As soon as I was finished I blurted out, "Oh, my gosh - do you remember that? Do you remember how we used to "call time"? A wave of memories came over us as we recalled that this was something we all used to do. You'd pick up the phone and "call time" to get the correct time, and a recorded woman's voice would recite the current time down to - It think - the 15 second mark.
As I thought it over, I figured out why it was so common that we did this back then. We all had watches. Most had to be wound, and those with batteries would start to slow down. Wall clocks had batteries, most appliances didn't have batteries. The big thing was that we didn't have computers or our phones that keep totally accurate time - ALL the time. We also didn't have electronic readouts on every single appliance and electrical thing we owned.The bottom line was that in order to make sure that our watches and clocks were accurate, we had to "call time" to check them.
Now days all of our electronic devices are totally accurate and even change to the correct time zones as you travel.I found a great little article by a guy about it here:
http://littlenuances.blogspot.
And apparently, the service just completely and officially ended in a few years back...
http://www.switched.com/2007/
Wish I'd thought about about this before, I would have like to call and listen to the "time lady" one more time...
You could also call and get the weather. One day my cousin was over our house and showed me. That cost 50 cents but we didn't know it. So we took turns calling over and over; so much that when my folks got the bill later that month, there was a $15.00 charge on the bill.
ReplyDeleteJoe -
ReplyDeleteI don't remember being able to call for the weather. Good thing I didn't know about it or I might have made similar unintentional charges on our phone bill.
That couldn't have made your folks too happy. $15 back then wasn't anything to sneeze at!
I like your blog template, btw
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe -
ReplyDeleteDo you know if there's any way to add your own pictures as your background?
I can't figure it out and don't want to waste any more time trying to figure it out by myself...:)
You can add pictures to your footer and header areas. Also on the sidebar. They are permanent until you remove them.
ReplyDeleteLog in to your account, then on the dashboard page you'll see an orange logo with a pencil and next to it you'll see a page logo with an arrow next to it. Click on the arrow and scroll down to "layout".
You'll see "add a gadget" on the sidebar area, footer area, and header area. Click on "add an image" and you can choose a file either from your files or somewhere on the web.
I remember Dial-A-Joke was around then.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin and me got curious and called it and it was a recording of a corny old joke. We thought it was pretty neat and called it once a day for a month. We didn't know it cost about 75 cents a call.
My dad's head exploded when the phone bill came.
What was the number for time? I remember weather was 555-1212
ReplyDeleteThe time number was 844-1212 don't know if it was a different area code for everyone but mine was (410)
DeleteHey, Robin -
ReplyDeleteI am almost sure it was 411.
411 was for phone # information
DeleteTime was 811 information was 411
ReplyDeleteThe way the recording said "Exactly" was very funny, like "Eggz-ACT-Lee!" My cousins were visiting once -- they didn't have this service in their small town -- and called over and over just to listen to and imitate "Exactly".
ReplyDeleteWe've been grown now for several decades, but my one cousin remembers and imitates that recording to this day. And it still cracks both of us up!
Don't you love it when silly things from the past still make you crack up? Thanks for sharing! I don't actually remember the "Eggz-ACT-Lee", but I'm sure that you're right, and I would probably have laughed at it, too!
ReplyDeleteAgain - something today's kids will just never be able to appreciate...