Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 181: How Did We Survive Before Cell Phones? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 181

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

From keeping you company on the crapper to being the third wheel on date nights, it seems like people are unable to go anywhere without their phones nowadays. On this nostalgia episode of Ear Biscuits, R&L reminisce on what it was like before the age of the cell phone. Sponsored by: Quip: Visit GETQUIP.com/EAR right now, you can get your first refill pack for FREE with a Quip Electric Toothbrush.Stitch Fix: Get started now at StitchFix.com/EAR and you’ll get an extra 25% off when you keep all 5 items in your box!Robinhood: Get a FREE stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint to help you build your portfolio when you sign up at EarBiscuits.Robinhood.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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with the Quip electric toothbrush. That's your first refill pack for free at getquip.com slash ear. And now on with the biscuit. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we're asking the question,

how did we survive before cell phones? Or mobile phones. Or smartphones, mobile phones. That's all I can think of. I think that's what we call phones. Yeah, this is a little something that we're gonna try today, a little something different where we're actually going to,

we're calling this a nostalgia, nostalgia tour. How do you say that word? Nostalgia. You don't say nostalgia? Nostalgia, no. Yeah, because it's like when you get nauseous thinking about things from the past, you get nostalgous. I didn't know that, felt that sometimes but I do.

I mean we may feel that over the course of reminiscing over our relationships with phones before cell phones. That's an interesting term, relationships. Because I might, I just might feel sick to my stomach that this is how we used to live or that I wish I still lived that way. I haven't quite figured that out,

but what I do know is, I mean, frequently on-ear biscuits will reminisce about things, so I just thought let's reminisce within this category of what phones used to be like. Right, and so we've thought of some things like, remember when, Well don't say them yet. I'm not, I'm gonna make blanks, I'm just making blanks.

Cause I have my list, you have your list. Remember when blankety blank blank, blank a blank blank phones? So that's how it's gonna be, and they'll be like, remember when blankety blank blank blank phones. Right. But before we reminisce, let's talk about the present day. I mean let's talk about the reality of being tethered.

Yeah I mean I was. Ironically, you're tethered wirelessly. Wirelessly tethered, think about that. Put that on a T-shirt. I'm tethered to a wireless phone. That's not really a sellable t-shirt I don't think. Yeah last night Christy and I went out on a date and we're like we're driving to the restaurant,

I mean when we're at the table having a date, like we're not that couple who's just on our phones and not talking to each other. But there are some times when something will come up in conversation and the phone will become a third party to our date, like a third wheel where it's like, oh there's unlimited information on this thing. But all the way.

Well the challenge is, the challenge is when, if you have to go to the phone in the midst of a conversation which happens often and there are legitimate reasons to defer to the internet in the midst of a conversation, often during an argument, to get to a fact. Arguing with my wife all the time about facts. No I don't, you know just any, to get to a fact. I argue with my wife all the time about facts. No I don't.

You know, just any time you need to reference something. The temptation, once you have access to all the information in the world, you get your information and you're like, well what's on Twitter? Well yeah, we were. Does somebody like my photo? We were driving. Can't do that.

We were driving and we were already having a serious, we weren't having an argument. We were just having. It's a serious. We were having like we were already having a serious, we weren't having an argument. We were just having. It was a serious. We were having like a. Discussion. Let's share things that are on our hearts and minds with each other. Wow. Let's get into that mode even before we're at the restaurant.

Did it happen naturally or did you prompt it like a youth pastor? I'd like to share something from my heart and mind. Or was it just natural? It was just natural. Okay, good. You know, our relationship is as vibrant as ever and it's not facetious even though it sounded that way. No, we were just, yeah, we were just talking.

You were just talking like two normal people on a date. And I look over and she's on her phone. Now, unlike me, she can do more than one thing at once. So I do respect that. She's also in the, she's not driving, so. And she's not driving. I was driving and talking, that's two things. Yeah, well, you so I do respect that. She's also, she's not driving, so. And she's not driving. I was driving and talking, that's two things. Yeah, well, you don't do that well.

But I was kind of making an introspective point and I thought it was a very great opportunity for connection and she was listening, but when I looked over there and she was on her phone, I was like, do you have to be on your phone right now? I'm kind of trying to make a point about something, this feels important to me, and she was on her phone, I was like, do you have to be on your phone right now? I'm kinda trying to make a point about something. This feels important to me. And she was like, well, look at this dog hug this cat.

No, she was actually talking to the babysitter, whoever, coordinating the time that we would come back home. So it was a legitimate exercise. But I was like, because she was like, I have to, you know, she has to leave and now I know when we're getting back and I have to tell her and she needs to know right now. But so I was barking up the wrong tree but I did feel like, you know, before the cell phone,

if you would coordinate all that, you know, you'd have to go through all these great links to do it but you weren't constantly in conversation. And once you were gone, you were gone. You were gone. Yeah, unless it was an emergency. Even if it was. What'd you do, tell people what restaurant you're going to?

I guess some parents did. We were never parents without cell phones, so we don't know what it was like to be a parent. If my parents, first of all, I don't remember my parents having a date night. That's like a modern invention. But would they have told the babysitter, we're going to be, they probably said,

this is what we're going to do and this is when we're gonna be back. But they didn't say. I'm paying you to be completely in charge. Yeah, right. Handle everything. I'm not paying you to then text me with every little thing.

Sidebar, I mean, your daughter is 15 years old. Yeah. Why didn't she just do the babysitting? She didn't wanna take care of the kids? Well that's a good question. You know, that just doesn't work a lot of times. I'll just put it that way. Because I'm thinking about instituting my date night

and just not having any childcare. Oh, we do that. I mean the kids are old enough to take care of themselves or Lily and Lincoln to help watch over Lando but none of them can drive and there's logistics that are happening. They had to go to different places and stuff like that. Sometimes you gotta cover it with an adult.

