# Who remembers phone numbers? WORST XMAS EVAH! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 25, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666 "2018-12-25T04:23:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/1 "2018-12-25T04:23:54Z")
When your daughter and grandkids are due by 10am, but no phone call to pick them up from the station, and the hours go by, and you start panicking that something really awful has happened and you try ringing other contact numbers but nobody picks up… And they finally roll in the door by 2.45pm and the phone got lost in a cab last night hence why no call :smack: Please peeps, please have a little note in your purse/wallet with emergency phone numbers. I know we don’t remember numbers anymore, but phones DO get lost, and your loved ones really do love you and they sometimes DO go into mad-mumma-mode when you are out of range. Either that, or memorize my fucken phone number bitch. Simples. Merry fucken Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/2 "2018-12-25T04:47:36Z")
Seems a but odd. If she had lost the phone the night before… why not email you last night or this morning? Anyway, pretty much no excuse not to have your contacts synced to the cloud these days if you have a smartphone. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/3 "2018-12-25T04:50:44Z")
At least they’re safe. Count your blessings Momma-bear. It’ll be ok. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/4 "2018-12-25T05:06:27Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Seems a but odd. If she had lost the phone the night before… why not email you last night or this morning? > > Anyway, pretty much no excuse not to have your contacts synced to the cloud these days if you have a smartphone. Yeah, but you need a phone or device to access them, right? Just have a list of numbers in your wallet. Really, just do it. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/5 "2018-12-25T05:07:54Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > At least they’re safe. Count your blessings Momma-bear. It’ll be ok. It is now. I’m considering digging her up from the backyard where I buried her an hour or so ago, but I might just wait a bit, just to be safe. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/6 "2018-12-25T05:49:19Z")
You’re funny. I laughed outloud. I glad everyone is safe. My DIL called me one day to ask what my sons phone number. I couldn’t believe she didn’t know her own husband’s number. She knew mine. Amazing. Her phone was dead and she was calling from her office. It’s a good idea to have a few numbers written on actual paper, young people. I’m talking to you. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/7 "2018-12-25T06:45:53Z")
I have relatives that don’t know their own cell phone numbers …they just have me put it in and just hit contacts……… ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/8 "2018-12-25T07:21:29Z")
I don’t know, maybe I am some kind of super genius, but all the important phone numbers I need to know. I know. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/9 "2018-12-25T09:15:07Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > When your daughter and grandkids are due by 10am, but no phone call to pick them up from the station, and the hours go by, and you start panicking that something really awful has happened and you try ringing other contact numbers but nobody picks up… > > And they finally roll in the door by 2.45pm and the phone got lost in a cab last night hence why no call :smack: > > Please peeps, please have a little note in your purse/wallet with emergency phone numbers. I know we don’t remember numbers anymore, but phones DO get lost, and your loved ones really do love you and they sometimes DO go into mad-mumma-mode when you are out of range. > > Either that, or memorize my fucken phone number bitch. Simples. > > Merry fucken Christmas. Not fun. Almost 5 hours is a long time in these circumstances ☹ . > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I don’t know, maybe I am some kind of super genius, but all the important phone numbers I need to know. I know. I don’t know how old you are but I’m 44 and the time when we all knew at least 15-20 phone numbers by heart doesn’t seem so long ago. Smartphones have made me lazy but I still have about a dozen in my permanent memory. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/10 "2018-12-25T10:16:37Z")
I made my kids memorise my phone number. They are always forgetting their phones, losing their phones, forgetting to charge them, and it’s saved them many times to be able to call from someone else’s phone ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/11 "2018-12-25T12:58:44Z")
