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 ...
I have had that happen too.
How Adam West played a prank using his local phone book
https://boingboing.net/2017/06/10/how-adam-west-played-a-prank-u.html
I know my phone number, but nobody else’s. When I was a kid I knew so many friends numbers (and still do). I still remember mine as a kid too.
There aren’t a lot of numbers or passwords I remember, but I DO remember my mouseketeer number, 242001. Those were the days. You could date someone by whether or not they remembered Captain Video’s secret decoder ring.
When I was a kid we had two phone books.
One book was the regular one and was a directory
of the names....
The other was a directory of the actual numbers in numerical order so if you had someone’s number you could look in that book and get their address and name.
Free firestarter, delivered for free.
I guess I’m a better web surfer than you are.
But it must be rough to be a kid these days. If you want that cute girl’s phone number you might find it on a website but you have to pay.
” Open the nearest cupboard door and the inside of that door would be full of phone numbers jotted down.”
“’Cause my uncle took a message, and he wrote it on the wall”
The first phone book was a single page printed in New Haven, Connecticut. It listed about 15;people and businesses.
We stopped receiving them shortly after I got good at tearing them in half with my bare hands.
if the only source of information is digital, it is easier to control the information/the people
We stopped getting them when the county discovered the recycle bins they handed out were useless - probably had phone books as the only recyclables for 2 years before ending the program...
“Find X near me” on the internet doesn’t always give me everything”.
.
The internet also doesn’t keep up with local businesses that have closed shop—or recently moved.
What happened? Chuck Norris ripped them in half. All of them. At the same time.
I STILL GET A PHONE BOOK.
I STILL USE IT.
I ONLY HAVE LAND LINE
LOOK ON YOUR POWER BILL
The kitchen of the farm I was raised on...1940’s—1950’s.
MY Dad could never REMEMBER his number-—
HE said “I NEVER CALL MYSELF”.
I did. But the power bill was filed in the office which is down stairs and very dark so I tried the phone book which was upstairs and near the oil lamp first.
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