We have an ongoing arrangement so then she helps out with things like date night too. But it's a much larger scope than that. But I look over at Christy and I'm like okay, okay, I'm not gonna jump down your throat about this. But then I swear when I looked over there again, she was on Instagram. I just, I think so.

Oh my wife is constantly on it. Well what my wife found this year was Twitter and that is just, I mean she's a Twitter-holic man. But when there's, and it's not like we, when we have a spare moment you just find yourself reaching for your phone, whoops, pulling that thing out. I mean it's almost a mindless reflex to pull that thing out. Oh yeah.

I mean in fact, be on it. I saw somebody tweet the other day, do you remember what it was like to just poop? Yeah, without being on your phone. You know, what was it like to just poop? Now I've made repeated pledges to myself to not surf while pooping. But I just can't stick to it, man.

Have you tried like putting, have you tried pudding? Have you tried pudding? Pudding, it goes right through you. Have you tried pudding? A book on the back of the toilet, you know? And then you're tempted to read it. Have you tried that? Yeah, well I used to read books.

But I mean now that you, can you? I used to read books. Can you not pull the? On the toilet, let me clarify. Now you pull the, have you tried pulling the phone, putting the phone away and pulling out a book? Not since the phone was a thing. I mean I've taken a book to the crapper.

Yeah but then you're on it too long. Like the phone is the perfect thing. You just get a little taste of it. You shouldn't do any of that though because sometimes you get into, you know, so like an Instagram hole. And you're sitting there. Next thing you know you got hemorrhoids.

Yeah. You just can't do that, man. You shouldn't even take it in there. It shouldn't work. It should be like those grocery stores that have like some kind of scrambler on the phones. I'm convinced. What's happening in grocery stores?

Well, there's a scrambler on the phones. They put one in the DMV. I can pretty much believe that. I'm pulling out recipes because I'm at the freaking grocery store and I've got no service, I got like one X. What's happening there?

I don't think they have any reason to block like cell signal in there. I think it's the exposed steel of the ceiling. You think it's being blocked by just the structure. By the, but that wouldn't make sense. But how come we get, you get cell phone signals while in buildings and office buildings. All types of structures.

Like on the first floor of a large office building, your cell phone works. Why doesn't it work in a grocery store? Must be the groceries. And isn't it just the grocery store? I think it's the food. You think food is absorbing the cell signals? Yeah, maybe chips, because there's a lot of chips.

The chips aisle has gotten nothing but chips. Have you correlated the signal to going away in certain aisles? I've definitely never gotten it in the chips aisle. I don't know. I could pull out my phone right now and Google it, but I'm not going to. I think we should just put our phones

in a bag of chips and see if it works. I mean, this podcast is an exercise in, you know, I was gonna say stamina but restraint is the word I'm looking for. Sometimes it's an exercise in stamina. Stamina. And I think some listeners are like nodding their head right now.

Yeah, I can barely get through this. But it's restraint because we're not going to our phones, we're just having a conversation for like an hour with each other. Every week, boy that's healthy. I put my phone on airplane mode when I do this or airport mode as you would say. Yeah I do say that.

When I'm doing a podcast. That's what I do. Well let's reminisce. Yeah because I've got a list of things, it's not in direct contrast to the mobile phones, it's things that are like, until I started thinking about it, things I just almost forgot existed, like the way my life and the world used to operate

was so different. Yes, and you'll find out all about that in a second. But first, we wanna let you know that Ear Biscuits is supported by Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix. Yeah. Stitch Fix. It's an online personal styling service that finds and delivers clothes, shoes, and accessories

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Sign up at EarBiscuits.Robinhood.com. And now back to the biscuit. So we got our list here. Let's see, I mean, I've got mine in no particular order. You wanna go first? I don't know, I don't know, hit me with one. Let's reminisce. I'm gonna start with pay phones.

Oh, pay phones. Remember pay phones. Not even phones at home. I'm gonna start with pay phones. Oh pay phones. Remember pay phones. Not even phones at home. The phones you had to pay for. I'm gonna grab my dog, hold on. Yeah well she's usually so docile and just likes to sit in your lap but she seems concerned about something.

She was afraid to come up here but. She's intimidated by the new innovation in hoodies. There we go. Let me just give you a couple of facts. Well you know what, let's just see how bad you are with numbers, because that's always entertaining. How many. I'm at a payphone.

In 1999. How did that song even work? In 1999, how many payphones were there in the United States of America? Well there's 50 states. I would say there's probably 10, half of, in what year? 1999. Oh, 99.

20 years ago. Yeah, but cell phones existed then. Cell phones were not in wide use at that point. No, they. Quarter of a, half a million payphones. In operation or in existence? There's not a distinction, just in operation. Well a lot of them. I'm not talking about like apocalyptic ones

and like next to the Salton Sea or something. I'm rounding up. A quarter of a million. Two million. Two million? Two million in 1999. And then how many in March of 2018? Well they're all still there.

When they're just not working. How many are in service, many of them are not in service anymore, but how many of them are in service in? 50,000. Oh, you're not that bad. 100,000. So there's 100,000 payphones.

Now this is super interesting. A fifth of them are in the state of New York. A fifth of all payphones that are active are in the state of New York. And they are, now wouldn't it, okay, doesn't it seem like it would be something logical if I told you like, there's 100,000 payphones left, and I got this all from a CNN Money article, by the way.

I just didn't, you know, I'm not just making this up. If I told you there's only 100,000 payphones left in the United States and they're all owned by one billionaire, or only all owned by one company, that seems like, yeah, there's one person who got into this old technology. Yeah. No, those 100,000 payphones are controlled by

1100 independent providers. That was fascinating to me. I mean when is the last time you used a payphone and do you, I don't even remember really using payphones much like back in the day. Well I'm about to blow your mind because it's still a business. At least in 2015 it was, I don't know how many

were in operation, not many more than there are now. In 2015, those pay phones and operations generated $286 million in revenue. You talking coinage going into the machines? Well I guess possibly you'd maybe collect calls would also go into that number. Okay. I guess possibly you'd maybe collect calls would also go into that number. Okay. I guess. I'm assuming because it's the same as the provider.

