When I need to know the time, I whip out my phone. That’s exactly what I did when I was a kid as well: I’d whip out the phone. That was decades before cell phones existed.
\n
\nOkay, it wasn’t a “whipping out” action, but I’d use the family phone — the one affixed to the wall in the kitchen — to determine the current time.<\/p>\n
I’ve never been a watch person. My aunt bought me a watch for my 10th birthday. I felt obligated to wear it everywhere, until it broke. I’ve shunned watches ever since, although occasionally I get one as a gift, I’m just used to asking someone else for the time, or finding a convenient clock.<\/p>\n
With the dawn of the smartphone, I no longer have to ask; the phone keeps accurate track of the time. So when I need to know the time, I whip out my phone, unlock it, check email, then lock it and put it back in my pants.<\/p>\n
Then I remember that I forgot to check the time, so I whip out the phone again, check the time, lock it and put it back in my pants.<\/p>\n
Our old kitchen phone kept track of the time when I was a kid as well. To set a clock, we’d call the Time Lady.<\/p>\n
That wasn’t her name, of course. Still, we would dial 853-1212 on our family’s phone to call her. The number would ring, and then a recorded voice would say, “At the tone the time will be, 12:52 and sixteen seconds. BEEP<\/em>!”<\/p>\n The official name for the service is the speaking clock<\/em>. The number dialed varied. Sometimes it was POPCORN, or 767-2676. Where I grew up in San Diego, the number was 853-1212. That was one of the rare phone numbers I actually memorized.<\/p>\n Rumor has it that office workers would often call the Time Lady just before 5:00 — quitting time. That way their lines would be busy should should a new call come in and they wouldn’t have to stay after work. I don’t know whether or not that’s true.<\/p>\n In the US, most local land line providers no longer offer the speaking clock service; it was discontinued a few years back. You can, however, still call the Time Lady, although it’s not always a lady. The US Naval Observatory operates a time service you can call: +1 202 762 1069. A man (most probably a computerized voice) reads the time.<\/p>\n Feel free to dial that number, listen to the time, and reminisce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anyone remember the Time Lady?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6465,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6430\/revisions\/6465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}