I was probably the last person in my age group out of everyone I knew (and likely also everyone I didn't) to get a mobile 'phone - and then only because someone gave one to me. I could never remember my own number (and, having changed providers two or three times, my number changed with them), and it never really bothered me because I didn't consider the number important. If anyone asked me for it, I got them to give me theirs then called it so that they would have mine.
It's strange to realise that I regarded the number so casually, because some numbers are very significant to me, especially my landline 'phone number, which has been in the family since 1960, and which has been in every New Town house I've ever lived in. At the beginning of November, I changed my provider from TalkTalk to BT and lost my 59 year old number. After nine days I've now got it back, and that sense of continuity leading right the way back to 1960 is extremely meaningful to me.
Odd as it may sound, being deprived of my number was like losing part of my identity (and a piece of my personal history), and I felt bereft - like a loved one had suddenly died. It was originally a GPO one, then a BT one, then went through a couple of other providers until it ended up at TalkTalk. Listen - if you want a major headache every month querying your bill and talking to foreign TalkTalk agents on the 'phone or in 'Live Chat' on the Internet for up to three hours at a time, and being no further forward at the end than you were at the beginning, TalkTalk's the provider for you.
That's my sarcastic way of saying that if you value your sanity, avoid TalkTalk like the plague. I'm quite prepared to accept that when/if everything works smoothly then they're fine, but the trouble is that things seldom seem to work smoothly with them. You might get a few extra features for free that you pay for with other providers, but they're just not worth the hassle you get along with them.
Are you attached to your 'phone number, or wouldn't it bother you if you suddenly lost it and were given another? Which, I suppose, is my way of trying to find out if I'm the only person in the world who thinks like I do when it comes to things that supply a sense of continuity and a link to the past, which my 59 year old number provides. Or, out of all the weird posts I've written over the years, is this one just too weird for you?
I've had my current phone number since I lived in my former flat in the late '90s. For years after I got it I was being phoned up by people who wanted to speak to the previous owners of the number - even the police phoned me to ask if I knew the whereabouts of Mr and Mrs (I forget their name)!! Had they fled the country?? It was all very mysterious. The final enquiry came on December 31st 2009 and I was never pestered again.
ReplyDeleteYour comment makes me think, CJ. We came from Glasgow, so I've always assumed that we were the very first tenants in the first house we had in the New Town, and that we were the first and only people to have our 'phone number. However, I now wonder whether the 'phone might have already been in the house, which would mean that a previous tenant (if there was one) had the number before us. I don't think that's the case, but I'll have to investigate.
ReplyDeleteI never remember my mobile numbers (had a few) as there seems to be no structure to them (0141 for Glasgow etc) and was surprised so many folk can rhyme them off. I've had my current landline number for 17 years and only like it as it's easy to remember (although I hardly ever use it). Of all my phone numbers I can only recall my families first one which is from over 50 years ago
ReplyDeleteI still remember some of the 'phone numbers that belonged to a few of my friends in the '60s & 70s, even though they gave them up decades ago. One pal's number later became the one for Rumbelows (remember them?) in the Town Centre.
ReplyDeleteMy parents got their first phone in 1969. The number is engraved in my mind, I can never forget it. The dialling code changed when they added a 1 to the code for UK numbers (in 2000?) but I still remember it without the 1. My father died and my mother moved away in 1983. Earlier this year I was curious, so I rang the number asking to speak to my parents. "Wrong number", I was told, but I talked with the person long enough to find out that the old number is still in the house where I grew up. I know it must sound weird, me ringing the number after all these years. I can understand the obsession with a phone number.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound weird to me, MH, because it's exactly the sort of thing I'd have done. In fact, many years ago, I 'phoned a childhood friend's old number and asked to speak to him, knowing that neither him or his family still lived in my town. I was told that the family no longer resided there and I apologised for the inconvenience, no harm done. A bit deceitful perhaps, but it was just my way of reconnecting to a vanished aspect of the past.
ReplyDeleteThat mystery couple I mentioned were called Mr and Mrs Giles - their name popped into my mind last night. Not important but I thought I'd mention it :)
ReplyDeleteAnd did you ever find out why the police were looking for them, CJ?
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteHell's bells, CJ, I'm not reading all that. You'll need to make your answers more concise - I just don't have the time to read ones that long.
ReplyDeleteMike- just as a bit of info, the 1 was added to UK numbers in 1994, earlier than you remembered- how time flies!
ReplyDeleteIn Glasgow, 041 became 0141, and the last digit (which was a 2) of my town's area code was moved to the beginning of the actual 'Phone number. So no number was added, it was really just the space between the code and the number being moved back one digit.
ReplyDeleteI gave my landline up years ago because nobody ever rang other than wrong numbers. The Mamselle Beauty Salon had a number near the same as mine and i was continuously rung by women wanting appointments.My favourite coming one Monday afternoon from an excited lady asking me if I could do her Tuesday morning. A mobile does me now .
ReplyDeleteYou should've taken a crash course in hairdressing, LH - then you'd have been fighting off women with a stick. Might all have been pensioners though.
ReplyDelete