Now this is just fascinating me. So they're very useful still in certain situations like when you're out of range. Like apparently the pay phones in Yosemite Valley are very very, like there's a guy who owns those. Ah. And he makes a bunch guy who owns those. Ah. And he makes a bunch of money off those. That makes sense.

Because your cell phones don't work in these national parks. Also disasters, like when phones are, the cell networks are overwhelmed, or if there's like a disaster and like there's completely incapacitated, like payphones are very useful. So you would think that, okay,

we've kinda reached some sort of like stasis, 100,000 payphones, very useful. So you would think that okay, we've kind of reached some sort of like stasis, 100,000 payphones, probably what we need, case of emergency, but there's a weird law that the FCC passed that I didn't really read enough about it to know exactly what was going on, but it essentially has to do with the auditing that is required, and apparently the auditing that is required for these payphones

by the companies who are servicing them costs more than they're generating and so now it's becoming an unsustainable business and payphones are going out of business. Not the business to get into unless they're able to talk to FCC, at least as of March of last year, out of this weird regulation. I don't know what they're auditing.

It's, I think it's to make sure that the right parties are paid for the phone calls, like the collect calls, the calls that cost money that's not coinage. I don't know, again, I didn't read that much about it. I just know that they're going away, but like having read about them, I began to think I should be using pay phones more often. Why? I mean, do you have a strong memory

of having a great experience in a payphone booth? I've never had a great experience in a payphone booth. Yeah but I mean I was always afraid to touch it or like put it up to my ear. You don't have to touch it. You can just get a nice distance. They were very weighty. Like I remember the few times you pick up a,

just next time you go by a pay phone. Well of course they are. Just pick it up and like pick up that receiver and that thing is heavy. Do you know why it's gotta be so durable? Because think of all the people who, Yeah, people just. Slamming it against, slamming it down on the thing

after a bad phone call. Yeah, because a lot of the times you're in like some sort of like frustrated situation. On a pay phone trying to call home. I'd like to have a phone that durable at home. Well you could probably buy a payphone and hook it up at your house. I'm sure there's somebody.

Now you don't have a landline, do you? I do. You do? I do and I'm gonna talk about my landline in the context of another, do you remember so and so? Well the one on my list that you reminded me of is beepers. Remember beepers? Beepers man.

So before. Beepers, the new jeepers. AKA pagers. Before cell phones came about and even as they were starting to catch hold, people were having beepers in like the early 90s, they were like, I mean I think there was like a drug culture around beepers, there was also like.

Hold on, hold on, that's an interesting. I mean I wasn't involved in it. I think there might have been a drug culture around beepers, meaning drug dealers all had beepers? Yes, that's what you meant. But I mean it was also just something that I learned about in hip hop. Like there was a Tribe Called Quest song

called the Sky Pager. Oh Sky Pager. Yeah and the low end theory and I was like oh it's gonna be cool to have a beeper. And then fast forward many years later I become an engineer and I was issued a beeper. A beeper, I never had one. I had a beeper and then fast forward many years later, I become an engineer and I was issued a beeper. A beeper, I never had one. I had a beeper, dude.

Makes you feel powerful. And. Makes you feel like Batman or at least Robin. I had to read about how it worked because even though I carried it around for a couple of years. It beeps, man. I couldn't remember.

I would have to travel between different facilities like I'd get in my car and drive around. Did you have it on the outside of the belt? It would be on, what, you put it in my underwear? Well, some people put it in a pocket. I'm an engineer, man, I'm walking around with my shirt tucked in and I got a belt. That's back when I used to wear belts.

And I would hang it on the belt with pride, man. And you should have, I'm just saying. You don't wear belts now. I've never on the belt with pride, man. And you should have, I'm just saying. You don't wear belts now. I've never seen a belt. So the beeper is like, you know, if I was talking to my kids about this or if you've never heard of it, it's a device that then it has a phone number

associated with it and when you dial the phone number, then it makes this noise and then you can enter in other numbers with your phone and then those numbers that you enter in will show up on the beeper when it beeps. And typically you would just put your phone number in the beeper and so then when you send it, my beeper would beep and I would look at it

and it would have a phone number on it and that's the number that I would then call once I got to a phone. Right, but the person calling didn't have to do anything except call the beeper. They had to put in their message because sometimes you would put in, you'd put in a phone number and then you'd put 911

and that wouldn't mean there was an emergency, it would just mean call me back as soon as possible, this is urgent. Or. Didn't people call them buzzers as well? No. Nobody called them buzzers? Never.

Not in. Pager. Pager. Sky pager. Sky pager, beeper. And you would, if you put like. Buzzers. Just go call my buzzer.

143. 143 just meant I love you. So other engineers would say they loved me occasionally I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's sweet. And it made you feel important when you're like in the middle of a conversation or you're walking around a facility and all of a sudden you're beeping

and you're like up and you, I would. Just got paged. I would have to. Just got buzzed. I remember I had this cool technique of like whoops. I would pull it off of my belt and look at it. I'm sure it was very cool. The numbers were so small you had to like really hold it

up to your eye and that was a way to tell everybody around you, I have been issued a beeper. I can see you don't have one. A functioning beeper. My, I have a functioning beeper. So then I would just run, I'd have to find, then you run into the nearest phone to answer a 911. Yeah, doctors, you know, speaking of 911,

I mean doctors all had them, right? They still do, actually. Beepers are still in effect to use the terminology. Somebody's got them. Because they operate on, they don't operate on cell service, they operate on a much more reliable service. Really? Yes.

