Anyone ever call a number to get the time?

[NotUrsula]

The called didn't adjust a clock; the caller did. Your clock was flashing 12:00AM, so you called the number to find out what time it really was, and re-set your clock to what the recording told you.

 

[BrianL]

I used to call it, but mostly to get the temperature. It told both time and temp. We did use it to reset clocks back in the day too. I don't know why one would need to call it 10 times a day though.

 

[bcla]

The called didn't adjust a clock; the caller did. Your clock was flashing 12:00AM, so you called the number to find out what time it really was, and re-set your clock to what the recording told you.

I thought the joke was that most VCRs flashed 12:00 since most people couldn't figure out how to set them. Still - I came home to many AC powered clocks where the power went out and it was flashing 12:00.

 

[mousefan73]

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.

As a kid I would have had a total blast with that. The wrong numbers calling our house asking for the time and weather

 

[runwad]

OMG I just asked DH if he remembered what number we used to call to get the Time and Weather. He did!!

(216)WE1 1212...first you listen to a little advertisement then they give you the time, then the weather, then a little forecast. Still operational here. Who'd of thought!

 

[tvguy]

I've never heard of POP-CORN. Growing up in Louisiana, the time/temp service was always provided by a local bank as a form of advertising. They always had a separate number for it, but it changed from town to town. We called it all the time; particularly after a storm outage, when we wanted to synch our clocks back again.

It makes a fair amount of sense for banks to have done it, seeing how many banks still have time/temp marquees on their buildings. (I still pass two of those on my daily commute.)

PS: Out of curiosity, I decided to see if my city still had a time/temp line, and it does. Just called it to verify. (These days it is sponsored by a law firm.) I also found this 4 yr old newspaper article about how the number of calls to it was declining: http://newwentzvillian.blogspot.com/2014/07/i-phones-are-killing-st-louis-time-and.html

Here you go. The POPCORN Lady.

 

[neverlandsky]

Yep the time and the current temperature years ago.

 

[MillauFr]

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.

Sounds like the Seinfeld Movie Phone episode.

 

[MsLeFever]

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.

I wonder if this lady wouldn't be a prime candidate for an Amazon Alexa! It could tell her the time and more!

 

[ChrisFL]

It's weird to think that people in college right now grew up where the internet was ALWAYS there. I mean I was in college when the internet began to really take off around 96-97, but I do remember the simpler time before that when people did call phone numbers to get the time.

 

[jeff_h]

Yes, 315 -797 - 6111 (local bank in upstate NY) -- used to call it all the time as kids, still working 50 years later...

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I remember that now! But I can't remember what the number was, people are saying its popcorn but I thought I remember dialing *-something, like *69 but a different number. That's so funny that it still exists

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I wonder if this lady wouldn't be a prime candidate for an Amazon Alexa! It could tell her the time and more!

It would be a great idea! Plus 92 year old Grandma is VERY hard to buy a gift for. I'm going to check with her assisted living home to make sure I could hook up to wifi. I mean I'm sure there are a lot of tech savvy people there that have tablets or laptops so you'd think they'd have wifi for the residents. Thank you!

 

[bcla]

I remember that now! But I can't remember what the number was, people are saying its popcorn but I thought I remember dialing *-something, like *69 but a different number. That's so funny that it still exists

Of course it was different depending on the area. I don't know if other local Bell System companies did it, but Pacific Telephone reserved the entire 767 prefix. I think when I looked it up in the phone book it said it was some other number like 767-1212, but every combination worked. I'm sure this was something that was done by all the Bell System affiliates, but I'm not sure what happened after the breakup of AT&T.

Anyone have another local telephone service (pre AT&T breakup) that was another company? For some reason I recall that a relative living in Southern California had phone service from GTE.

As for the original topic, the standard time recording seemed to be based on a recording made on a drum that rotated over 24 hours.

The temperature version seemed to have continuous recording where the outside sampled temperature is measured with a probe that generates a resistance. Then there was a slide resistor where the mechanism kept it where the resistances matched. The recording point along the drum would then match the temperature.