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Post by bazfaz on Jul 5, 2010 7:49:14 GMT
I was driving to pick up Mrs Faz from the airport yesterday when a useless memory came into my head for no reason. In 1963 I shared an office in London with a man called Tony. Each afternoon Tony would ring his wife. We couldn't dial out but had to give the switchboard the number. "SILverthorn 3283," Tony would say. (Only the first three letters of the exchange were dialled)
Why do I remember his telephone number 47 years later?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2010 10:17:44 GMT
I remember phone numbers from childhood that are worthless/useless to me now. Dozens of them.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 5, 2010 15:10:19 GMT
treinta y tres, ochenta, zero, tres
That's the phone number of our house in Madrid, drilled into us kids when we moved there in 1955.
When I was living in Oaxaca (in the city) my phone number nagged at me with its vague familiarity. It was my son who recognized that the second part was the same as where I used to work.
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 5, 2010 17:31:24 GMT
I remember the licence number of our car when we moved to Britain in 1947: JMA 339.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 13:19:38 GMT
I remember having to write to
Ministère des Affaires Etrangères 3 avenue de Lowendal 75007 Paris
to obtain a "non-repudiation" certificate when I turned 21. Why would that address stick in my mind after all these years when I have forgotten so many others?
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Post by tillystar on Jul 8, 2010 15:27:55 GMT
When my grandma had got to the stage that she didn’t remember any of us or what had happened 5 minutes ago my Mum had a call from a lady who said my grandma had been calling her in the evening to check she was OK and say goodnight. That lady had the number that had been my great-grandma’s number 30 years earlier. Her memory loss was because of alzheimers and so different but still was amazed she remembered that number when she didn’t remember so much.
I remember 01 856 3258 – the number of a boy who I ***loved***, they stopped the 01 code for London in 1990.
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 8, 2010 16:15:35 GMT
I remember B145UPP, the number of the second hand car I bought in about 1988. I don't know the complte number of our current car - only the 476 in the middle.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2010 0:09:06 GMT
Wow -- you all remember some long numbers.
When I was working I had to use a long code number to get into the account for paying taxes. One day I realized that I'd memorized it. I hate doing that, as I'm always afraid something will edge out my atm number. When I was watching Lost, I had to stop looking or listening every time Hurley's numbers came up.
My husband's great grandmother lived to be 103. At some point as she advanced in age, she forgot English and could only speak her native Norwegian. The staff at the nursing home were distressed because she wanted to wash floors. The family said to let her do it, if that's what she wanted. Then the staff was distressed because the old lady insisted on doing it on her hands and knees.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2010 6:42:41 GMT
I still remember some of the PIN numbers from long gone bank cards (and we can't choose our own PIN code here). Luckily most of the others have been wiped away.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 13, 2010 23:02:57 GMT
bixa, that was REAL floor washing.
Opposite me there is a huge early-20th century building that was a telephone exchange - all the 27 something numbers in Montréal 271 to 279). The operators are long gone, and there are actually people in the zone with unrelated numbers as they ran out of 27 ones.
I remember many such codes, but don't even want to think about them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2010 7:04:42 GMT
I sometimes get visions of the walk home from school when I was about ten years old: turn left after the tracks, take the right fork, pass the pine grove, etc... Nothing the least bit nostalgic about it, just an itinerary imprinted forever in my brain.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2012 10:38:57 GMT
I remember far too many zip/postal codes from the past -- for example, my home town 39560.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2012 10:50:32 GMT
I remember far too many zip/postal codes from the past -- for example, my home town 39560. I as well. The ones in NY start with the number 1 and I remember almost all the ones from the surrounding villages where I grew up. Although,after the first number,there is no continuity about them and it always unnerved me. I also remember telephone area codes from all over although, so many of them have changed. For instance,212, which was all of Manhattan, is virtually nonexistent. Anyone with a 212 area code is a real old timer. My home town area code changed also some years back and I am still in denial about it.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 7, 2012 14:27:23 GMT
I used to be proud of being able to remember just about every phone number I ever had. Talk about useless memories! Now however, I find I have trouble remembering the ones I still use. Where did my memory go? Did the space in my head fill up with useless information and start deleting to make room for more useless info?
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Post by htmb on Jun 7, 2012 20:15:33 GMT
I can remember being so happy I had memorized many of the Word Perfect codes in the days before Windows, and then being sad once I started using Word for Windows because all those codes were now useless to me. What was I thinking! I sure wouldn't want to go back to using those codes now.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 9, 2012 23:36:10 GMT
You were mourning the effort used to memorize the Word Perfect codes. I know that feeling, as though time has been stolen from me -- time I surely would have put to useful effect. (yeah, hah! ) I am blessed/cursed with an ability to remember numbers. My fear is that accidentally remembering numbers I don't need will drive out stuff like PINs that I want in my head at all times.
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Post by htmb on Jun 10, 2012 1:38:42 GMT
I know what you mean, but if you can alter those new pin numbers, change them to one of the old numbers.
My children and I continue to recycle those old numbers. One day I received a phone call and the caller ID showed a number we had over 20 years ago at our first home. My oldest child had requested, and gotten it, for her new phone line. That just blew me away (my four children are all just as sentimental as I)!
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