And that's why. What are they operating on? Firemen, doctors, medical personnel. Different frequencies? Yeah, it's a different. The beeper frequency. I think it's like a radio wave, I think. Well, I think they're all radio waves to some degree,

just different frequencies, I don't know. Maybe so. I never had one but now you make me feel like I should get one of those too. I should get one of those and beat myself in a payphone. Well I mean and you're the most reliably reachable but you're not, and then you could have a two-way pager when you could page something, you could page a number back.

I did not have one of those. I was not a second level manager at IBM as they call it. I was just a first level. A peon. Yeah. Okay. So you never even experienced that. You never had a beeper.

No, I never had a beeper. Never had a reason to have a beeper. Nobody wanted to beep me. What a loser. I mean what just an unimportant person you must have been. Yeah I was, I was siloed. I was very important. I had to be reached.

Do you remember dialing 411? Information. Now 411, people use it as slang, well they did at least in like the 90s. I think they still do. What's the 411, people use it as slang, well they did at least in like, you know, the 90s. I think they still do. What's the 411 on that, you know? Give me the download, give me the info. And of course this is based on the fact

that you could dial 411 and you still can dial 411, but this was a reliable service before the internet to. Yes, well to get a phone service before the internet to. Well to get a phone number. Usually just to get a phone number of a place. Yeah, so then you could call them and get the more whatever, you talk to them. You could also get an address of a place.

Oh really? Yeah, you could get information, I think. I never used it, literally never used it. And I don't know, I don't know why. Because it's a real person, it's not a machine. It's a real person. It still exists? It still exists and we're going to call it.

Ha, okay, all right. So are you gonna ask for a number? Well, let's find out bro What does that mean 411 search For service in English press 1 Or stay on the line Yeah what

Let's do it in English City and state please Des Moines Iowa Say the name of the business you want Or say residence. Res-able, what, what are you doing? That's County of Polk, right? No. No.

Say the name of the business you want or say residence. I would like to speak to a human. You wanna speak to a human? One moment for an operator. Yes. We're about to get a 411 operator. Thank you, what listing in Des Moines?

Yeah, just real quick, I'm actually, I don't need a listing in Des Moines, but I just wanted, if you have a quick second to just talk about 411 as a service. Please call for a supervisor. What? Supervisor. Supervisor, city and state please.

I'm sorry, yeah, I said Des Moines, Iowa, but really what I meant was I am currently talking to a friend about 411 service and the fact that it still exists and we wanted to call and just, like how popular is this service still? I mean it's definitely declining but we're still here. Oh wow. So what kind of information can I get?

So how long have you been doing it? Me, 20 years. 20 years, so like how much smaller is the department than it was 20 years ago? Way smaller. How much smaller is the department than it was 20 years ago? Can we get? Way smaller. I mean, I don't have exact numbers, but way smaller. Wow, okay.

And we were just talking, we used to call to get phone numbers, but you can get phone numbers, addresses, like what all can you still get? I mean, it's pretty much phone numbers and addresses if it's published. There's not really much else. Yelp reviews? No, you can't get Yelp reviews.

For a while, we did movie times, but it just wasn't worth it. We stopped. So, it's really just phone numbers and addresses. What movies have you seen lately? We don't do that. I do have to go, though. We don't just chat, either. have to go though. I can't, we don't just chat either. All we do is look up numbers here.

Okay. I do apologize. Thank you so much. Well how about Bob Jenkins in Des Moines, Iowa? Bob Jenkins. If you wanna talk to Bob Jenkins, just call back. So basically you can't conduct a relationship with 401. They just can't chat a relationship with 401.

You know, they just can't chat. You screwed that up for me, man. I was having, that's why I was telling you to be quiet. I was having a great conversation with that woman. She completely opened up. She was like, I've been doing it for 20 years, it's a lot smaller, like what movies have you seen lately? And then she got pissed, man, and she wanted to go.

Like I could've talked. She said you couldn't chat. She could've chatted with me. That woman would've talked to me for 17 to 20 minutes. And it would've been amazing. We didn't even get her name. 20 years of just giving people exactly what they need. That's probably satisfying and draining. She sounds satisfied.

So I never called it, did you call it? I don't recall ever calling 411 but I'm sure, like I mean my mom wanted to like see if the Golden Corral was open early or something, you know? I just used the phone book. That's so much work, you gotta like think about where things fall in the alphabet. Phone book, that's another thing we don't use anymore.

I mean they'll still stack up, phone book, that's another thing we don't use anymore. I mean, they'll still stack up a phone book in front of my house and I'll put it directly in the recycle bin, it's just, I feel guilty about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, that was thrilling. I wrote down, you wrote down for what? That was what? Thrilling.

Oh, I didn't know what you said. What about dialing star 69? Oh, now I've done that. Star 69. Now if you beep star 69, that means something else. But if you dial star 69, it would give you the last number that called you. Yeah, it was what killed prank calling.

Yes. But if you were prank calling, you could dial, what could you dial to make your number unlisted before you dial it? Star what? Star 68 or something? There was like star 96. You could block your call, before you dialed,

you could do that in order to block people's ability to see on caller ID. But yeah, you could dial something, we did it all the time. It was the counter to star 69. Star 69 was, it was like if the phone was ringing and you couldn't get to it. Yeah and you were kind of, well yes, you wanted to know who called you.

And you didn't have an answer machine or they didn't leave an answer. It was just, I guess it would just drive people nuts so they would pay extra. Who was that that called? Who was that that called? What? 67.

Star 67 was how you blocked your number. Blocked being star 69. And I would assume that this still all works on landlines. Like I said, I've got one, I'm gonna test it. I don't remember using that one that much. I don't, you know, if somebody, if I didn't answer the phone, again, you're just like, who was that?

