe somehow, though.

This reminds me of something that happened to me a few days ago.  I tried to get a copy of my free credit report and one of the questions was a phone number that used to be mine.  There was one that kind of looked familiar to me and I couldn't get my report because the system couldn't verify me.  I know it was that silly phone number question.  

Gosh, I remember those days growing up, where my friends, classmates and I would be able to remember on average 5-10 numbers effortlessly by heart   and often with a sense of pride, showing off to each other.



Nowadays of course, I no non by heart other than my own phone number!





 

Yes I do remember those phones. I had many numbers memorized. Fast forward now-I still remember my old home #. My sisters. My ex and prior apartment #. Now I haven't remembered numbers in a while. I know Jon's sort off-it's so different than mine that I have to recheck the number.

We didn't have party line. I wasn't one for the phone other than a few people. I much preferred face to face.

Willowy said:

Hehe, I saw a comic where the person saw the delivery guy delivering phone books and asked "what are those?" The delivery guy told him that it was a list of addresses and phone numbers. He said "you know we have the internet for that now, right?". And the delivery guy goes back to the phone book offices and says "guess what I just learned, you guys!"

But alas, several companies still deliver them. The mail carriers hate them and they pay very little in postage so it hardly seems worth it.

Click to expand...

We get tons of phone books delivered annually & I don't know why. You wouldn't believe how many are stacked outside my street's apartment buildings. Frontier delivers white pages and yellow pages. Then we get another yellow pages, but not from the phone company. It's insane because the average person does not use them!

Winchester said:

So my question this morning is: Do you still remember phone numbers or have you become dependent on your cell phone?

Click to expand...

I don't remember any phone number, including my cell phone, except for my house phone number that we've had since the early eighties.


When my husband first met me in NYC he was very anxious to get my phone number. After much pestering, I finally relented and gave him the first 3 digits (after the 212 area code) and told him to figure out the rest. He never did, but he was thrilled to get them. [emoji]128526[/emoji]

Yes, I remember rotary phones (though I think we had a push button one growing up). I still remember my childhood phone number!

These days, I'm much worse at remembering numbers (doesn't help that my memory is totally shot :slant: ), but I know a few: home, dad's mobile(cell), possibly my own (not 100% on that one), bizarrely the number to mum's old mobile (but not her current one :rolleyes). Those are the only ones that spring to mind.

i don't have a cell phone, i have a landline phone. i used to have a cell phone, but when i moved out here (to 'the sticks') found that we don't have cell towers close enough. the little hamlet i live in, you see people out on their front porches in their bathrobes or whatever they're wearing at the time, in the middle of winter, during the day or at night, talking on their cell phones -- because we don't get cell reception in our houses here.

i remember the phone number from when i was a kid. i know my phone number, and several other numbers. mostly, i don't commit things, including phone numbers, to memory. i try to reduce that, so that i'm able to remember the important things more easily. i figure that my brain has been committing things to it's memory for over 50 years now, and there's gotta be a limit to available space there!