Posted on 05/22/2024 6:40:22 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Alas, the poor phone book.
Once, it was the cornerstone of American connection, an indispensable resource people relied on to find pizza shops, plumbers, and the number of the cute girl in math class.
But now, when a new phone book lands on a homeowner’s doorstep, the tome most often gets tossed in the recycling bin.
They might be used to press flowers, or as a booster seat or a door stop, but fewer and fewer phone books are used for what they were originally intended, to look up telephone numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at thealmanac.net ...
Definitely, I wish we still had one.
I miss the Yellow Pages, because it was easier to find types of businesses in the area. “Find X near me” on the internet doesn’t always give me everything. If I need the number of a particular business, though, the internet is better.
The moderne phone booth, 2017.
I used to advertise in about 8 or 9 phone books, 2 big Yellow Pages and a lot of smaller more localized books.
It was this exact model in the living room except that I had a working pay phone in it.
little old ladies need them to see over the steering wheels of course
My grandfather had phone number 7 in Verdi, NV, a suburb of Reno. I’m betting their phone book was an index card in those days.
I can actually remember reading the Chicago phone book enthusiastically as a child. I was fascinated by so many names and the way they changed in one or two letters, then in bigger ways. Also by the way some names went on for pages and others were just a few lines.
Wonderful way to stay out of trouble.
I can’t remember my phone number today without looking at my cellphone, but I’ll always remember the phone number of my youth.
Get Smart - Operator - Jim Croce
https://youtu.be/nu1y1VWjM54
I remember when phones were hung up on a wall, usually the kitchen. Open the nearest cupboard door and the inside of that door would be full of phone numbers jotted down.
I just got one in the mail TODAY. No residential listings, but still a phone book.
I used to work for a phonebook company.
Can’t believe it took 22 posts.
This.
My business ownership started at the tail-end of the yellow pages cartel, so I can only imagine what business owners had to deal with years before me, but I think I can imagine.
It was so surreal and ridiculous that it still makes me chuckle - again, thanks mainly to fact that I started in a world where the yellow pages were rapidly becoming pointless.
The “sales rep” I... “worked” with was a complete joke. I was just looking for numbers/metrics and asking things that are frankly, bog standard (at least nowadays) and he got all pissy and eventually, even said - this is a salesman, mind you - “Fine, the price just went up on your block”.
This was in the 90s, not the 80s - so I’m still pretty happy with my response: So be it, Don SoonToBeObsolito - my offer is nothing.
...and it was... and it didn’t matter.
I grew up with big, thick phonebooks and I get the nostalgia.... but I don’t miss them.
Uh uh……not ADA approved .
.
I get a really thin phone book that’s pretty much worthless once or twice a year. I tried to opt out of getting them but the company wanted so much personal information that I halted that process. So they continue to go straight into the trash can as soon as they arrive.
Just got the new one about a month ago.
I’ve long thought that old yellow pages would be a major reference in figuring out the ebb and flow of businesses in a region. Especially if digitized and put in a database.
This is not on my home computer which has a VPN and a few other security features but on my work computer.
I haven’t seen one in a decade at least. Glad they don’t waste money publishing them anymore.
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