I don't know, they'll call back later. We also weren't adults when this was the way things were. I think I did, I probably did it a couple of times thinking that maybe I'd gotten a phone call from a girl or something. You know. I remember another thing on my list that I did do was, I would, all the phones in your house were connected.

So it wasn't like every person had their own phone line. I mean, gosh. Party line, man. Or at least within the house. Yeah, within the house. And so if my step sister at the time was like talking to her boyfriend, I could like pick up my Garfield phone gingerly.

His eyes would open. And then I would just like listen, I would cover up the talk hole. You eavesdropped. Just listen to it, just see what I could learn. What did you learn? Nothing, I don't know, I know a lot now. So probably some of it came from then.

You know, it's like. You were that little brother, that little half stepbrother, not even half brother. Yeah, I wasn't addicted to it. I didn't do it constantly but I would do it sometimes. Man, violating her privacy. I mean I never listened to my brother's phone calls. I was afraid to do that.

But the parents could listen in too. You just get a little, I mean but you would hear that breathing, it'd be like get off the phone, Link. I would get that. I'm saying she would hear my breathing. You gotta be better than to let the breath be heard. Well, a man gotta breathe. You pull away from the microphone to breathe.

So, or you would just be on, and my mom still has a landline, and I'll call and Louis will answer, I'm talking to him and then he'll talk to me for a while and then all of a sudden he'll just be like, Sue! And then mom will get on the phone in the bedroom then they're both on the phone. Well that's very.

It's so easy. That's actually. Two people at a speakerphone. That's something that is lost that was nice. It cannot be replicated. Yeah it's without the landline. Two people on a close microphone speaking into your ear. It's like a conference call.

Yeah, it's like I'd have conference calls with like family members all the time, you know? Mom and Louis in different rooms just talking away. Well, I would talk to my mom for a long time and then I realized Louis would, all of a sudden after talking to her for like 20 minutes, all of a sudden then Louis would be like, well, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna let the two of y'all talk.

I was like, oh, he's been on here this whole time. I kinda forgot he was still on here. Well, you know. Good, good, good. It can take 20 minutes of it. I still do have a landline. We got it, well, when you get like the, They try to make you get it.

You get the service and stuff, you can get it, and my wife was like, yeah, let's get it because, you know, we've got kids and they need to get in touch with us, because at the time when we bought the current house, neither of the kids had a cell phone. Right. But if they're there and they need to call 911 or something. And Shepherd doesn't have a cell phone

and sometimes for short stints, he's on his own. Like when we go out on the prairie to bring back a deer. Okay. He'll spend a few fortnights alone. No, a few minutes alone sometimes and it's like, Shepard, if anything happens, so I remember I was like, I had to show them how to use the phone and apparently it's not as simple

as I remember, at least they did not understand. No, you pick it up, it's making a noise. That's called a dial tone. Yeah. Then you have to press the buttons. Just the fact that they're pressing buttons that are not on a touch screen, and they couldn't press them all the way in

to know that they had registered the number. And it's just like all these little things are like, no, you actually, you didn't, no, no, you didn't hit that, you didn't hit it, you didn't hit it, you know why you didn't hit it? Because you didn't hear it. Yeah. When you hit the number, you'll hear the associated tone with that particular number.

Dial, yeah, dial. Eventually they got it. You're right though, dial tones don't exist. Give me another one off your list. Remembering phone numbers. Right, yeah, there was a time in our lives when there was like drawers in my brain that were dedicated to people's phone numbers.

I thought we could have a fun little exercise. Now obviously, Kiko, we're going to have to edit these. But I want to throw out someone's phone number from the past. Now, let's start with, I'm gonna start with your phone number when you lived on, in that part, before you moved to Gregory Circle. Yeah, my first house.

before you moved to Gregory Circle. Yeah, my first house. Yeah, that's it. That's crazy! Hold on, how old were you when you moved? First of all. How old were you when you moved to Gregory Circle? What grade? I think I was 12.

Right, so we're talking about, I just recalled your phone number from first, second, third, fourth, fifth grade. 28 years ago. The first five years of our friendship. Yeah, and then I moved, and do you remember my phone number once I moved? This is more recent.

This one should be a little easier. That's it. I mean, you were in one house. That's crazy! So I know yours is easy. Yes! So that's easy. But do you remember our phone number in college?

Maybe it was our dorm room number. Not a clue. Not a clue. Like that is. It was the NC State numbers were. Mm-hmm. You remember the next part? No. Oh okay. Isn't that it?

Okay interestingly I've had. In my, I think I've actually used that for things. Oh like your password? No. Like your bank pin? No like when you're trying to find, like when you're trying to like, I don't have anything that has that now

but like a Google number or something like that. I mean I don't know your phone number now. Like I knew your North Carolina phone number. I don't know my phone number now. Maybe I do. When you got a new phone number, I don't know it. Well okay. That's gone. Like I know my wife's number, I know my number but I don't know it. That's gone.

Right, so. Like I know my wife's number, I know my number, but I mean we've had them a long time. I don't know my kids' phone numbers. That's kinda, that's actually a bit scary, right? So I wanted to talk about that specifically related to this. So obviously there were very good reasons to know these phone numbers.

But, and I still know your phone number because it's the phone number that you got the same year that I got my original phone number and the North Carolina phone number. I've changed my phone number. But you should know your family members, all your immediate family, and then you should also know emergency contact like next of kin.

You should have those memories. This is kind of a wake up call or we should use 411. Like so my kids need to get in touch with me, 411 it. Yeah but you might not be in 411. In fact. I should not be. If we've done things the right way, you're not in 411. That's true.

