You know you're getting old when...


 
Ah yes, phone numbers. The good ol' days when the only people that called you were JUST THE ONES YOU GAVE YOUR PHONE NUMBER TO.
 
Was sitting there thinking the other day, so far I have been alive for 13 different presidential administrations. Seven of those are multi term presidents.
 
I seem to recall we had a "party line" at one of the houses I lived in. We moved a lot and I don't' think I even knew the phone number when I lived there, much less now.
I grew up with a party line, and tried high speed modem communications at 2400 baud with it (early USRobotics full length ISA card.) The telco really screwed up with the party line. Line crew came into the yard and started taking down the overhead line. So, when is the crew coming in for the private line. Oh, it's already plowed in. Uh, no, it's not. Yup, no dial tone in the house. Because they'd gotten so far into it, they ended up stringing it over the root to get service back.

A couple of months later, my parents came back into the yard to find ANOTHER crew finishing taking down the line. Sure as shootin', no dial tone, and it was too late to string the line, even the poles were down and the crew didn't have an auger truck. Unfortunately, Dad had just saw a car full of suits with the telco logo on the side. They got an earful. A crew was out in a couple of days to actually plow in the line.

Come to find out, the telco had subbed out the private line installation, and the sub just marked it as completed, took the check and ran. No idea, and really don't care what happened to them, but I'd bet not much, or that wouldn't have happened in the first place. BTW, all of this took place in the late 80's.
 
You're definitely getting old if you remember the Selective Service.

Anyone still remember their number. Mine was 44048212. Funny how us old fogies can remember things from several decades ago, but not what happened 3 hours ago.
I remember registering, no idea what my number was.
 
A little British humour:

A group of guys, all turning 40, discussed where they should meet for lunch.
Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because the waitresses had big boobs and wore mini-skirts.

Ten years later, at age 50, the friends once again discussed where they should meet for lunch.
Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because the waitresses were attractive. The food and service was good and the beer selection was excellent.

Ten years later, at age 60, the friends again discussed where they should meet for lunch.
Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and quiet with no loud music, and it was good value for money.

Ten years later, at age 70, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch.
Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a toilet for the disabled.

Ten years later, at age 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch.
Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because they had never been there before.
 
You're definitely getting old if you remember the Selective Service.

Anyone still remember their number. Mine was 44048212. Funny how us old fogies can remember things from several decades ago, but not what happened 3 hours ago.
I was in college when the draft lottery was instituted. Those of us who got high numbers dropped our student deferments and got new draft cards. One of my buddies thought he would be cute and burn his old draft card, which he did, making a great show of it. "Hey, look! I'm burning my draft card!" His roommate picked up his "new" draft card off the desk, looked at it, and said "you sure are - this is your old one here." The poor guy spent the next few weeks in fear, certain that the FBI would come knocking on his door.
 
I still remember having a party line in Chicago as a kid. Also our phone number only had 6 characters. AV(enue)-2347 IIRC, than it became AV(enue)2-2347 and no more party line, which meant my little sis and I could no longer listen to the neighbors phone calls LOL
 
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