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Why, the phone book, of course. Usually the yellow pages, if you were in a reasonably sized metropolis. Nobody used a dictionary; I can’t imagine where this mis
by drfuchs 8y ago
Why, the phone book, of course. Usually the yellow pages, if you were in a reasonably sized metropolis. Nobody used a dictionary; I can’t imagine where this misinformation came from.
The advantage of using a phone book was that a new one was delivered, completely for free, every year, so you just had to hang on to an old one if you were particularly fastidious, and otherwise just used the current one. And they were softbacks, so were more comfy to sit on than a hardback dictionary. Not to mention that not all households had a dictionary, while I seem to recall that the market penetration of landlines was something like 98% of American households (with subsidization for poorer folks) and they all had phone books; both were pretty much necessary to carry on a normal life.
Now, let me tell you about paper roadmaps, and how they were available for free at pretty much all gas stations (though the ones at Esso were considered the best), on a little rack near the door. No problem perusing the selection while your gas was pumped and oil checked by the attendants. (And there was no food or candy available to buy, so your other options for amusement were pretty limited).
- bunderbunder 8y agoWe used the dictionary. It was three inches thick, while the phone book was less than half an inch.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- js2 8y agoWe definitely used the phonebook in Miami. Between the white pages and mulitple yellow pages there was enough stack height for several kids. And my mom would've killed us if we sat on her books. Speaking of road maps, my first real road trip, early 90s, I used a AAA TripTik. I’m glad not to need that anymore, but there’s still a place in the world for paper maps.
- newsbinator 8y agoStill not sure if the hours I spent as a kid scrolling down the names in the phone book and deciphering the foreign-sounding ones were well spent.
- DonHopkins 8y agoThat's how Will Wright came up with the cheat codes for SimCity 2000, when he found the silliest names in the phone book of Mr. Porntips and Mr. Guzzardo.
- l0b0 8y agoOh man, phone books. It's so weird that those are still delivered to possibly millions of households world wide. Why not save the environment a bit by asking to get off their delivery list?
- wool_gather 8y agoI don't think it's possible to "get off their delivery list"; they just get dropped on the stoop/porch/entryway, one for each mailbox. It's not like they're ever addressed to anyone personally.
- cgriswald 8y agoConveniently, mine is tossed lazily onto my driveway within reach of the recycling bin.
- drewmol 8y agoFor the younger readers, phonebooks were the ad supported contact directories that preceded search engines. They were forcefully delivered to just about any address with a landline across the country (typicaly yearly, sometimes by multiple publishers). People found alternate uses for them.
- planteen 8y agoDoes anyone else still get phone books? I've never had a landline but still get one dropped off at my door annually in Denver. It goes straight to the recycling bin.
- DiffEq 8y agoWe can't keep phone books around after my sons and I learned to rip them in half. We even glean them from neighbors and co-workers...