We could test that. But okay, because I have this fear, going back to speaking of pay phones, it's like okay, run out of gas with a dead phone. Like that's a bit of a, running out of gas with a phone that's not currently working. Vultures circling. And I'm talking about, I'm not talking about

being out in the wilderness, I'm talking about just like being in like Anaheim, you know what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about being out in the wilderness, I'm talking about just like being in like Anaheim, you know what I'm saying? Like at that point, you're like okay, now I'm gonna be the guy that goes up to people and says can I use your phone? And now, I'm not a gracious person. When strangers come up to me in need,

I always just assume that they're scammers. And it kinda feels like can I use your toothbrush? Right. Pretty intimate. Because you've got those people who come up to you at the gas station. Like I use this thing on the crapper, man. You got those people that come up to you at the gas station and they've got a story

and then they go up to every person. You know that this is a scam. Like 99% of the time this is a scam. You gonna hand them your phone and they're just gonna run? No, they're not asking for the phone. They're asking for like a couple of bucks or something like that. Now, and just as a policy, I don't do,

I give to a lot of things, but I don't give to those people because I think that, I can't verify, this just seems shady, right? Yeah. But I don't wanna be that guy that has to go and ask a stranger for the phone. Now, I guess I would go to the pay phone. And even if you did, you wouldn't know what number to call.

Right, so double whammy, you get in that situation and you don't know the number. So I guess you could, we do now know that 411 is still available but I don't think that a lot of people that we would wanna call are on 411. So I know my wife's phone number, got that memorized. It's the same one that she had when I got her her first cell phone when she was 20 years old.

So I think I'm okay, but I don't know my parents' phone. My kids know my number. They know my number. I think my kids know my new number. They definitely know Jessie's number. But how would you know if they knew it because you don't know it? You'd have to pull it up on your phone, I guess.

But beyond those numbers that you need for emergency situations, it does not, other than just for your own personal memory exercise and trying to stave off degenerative disease or something like that, there's really no reason to keep your numbers in your head because you can easily just offload it to your phone. And if you are seriously one of those people

that you do not have, I guess there are still people out there who have a smartphone but do not have their contacts backed up in a cloud situation in some service, you need to do that. There's no reason that your phone should be the only place that you have these phone numbers. Just make an adjustment. All right I got another one.

You'll thank me later. On my list of, speaking of dialing things for information, we would dial a number and it was the local bank. First federal bank. To get the exact time and temperature. Hold on, I'm assuming that you wrote this phone number down so we can call it. I wrote down, well, I looked it up and it doesn't exist.

So I have another number that yes we can call. I called the first federal number literally and I think I can remember this number. We would call them, because here's what happened. What was the number, do you remember the number? A lightning would strike, a lightning would strike. Just one lightning. Power would go out and then you're like,

I gotta reset my phones, but how do you do that? Well you call the bank, first federal time, 1058. First federal temperature, 1058. Right. First Federal Temperature, 49 degrees. Yeah. Yeah, so you called it for time when you need to reset the time, you called it for temperature when you wanted to know what the temperature was and you didn't want to sit around and wait

for Greg Fischel to come on and tell you what the temperature was. Yeah. I called it all the time when I was getting ready to go to school and I was like, the time when I was getting ready to go to school and I was like how cold is it outside? I would call First Federal so I could get the freaking temperature to know

if I needed to put a jacket on. I watched the weather for that. But you watch the weather when? Every morning. In the morning? You watch the weather in the morning? Oh yeah, I loved the weather man. Literally I loved the weather man. Literally, I loved the weatherman. I thought that was a great profession.

So you're telling me that you can't call that number because I swear within the last five years I've called that number when I was at home. Well there's lots of places where you could call popcorn 767-2676 and get a pre-recorded voice telling you the time. That does not work anymore, but you can dial 202-762-1401

which I think is the Naval Observatory and it'll give you the exact Eastern Standard Time. So let's call that one, let's figure out what time it is. And this will be Eastern Standard Time. There's a Mountain Standard Time number. I assume there's a Pacific. U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock. At the tone, Eastern Standard Time.

21 hours, 10 minutes, 15 seconds. Wow. Universal Time, 2 hours, 10 minutes, 20 seconds. U.S. Naval Observatoryatory master clock at the tone Eastern Standard Time, 21 hours 10 minutes 30 seconds. Universal time two hours 10 minutes 35 seconds. He's repeating himself now. I like that guy's voice. Yeah I want that guy to be my Siri.

Is that possible? No, it's not. So yeah, I mean we used to dial a number to figure out what time it was. Now, I probably should've talked about this with remembering phone numbers, but Rolodex. Rolodex? The Rolodex.

You're talking about an address book that is on a swivel. You didn't have one of these at your house? No, I never had a Rolodex. That's like something that like an ad man and like mad men had on their desk. You had a Rolodex? We had a version of a Rolodex that I needed to know like,

what is my cousin's number or something like that and my mom would go and all the cards were organized and she would flip through them. It was a Rolodex. It was a, it may not have been the brand name Rolodex which I'm gonna tell you about because it's absolutely fascinating.

Tell me about it. Okay so the Rolodex which just to explain, it was basically like this ringed collection of cards that you could write numbers and names on and organize them by alphabetical order and put anything, any information you want. This thing was invented by. Role E. Dex.

Arnold Neustadter. He was a 20th century inventor from Brooklyn. Now he also invented, before this, the swivodex, which was a device that kept ink bottles from spilling. I don't know for what purpose. Well, because you don't want to spill your ink, man. He also invented the clippodex. Oh wow.

Sensing a theme here, Arnold. What is that for, paperclips? It was a device that attached to the knees of stenographers to keep their pads from moving. Oh wow. Not, you know, the pads, the ones that were on their knees. And he also made, he changed things up, the punched, the punched.

Punched. Which was a hole puncher, made holes in papers. Now, then he came along. Prolific inventor. With the Rolode papers. Now, Denny came along. Prolific inventor. With the Rolodex. Now, the funny thing is, is like, there was an article in Gizmodo by Anna Jane Grossman who wrote that book, Obsolete, which I did not read

but saw the cover of and thought I would like to read, which is like 98% of books with me. And she talked about how, the daughter talked about how the dad was really anal and he tried to remember everything and whenever someone, she took a message from someone he would be like, I want you to get their name, their callback number, their address, the reason for calling.

