A Classic I'm Sure Everyone Has Gotten

[Mike Taylor]

It baffles me that a cell phone user would not know their own cell number. It's programmed into the damn phone and you can access it! Even my little el cheapo LG Tracfone has this capability.

[sms001]

All of which reminds me of this, which is certainly true for me.

Jester's post covers much of what I would say. I can't believe how many phone numbers I had memorized up until mobiles came into general use. Many of them are with me to this day, although getting the area code right is sometimes a struggle. (Doesn't help that the longer stretches of my life were spent in 301, 314, and 312.)

Like any human faculty, it's use it or lose it; I doubt if I've made a friend in the past 10 years whose number I now know.

[bhskittykatt]

Oh boy, yeah. That was one of the most horrible things about working in that industry, people would put up such a fuss when they had to go out and get their license plate number. I was always amazed when someone actually had their plate # memorized. Most of the time if I wasn't busy I would just look outside and write it down myself after they checked in. I never worked in a huge resort type place so it was pretty easy to just get it that way.

A guest told me her friend once had her car stolen, and she had to call the insurance first to get the plate # before she could pass that info to the police, which is why she took the time since then to always memorize her plate number.

Easiest way to do it: turn the letters into an acronym for something. My last plate had "YJP", and my coworker took one look and declared "You jerkin' pussy!" It stuck in my mind and that was how I recalled my plate number from then on.

[emax4]

I had the same method of memorization, so the "GZP" on my license became "G-Zip".

[Chromatix]

I can easily recall the number plates of two vehicles my dad *used* to drive, but doesn't any more. Then again, he did keep them for a very long time each. I'm a bit fuzzy about two others.

[Sapphire Silk]

A pyschologist friend of mine told me this gem:

He asks his patients (who are usually juveniles) for their Mom's phone number.

Kid: Seven.

Friend: Seven what?

Kid: Just seven. It's seven.

As in, seven on the speed dial. His kids often do not know their own phone numbers, and just associate it with where it is on their speed dial list; they actually think that's their phone number.

[wolfie]

him -(rattling it off quickly, and BTW it was the correct one) 123-456-789

Definitely not the correct number - in North America, phone numbers are either 7 (no area code) or 10 (with area code) digits, so a 9 digit number can't be right.

And I'd go and do the adult thing, and look at my fucking plate. Not all that tough, honestly.

I *HATE* when people at Customs have to get out to check their plate number, holding up the line. The Customs officer should "feed them to the DOT", since the other end of the bridge they just crossed is in Ontario, and it's a requirement in Ontario to have both the tractor and trailer plate numbers in your log to identify the equipment. It's VERY rare for someone to have exactly ONE violation in their log book, so even though the missing plate number is not a violation in the jurisdiction they're entering (and therefore can't be ticketed by that jurisdiction's DOT), there's bound to be something "interesting" for the DOT to find.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I know my own number but.... No one else's. I haven't had a land line in 15 years, and everyone's number is programmed into my cell phone.

I got mugged in Alberta a couple years ago (not hurt, lost purse) and realized I didn't even know my parents number, my brothers, work, no one. I ended up having to call my friends parents, who haven't moved in 45 years, and whose number I remember from dialing several times a week as a kid. Her mom called her, she called my brother, he called my mom, and she called me back at the police station to get me faxes of Id to get new car keys etc.

I now have memorized a dozen numbers of people I can call in a cell phone emergency!

[Sapphire Silk]

I got mugged in Alberta a couple years ago (not hurt, lost purse) and realized I didn't even know my parents number, my brothers, work, no one.

I now have memorized a dozen numbers of people I can call in a cell phone emergency!

Wow. Glad it all turned out OK.

And honestly, I could end up in the same boat some day. I can never remember my brother's phone number . . . I rarely call him (we communicate via email). He lives in Maryland. I live in North Carolina.

My best friend, OTOH, I can whip out her number without thinking twice about it. So she'll probably get the call in an emergency before Brother will.

[Jetfire]

I've had my cell number for a couple years now, and I still ahve to double check it now when I give it out. Usually I do say The Line, but it's more of a filler as I'm frantically looking for my Memo App to find the Memo I've got it jotted down on.

I remember mom's cellphone number and my parent's home phone number since they've had those for almost decades now. Most other numbers however, I'd be looking them up either on my phone or in gmail.

Hell even my address, I have to do a double take to find my postal code since I know it's one of two but I can't remember which is mine and which is my parents. In which case I flip my wallet open and check my license to be sure.

[Jester]

Hell even my address, I have to do a double take to find my postal code since I know it's one of two but I can't remember which is mine and which is my parents.

I usually remember my zip code wherever I live, but here in KW I have an advantage. Not that I've lived here 14 years, but that the entire town has the same zip code!

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Me: Can I get your name, sir?
SC: I don't know, I don't talk to myself.
Me: Ok, what is it that people call you when they talk to you?

"Oi, you idiot!"
Not the right answer?

[DeltaBladeX]

"My phone number? One minute please."

*time to phone mum*