There’s a legal practice here. I cannot remember their name but the ad says: “need an attorney? dial 8”
I can retain that. Maybe.
“How many phone numbers do you have memorized?”
From my teen and young adult years, probably a dozen. None in service any longer.
New numbers from this century and the previous one? None.
Your young years were in the nineteenth century? You go girl!
I do for some numbers, PINs too. But not all, some I remember by singing them in my mind.
I remember quite some old numbers: my parents’ number from the '70s and '80s, my number from last century, and some friends from back then too. Those are useful for passwords as an add on to some randow word, that keeps them in my active memory, and I can’t think of how somebody could find them out today.
Active numbers? My own mobile (there I use the finger motions thing), my wife’s (I sing this one), and I think that’s it. We no longer have a landline and I call my wife, and then mostly nobody. Perhaps once a week, if at all, to make appointments and stuff like that. I no longer like using my phone since my hearing went south.
I also know 112, the emergency number, but I have never used it. The old emergency number, 110 (091 in Spain) I know too and haven’t used either.
My cell
My mom’s and dad’s numbers
My wife’s number (we started dating when smart phones were ubiquitous, but she gave me crap until I had her number memorized)
My grandpa’s cell number
So five
Yes. It’s how I remember my brother’s number.
Other than that, I know my own cell number, my former landline number, and the main number for work. Oh, and the number and address of the house we lived in when I started school. They made us memorize them.
Very few current numbers. The numbers for both of my (adult) kids. I’m struggling to think of any others, family, friend, or commercial, and coming up empty. I ALMOST know the number for my church office, but whether it ends in 2280 or 8220 is a bit of a mystery.
I do remember: my phone number growing up; the number of my best friend, who moved away in 1973; the numbers of two sets of aunts/uncles/cousins; the numbers for the sports hotlines for the both the Sun-Times and the Daily News…
On my way to somewhere else I inadvertently drove past their headquarters. Very weird place.
I only have my current cell phone and my previous land line memorized. Thankfully I have my relatives’ and friends’ numbers saved on my computer, phone, and paper. When I go on a long road trip I make sure I have a printout of them in my glove box.
And the only reason I still have my land line memorized is that it was a sequence that was easy to remember, consisting of a fairly round number followed by repeating digits, otherwise I would have forgotten it as well.
I’m actually surprised at the number of users that still have land lines.
The point about recognizing numbers versus recalling them rings true for me, and the ex-wife list test is a clever way to put it. Mine is a short list too: my own, my parents’ landline from growing up (long disconnected), and the main office number where I work, which is one of those deliberately easy ones. Like you, I’ve noticed the work number is nearly useless without an extension. Funny how the old landlines stick around in memory while current friends’ mobiles never quite take hold.
Not really. The old landlines usually didn’t have any way to autodial, so repetition lead to memorization. With mobile phones you dial exactly once and then give it a name.
And welcome to The StraightDope!
Less than I used to.
Back in the day, I remembered my phone number, my parents’ home phone, both their cell numbers, my brother’s cell, both of my grandparents’ home phone numbers, my aunt and uncle’s home phone numbers as well as a few close friends’ phone numbers. That’s not even going into work-related numbers/extensions, of which there were a dozen or so. This would have been prior to about 2001 or so.
Now that I have a cell phone that records all that and I have in my pocket, I remember my own number, my wife’s number, and my work cell number, as well as my parents’ home number and my brother’s cell. Beyond that, I do actually remember my buddy’s cell number, despite never having actually typed it in over two decades. When I just thought about it, it popped into my mind, and I double-checked it against my phone.
And I remember our old house phone number from kindergarten. It changed about a year later, so 1979 or so? Weird. I also remember my dorm room cell number for my first dorm room in 1991. Don’t really remember any of the other dorm rooms or apartments, but I recall that one. Can’t remember any office work numbers, not even the one that I had a year ago.
911
my wife’s cell phone
a high-school friend’s phone that I haven’t actually dialled since the late '70s (I also still remember his SSN, though I haven’t written a letter to him since the early '80s)
I have five numbers memorized, I can also remember two that are no longer active.
I remember my own cell, work, and 3 relatives. That’s 5.
I can normally find the number I need under Recents or Contacts.
I used to have about 12 memorized. I also had a list typed and folded to carry in my wallet.
Cell phones eliminated my need to carry numbers.
Okay. Gotta ask why you knew, let alone memorized, your friend’s SSN. Were you helping him with job or loan applications?
Board skews older and contrarian. Shouldn’t be that surprising.
My guess is his friend was either in the military or penitentiary.
Anyone else grow up in a Boston suburb? “How many cookies did Andrew eat? ANdrew 8 8000,” I’m not sure what the company did or sold (possibly rugs?) but they advertized heavily on the channel I used to watch some after school show on.
Close~rug cleaning.
- The Phone Number: “Andrew 8” translated to the rotary exchange 268 in South Boston, making the number 268-8000 (later 617-268-8000 with area codes). [1, 2]
- The Voice: The classic radio commercials and jingle were voiced by Judy Valentine. [1]
- The Company: Adams and Swett was founded in Boston in 1856 and later absorbed by Superior Rug Cleaning, remaining a well-known piece of Greater Boston advertising history. [1, 2]