I literally only know one phone number now: my sister’s land line. That’s it, unless you count Jenny’s. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/12 "2018-12-25T13:46:11Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > I don’t know how old you are but I’m 44 and the time when we all knew at least 15-20 phone numbers by heart doesn’t seem so long ago. Smartphones have made me lazy but I still have about a dozen in my permanent memory. I now remember only about 4 or 5numbers by heart; one of the 4 is my childhood number _I’ve not called for more than 44 years!_ I wanted a cellphone number easy to memorize but numbers with, e.g., triple 9 are very expensive here. I explained this problem to the salesgirl who offered me, for only $13 or so, one of her several personal numbers, easy to memorize since it had four 0’s. For several months I got occasional hang-ups from confused males calling my number. :rolleyes: > [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > * * * > > _Mais je porte accroché au plus haut des entrailles > À la place où la foudre a frappé trop souvent > Un cœur où chaque mot a laissé son entaille > Et d’où ma vie s’égoutte au moindre mouvement_ * * * \*Puis les marmitons apportèrent les viandes Des rôtis de pensées mortes dans mon cerveau Mes beaux rêves mort-nés en tranches bien saignantes Et mes souvenirs faisandés en godiveaux Or ces pensées mortes depuis des millénaires Avaient le fade goût des grands mammouths gelés Les os ou songe-creux venaient des ossuaires En danse macabre aux plis de mon cervelet \* ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/13 "2018-12-25T13:57:35Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > I don’t know how old you are but I’m 44 and the time when we all knew at least 15-20 phone numbers by heart doesn’t seem so long ago. Smartphones have made me lazy but I still have about a dozen in my permanent memory. I’m older than you are, but I was never particularly good at memorizing numbers. I probably had only five to ten memorized at the time. Of those, I can still call my friend’s family in Salt Lake City, my mother’s old home number (but someone else would have that number), my sister, my deceased grandmother’s old number, and a few other numbers. Except for my sister, it’s all worthless. I made myself manually dial my wife’s number enough until I could memorize it. I never bothered with our seldom used landline and I have no idea anyone else’s number. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/14 "2018-12-25T14:02:47Z")
I wouldn’t have a clue what my landline number is. Now that my mother is dead no one ever calls me on it (apart from scammers) and I rarely call anyone. Apart from that my head is full of passwords to various sites- (can’t remember too much). Our previous landline was the same as a large local discount pharmacy - with two digits reversed. I ended up remembering their number as it was easier than promising people that their prescriptions were ready and to come and get themafter they called me. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/15 "2018-12-25T17:12:30Z")
The only phone numbers I have memorized are our number from when I was growing up (which I not only haven’t called in 30-ish years but the house of which nobody in our family has owned for more than a decade), my cousin’s number (because it was one digit off from that old family number), our old landline that we no longer have for this house, my own cell number, and my work switchboard number. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/16 "2018-12-25T17:23:09Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Yeah, but you need a phone or device to access them, right? If your synced to the cloud, then _any_ internet connection. For Apple, you just go to [icloud.com](http://icloud.com) and your contacts are there. Also “find my iphone”, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/17 "2018-12-25T17:25:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > The only phone numbers I have memorized are our number from when I was growing up (which I not only haven’t called in 30-ish years but the house of which nobody in our family has owned for more than a decade), my cousin’s number (because it was one digit off from that old family number), our old landline that we no longer have for this house, my own cell number, and my work switchboard number. I only know three: my personal cell number, the landline for my mom’s house where I grew up, and a pizza place that went out of business twenty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/18 "2018-12-25T19:10:01Z")
I too know 3. My sister’s LL (not that I’ve rung it since forever), my GRANDMOTHER’s LL, she went into care forty years ago, and my mobile #. BUT, I do have a little scrap of laminated card in my wallet with phone numbers if my phone goes walkabout. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/19 "2018-12-25T19:25:47Z")
I still have a few memorized from that ancient era before cell phones. A lot of them are now long-obsolete (people who have moved multiple times since then, or even died), but the most important one is my mom, who still has the same landline number as when I was growing up (it’s not technically a landline any more, but it still makes the phones ring that are hanging on the walls and wired up). ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666/20 "2018-12-25T20:13:58Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I don’t know, maybe I am some kind of super genius, but all the important phone numbers I need to know. I know. Sure, but how hard is it to memorise 911? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-remembers-phone-numbers-worst-xmas-evah/826666.md?page=2)