Anyone ever call a number to get the time?

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I never have. I find it to be the most bizarre thing. DH's grandmother (91) calls a local number about 10x a day to hear what time it is. I am not sure why..... She has plenty of clocks around her. She also lives in assisted living and there are so many people around, at least 3x a day to eat meals together. So she's not doing it to hear someone on the phone. And, being retired at an assisted living place that is incharge of all the times she does stuff she really doesn't have a reason to know what time it ever is. Just baffles me. I guess if she enjoys it, doesn't bother my life. I just never knew something like that existed today.

 

[wgeo]

I remember doing it a time or two when we were kids to "reset" the clocks and make sure we were accurate, didn't know it was still around.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Back before cell phones were connected to satellites we would use that number to make sure our clocks were correct. I think my parents did it about every few months since clocks have a tendency to start running slow.

I can’t imagine calling it multiple times a day but for your grandmother it may be a comfort thing as so many things have changed and it is harder to keep up with technology when you are older.

 

[Klayfish]

Yes, "back in the day". I didn't even know it was still a thing. We used to call a number to get an instant weather forecast too. I used to love doing that when I was a kid.

 

[ronandannette]

When I was a kid there was a local number to call for time and temperature (of course waaaay back before the internet). The number was the exact digits of our home phone only with the last two transposed. We often got dozens of calls a day and when the weather was bad or just after a DST shift it could be hundreds.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I never have. I find it to be the most bizarre thing. DH's grandmother (91) calls a local number about 10x a day to hear what time it is. I am not sure why..... She has plenty of clocks around her.

Habit and accuracy. Does she get charged for the calls? Does she do this instead of interacting with others, or calling family members?

 

[AppleDumpling]

Yes, there was a number for the time and another for the weather, though I don’t think I ever used them. I do remember as a kid calling the “dial-a-joke” number once in a while. Just something fun to do; you could hear a new joke every day.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Yep I bet it is just habit and the sense of consistency in her life. She talks to each of her children daily (thankfully they are all retired too!), so that is 3 people she calls each day. She doesn't pay for the calls as she has unlimited local calls on her landline. Ohhhh maybe she is making sure her clocks are working? She is starting to get a little forgetful so maybe she wants to check the clocks each day and doesn't remember she just called the number. Not like it's something horrible she's doing, not hurting anyone. Just I don't understand it.

 

[tvguy]

When I was a kid there was a local number to call for time and temperature (of course waaaay back before the internet). The number was the exact digits of our home phone only with the last two transposed. We often got dozens of calls a day and when the weather was bad or just after a DST shift it could be hundreds.

Well, not way before the internet. The time service was discontinued in September 2007, so a decade ago. You dial POPCORN here to get the time. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/29/business/fi-lazarus29

 

[Micca]

When I was a kid there was a local number to call for time and temperature (of course waaaay back before the internet). The number was the exact digits of our home phone only with the last two transposed. We often got dozens of calls a day and when the weather was bad or just after a DST shift it could be hundreds.

Wow, that's inconvenient! So you won't mind if I PM you for the time & Temp? I remember calling a number for the time just to check for accuracy. I know the internet and cell phones made the service superfluous but it seems like the time & temp phone went away even before those devices became ubiquitous. For some reason I still remember the phone number--which I haven't called for 35+ years.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Well, not way before the internet. The time service was discontinued in September 2007, so a decade ago. You dial POPCORN here to get the time. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/29/business/fi-lazarus29

I was going to post that I remember dialing popcorn....

 

[ronandannette]

Well, not way before the internet. The time service was discontinued in September 2007, so a decade ago. You dial POPCORN here to get the time. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/29/business/fi-lazarus29

I'm referring to the 70's, the time during which my anecdote occurred. The actual time and temperature number may still be in existence for all I know.

 

[Imzadi]

She doesn't pay for the calls as she has unlimited local calls on her landline.

She may have unlimited local calls from the phone company, but the company providing the time may charge a fee per call for their SERVICE. I remember we used to be able to call for the time & temperature when I was a kid. We had to stop because we'd be charged each time we called.

Check Grandma's bill to see if she's being charged. If she can afford it though, then let it go. Sound's like it's more of a comfort & habit to her now.

 

[wenrob]

Yep, back when it was (maybe still is?) 118. Not everything had a clock on it then and the one or two clocks that were around weren’t accurate. Can’t really remember when we stopped using it to check for accuracy but it was well into my adult years. Now we set everything by the iPhone or don’t set it all (I’m looking at you coffee pot and oven.) Even with the time on just about everything in this house my son asks Alexa cause apparently it’s too much trouble to turn his head and look up or over.

I’m a person who wants to know THE time not “about” the time. Maybe she is the same? As others have mentioned it probably gives her a sense of consistency.

 

[portocall]

When I was younger, yes. Especially on Christmas morning. We weren't allowed to wake up our parents before 7:30. I usually woke up at 3am and would call many times waiting for that magic time.

 

[Meriweather]

yep...many years ago

 

[msjprincess]

Yes when I was younger. Before cell phones and computers and time on tv boxes.... I think time was 976-1616 and weather was 976-1212.

 

[bcla]

As was noted, it was the 767 local phone prefix for me. The mnemonic was POP-CORN although as a bored kid I found that basically any last 4 digits after 767 accessed the same time information. All I got initially was "The time is XX:XX AM/PM and XX seconds" with a beep in repeating 10 second intervals. In other areas it was the same voice, but an additional "At the tone....". There were variations on it depending on the area. This one noted that it was Pacific Daylight Time and repeats it over. I recall that it tended to disconnect after maybe doing it 7 times.

At least here it was maintained by the local phone service, even though that eventually became AT&T. I don't know how many people actually use that any more since anyone can get VoIP or pay for alternate service with basically unlimited long distance.

I've used better systems these days, such as radio clocks/watches that accept a radio synchronization signal from the NIST atomic timekeeper in Colorado. It was kind of tricky because it didn't tend to accept the signal well except at night. I always had an option to resync at any time, but often it wouldn't capture the signal. And we all have phones and computers that automatically sync with a master time signal on the internet.

 

[bcla]

Yes when I was younger. Before cell phones and computers and time on tv boxes.... I think time was 976-1616 and weather was 976-1212.

976 was for premium services. Stuff like paid tech support or adult chat. Also the 900 area code.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Well, not way before the internet. The time service was discontinued in September 2007, so a decade ago. You dial POPCORN here to get the time. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/29/business/fi-lazarus29

Where we live it is still operated by AT&T. DH works for them and he always jokes his Grandma is the only one that probably still is keeping that line in usage as they probably think it's a lot of people. That's not his division and I told him to look up who does that area and call them to see exactly how many people use it. But I guess just a machine that goes off their server time so no real loss of money other then the telephone number they own. However, it's not the popcorn number it is something else so that's probably how it slid by AT&T and is still in their system as not mass eliminated when they got rid of it 10+ years ago.

She doesn't pay extra for this number. Back years ago when we'd be charged a few cents for a local call, she'd pay it