He had this list that you had to do in the household if you took a message. So this was right down his alley was to organize information in this way. By the way, that is a flashback for me is being taught how to take messages for people in the house. Like for my mom and dad.

Name, number, and reason for calling. Yeah, and you'd write it down. So as a kid, I remember that system. Did you have to say the residence or did you say hello? We didn't have to do Michael Laughlin residence. I would say hello but I think the Juby's did like the Juby. Oh the Juby residence. Juby residence.

Anybody with class did residence. We didn't do that. We didn't have class. Yeah. So he invented this in the 50s. Then by the 80s, the Rolodex had become such an icon that lawsuits were filed by companies who accused former employees of taking them with them

when they left. So it's like he's taking his Rolodex with him. Yeah. It's a euphemism but it's based in a literal truth in that depending on what the business you're in, like an ad man like you were talking about. Yeah. Your Rolodex, your physical Rolodex

was incredibly valuable. The contacts that you made, you're talking about backing up your contacts to the cloud. Yes. Yeah that thing became extremely valuable for business contacts. They didn't have backup Rolodexes I don't think because okay so models were selling for $200 at the time

even though people often valued them at prices far higher than that once they got filled up. Listen to this. Sure. In fact an entire episode of Moonlighting, remember Moonlighting with Bruce Willis sitcom? Sybil Shepherd. Was devoted to one stolen Rolodex being held ransom for $50,000.

An entire episode. It's a fictional world. That was fictional. But Rolodex is up to $50,000 in a fictional world. You know, it would be cool to like, I bet you you can buy Rolodexes now off of eBay that are like fully populated and that would be fascinating. Well, yeah it would but you can also buy brand new ones

because. I'm not into that. The interview that this woman, this author conducted with the daughter of Arnold, she said, you know, I'm talking about this for my book, Obsolete, and the girl got a little upset and was like, they're not obsolete, people still buy them and still use them,

they're still sold. She probably says that because she gets a little bit of that, my nay, even to this day. My nana and papa, they didn't have a Rolodex. They would get, the phone was beside the calendar and then the top of the calendar had an area where you would write down numbers. So every year they would kind of have to start over,

like transfer over the most important numbers. And then she'd scribble all over the top of the calendar. By the end of the year it would have numbers all over it. And then she would repeat the ones that she wanted to hold onto. I think so, she must have. I mean. It's an interesting system. Doesn't seem very efficient but at the same time,

you know, you can reevaluate every single year. You're on the phone and you're just up, you're just like, I'm gonna write down your number or write down the number I need to call and then you call it, you know? That's where you need it anyway. What if Bob Jenkins in Des Moines, Iowa was listening to this podcast?

He is, he is. He's freaking out. Remember just answering machines? Yeah. I remember, I mean, I don't even use voicemail. You know, if, if, if. Just a black hole for me, man. My mom called me this morning, she was like,

I was calling you and I was trying to leave a voicemail and you called me back and I'm like, I almost, don't leave voicemails, just text me. Voicemails, most mailboxes are obsolete. But I remember whenever we would come home from anything, I would run, as a kid, I would run into the living room and I would press play on our cassette tape run answering machine and you'd hear the beep,

beep, and then you'd hear the recording, the analog recording that somebody left and then it would beep again letting them know oh you're almost out of time. And sometimes they'd have to call back, leave a second voicemail to continue their thought. Right. And then, I don't know, it was an exciting moment

because every second that you're out in the world, you're not receiving calls, you know? It's this sensation of like a buildup of expectations. Well, there was always something to look forward to. Like I said, I would bust in the door and I couldn't wait to hear who had left a message. On your mom's answering machine? Yeah it was just exciting to me.

I bet something happened while we were gone. Somebody called. Well first of all, I definitely did not have an answering machine when I was living at home with my parents, they did not have one. Your family didn't own an answering machine? Not for the longest time. I remember when we got it.

Maybe at the very tail end of high school. I was very fascinated by it. I don't think we had one. And I think that. That's weird. Well I don't think it's that weird. I think there was a lot of families that didn't have an answering machine.

It's one of those things that once you had it. Maybe I'm blocking it out, but I'm pretty sure that we did not have one for the majority of the time that I lived there. And then, did we have an answering machine in the college dorm room? Because I know I had one when I first got married. Our college dorm room phone number had voicemail boxes.

And like you would pick up the phone and the dial tone would be different. Different. If it was beeping, if it was a broken dial tone, that meant you had a message. And then you would put in your code and it would lead to either my voice box, well, voicemail, it'd lead to my voice box.

I would be speaking. Yeah, my code, 1958. But do you remember the commercial where they would sell greetings? It was called Crazy Calls. No. Nobody's home. Nobody's home. Nobody's home, nobody's home. Nobody's home.

Nobody's home, nobody's home, nobody's home. And then there was. Hold on, you didn't use this service. I just remember I wanted it so bad. How would you get it onto your answering machine? It was seven songs, I looked this up. It was called Crazy Calls and it was seven different tracks on a cassette tape

that would fit in your answering machine and your answering machine would know how to, it would cue up the tape and then play it and then it would record. But sometimes it would have to fast forward. Is it one tape? One tape has the greeting and the messages? No, it's a separate tape.

So there was a greeting tape and then a recording tape. That's how it worked. And I remember there was a rap on there that was like, leave your message, we're not home, but leave your message at the tone. And then it would, That's a good one. It was one that was like, wait for the beep! Wait for the beep!

