Threadjacking!

[Smith]

I recently got to thinking how did the entire household functioned with 1 phone?
On the other hand,I miss saying the magic words: Tell them Im not here.

[I, Cosh]

I recently got to thinking how did the entire household functioned with 1 phone?
On the other hand,I miss saying the magic words: Tell them Im not here.

I can go one better than that. Our house functioned with no phones at all until my dad's work paid to install one about a week before I moved out to go to University.

[Smith]

Its not really a competition. 
Its just pretty weird to look back and contrast to now where 5 people have 9 numbers.Or it could be more,Im not sure.

[JayzusB.Christ]

444 was my family's original phone number. They don't make them like that any more.

[Smith]

Im not breaking any new ground here,I know...but all this tech that was supposed to make our lives easier made it a lot more complicated.

[The Legendary Shark]

Strange how smartphones had the potential to make work easier but somehow led to people working more. People can now climb off their partners, still panting and glistening with sex sweat, only to say, "I'll just email Geoff in Accounts about that P303/1440A form." People now work on the way to work, on the way home from work and lying naked in bed with an iPhone in one hand and a can of squirty cream in the other.

[TordelBack]

I swear to Grud, Sharky, you promised you'd taken all your damn cameras out.

[The Legendary Shark]

Never trust a shark

[CalHab]

Its not really a competition. 
Its just pretty weird to look back and contrast to now where 5 people have 9 numbers.Or it could be more,Im not sure.

Another to add to the not-competition (just as well, because I wouldn't win it).

I remember my student halls having one payphone between the hundred or so who lived in the block (and it wasn't really a problem). If I were to mention this to a student today, I suspect it would make me sound like some grizzled old timer.

[TordelBack]

As late as 1997 I did a job interview over the phone from an isolated coin-op payphone in a bog on the side of a hill overlooking Killala Bay. There was no phone at my then-job, and there was no phone in our house - I had to jog 2 miles there and back to fit it into my lunchbreak!  Got the job, mind, so maybe I should try that now...  although I didn't find out until the post arrived a week later. I got a mobile about a year later (lovely chunky Sony Ericsson) and it's been all downhill since.

Shoebox, gravel, mill owner, breadknife, dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah!

[Proudhuff]

For god's sake think of the children will you!

[Dandontdare]

When my Grandma finally got a phone put in, my Granddad wouldn't touch it. On the rare occasions he had to answer it he would hold it at arms length and shout, but could never hear the reply. While studying in the US in 1986 I was amazed that all the dorm rooms had telephones and that local calls were free - it felt so decadent ringing someone who was just a few doors down the hall, whilst nowadays, kids will text from the next room without a second thought.

[von Boom]

What I can't get over is how shit the phones sound now. I remember Christmas calls to thank relatives for the shoes, socks, and other items to keep us warm for the winter and the reception was very clear. It sounded as if they were next to you.

Now I take a call and as often as no I et bad rec ion or they so d very far away.

[Proudhuff]

eh?

[Dandontdare]

What I can't get over is how shit the phones sound now. I remember Christmas calls to thank relatives for the shoes, socks, and other items to keep us warm for the winter and the reception was very clear. It sounded as if they were next to you.

Now I take a call and as often as no I et bad rec ion or they so d very far away.

Try working in a call centre - we get unintelligible calls all the time, with crackles, bad reception, wind or traffic noise etc - and then they get really narky when you keep asking them to repeat things! Or they refuse to discuss personal information because they're in public - well I didn't ask you to call about your genital warts from the 8:15 to Paddington, did I?.