It kept saying that. It was like a rapper. And there's also the beep, wait for the beep. He kept saying that. It was like a rapper. And there's also the classic, hello. That wasn't one of these seven. Gotcha, I'm not home. That's too annoying. Whoever did that, you should be ashamed of yourself. I wanted those tapes so bad.

But you're right. That was the peak of technology for me was like. Little tapes? Oh we got that one too. First it was the bigger tapes and then you would get an answering machine and it would have those little tapes that like you'd put like the hand recorder

was like note to self. But then it went to, the one we had when we first got married was no tape. Yeah kind of digital or something. It was being recorded locally in there somehow. And we had that for, we had a regular phone with an answering machine up until they started putting voicemail built into your phone service,

which happened, was widespread sometime in like the early 2000s. That's when you just started doing it that way. Did you have anything else on your list? I did. Phones with cables. The tether. Yeah, the spiral cordage.

The phone I have at home has a cable on it. It's not cordless. Because I remember when my mom got a cordless phone and we were like, what? She can walk from room to room while on the phone? And it was just like, we are rich. I remember the first time I got that, yeah. I remember first time we got one of those, I probably called you, but I remember the first time I got that, yeah. I remember first time we got one of those,

I probably called you, but I remember walking out on the front lawn. I was like, I'm in the lawn! I'm outside talking on the phone. I'm so rich! I'm blowing my own mind. My neighbors can see me. Yeah, because before that.

I'm talking on the phone outdoors. Well and you had to think about where the phones were. I mean everybody had, most people had a phone in every room. Like you had a phone in each bedroom so you can have those conversations with your lady friends that you didn't want your parents to hear. But even then, like you had the phone and then you had to like, you stretched the cord

like if you wanted to like, you wanted to sit in your chair or lay down on your bed and you got, the cord, it's tethered, man. Maybe you could get the whole phone, you could take all of Garfield and bring him into bed with you, but you gotta make sure that the cord from Garfield to the wall is long enough for that.

And I do remember, back to the in the house party line thing, what would actually happen the most, not me eavesdropping on my stepsister, I would be on the phone with like my girlfriend or something and then my mom on the other side of the house would need to make a phone call and she would just pick up the phone and I'd be like, mom, I'm on the phone.

It was like, and then she would, oh, I'm sorry. She'd be like, well, I need to use the phone so. And cordless phones. You need to get off. And cordless phones. You can get back on after I call. Were much easier to tell. Time and date.

When somebody had interrupted. So if you had the classic phone, either a rotary phone or just a non-corded phone, a non-cordless phone, you get your finger and you'd stick it up under the receiver and hold down those two clear pegs that would come out that would indicate that this phone is open, the phone line's open, and you'd hold it down and then you'd open it up.

You'd get the phone in position, turn it like this so you wouldn't breathe into the phone and then you very, very, very quietly left. So you did eavesdrop on your brother. No, I just knew how to do it. I just know the tech. You had the power but you didn't wield it? But with a cordless phone it was very obvious like,

you could like hear it. Somebody just came into the conversation. Yeah. It's like, my mama on the phone, blah. And then every once in a while, you can replicate this situation when you're charging your phone and you get a phone call and you don't wanna stop charging it.

And you're like down there next to your bedside table. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can feel. I'm doing it the old fashioned way. You can feel what it was like. Did you have anything else? But you do, I think, as our custom now, have a recommendation for all the Ear Biscuiteers. So thanks for taking a trip down memory lane.

Let us know, hashtag Ear Biscuits, what phone-related nostalgia was brought to your mind. Something you remember about the way phones used to be, hashtag Ear Biscuits. And now it's time to get some recs in effect. Work on that. I'm gonna check, baby, check, baby, you know. It's a rump shaker, it's a song. Yeah, right.

Speaking of, my recommendation this week is a song. I love it when I find a song, it's like whoa, something about this song is special and I never even knew it existed. I played this for Rhett earlier today. Yes. And would you agree that this is a song not to be missed? It's very notable.

It's weird. I think it has special, I knew when you were playing it exactly why you were playing it for me. I don't necessarily know that that would translate to everyone. Right. But you were playing it for me because you were like,

the person who sang this song at the time that they sang it and then the way that it sounds, all of those things are gonna be a little bit difficult for you to reconcile and it's gonna be a little bit of a trip and you were right, my friend. Yeah and so, you know, I don't know where it's gonna strike you and I will say that I'm not giving an endorsement of anybody's,

of this artist's personal beliefs of what they may put on Twitter now. No telling. Does he have a Twitter account? Yeah. So don't go there. Just enjoy the song for what it is. But the song is called Behind Your Eyes

by the Charlie Daniels Band. You may know the Charlie Daniels Band from The Devil Went Down to Georgia. He was looking for a soul to steal. He was in a bind and he was way behind and he was willing to make a deal. It's a good fiddle song. That's what he's known for most.

Even when we went to New Orleans and we went to that like dueling piano bar, they started playing that song. Got to. And it's a good song. Yeah. But this song, Behind Your Eyes, is the song before that song on the album.

And it is like night and day different in terms of like the genre. It's not this like, you know, you may consider Devil Went Down to Georgia like a redneck fiddle song. I think that's the official genre on iTunes, redneck fiddle. The sound and the production of that song was just very unexpected for a Charlie Daniels band. Late 70s rock kind of thing and then these,

which is one of my favorite things. Harmonic. Yeah, harmonizing lead guitars. Like two Telecasters playing complimentary solos. It's not limited to but it is a big southern rock thing when he was in that zone. There's something about it. I think this is 1979.

It's a good year. So yeah, just think of me when you listen to that song and it may surprise you. Here's to being surprised. That's my recommendation. You know what, you gotta keep surprising yourself. Don't ever stop surprising yourself. Go outside on your phone, talk in the yard, untethered.

If you don't know your own phone number, memorize that. Yep, mm-hmm. Starting with you, Rhett. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. All right, we'll speak at you next week. Thanks for hanging out with us.