this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (3 children)

A wire coat hanger shoved into the back of the TV to get it working

Going next door to borrow the phone because you've been downloading something all day and didn't want to lose it

Being hyper aware of the current status of the street lights in summer evenings

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Going next door to borrow the phone because you've been downloading something all day and didn't want to lose it

Sprinting to the kitchen yelling "don't pick up the phone!" when it starts ringing, for the same reason.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

OMG, yes!

When I was like 11 or so, we had a company called EarthLink for Internet, and when we tried to cancel one month because we were broke, they gave us 3 months free. After the third time of that happening we realized we didn't have to pay for Internet anymore, and spent the money on a second phone line instead.

It. Was. Glorious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How would it start ringing? Wouldn’t the caller get a busy signal?

If you had call waiting, it would beep on the line which might fuck up your internet connection but it wouldn’t cause a phone to ring in another room, right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If you wanted to play what is basically a LAN game today, you would have your modem directly call your friend's modem for only the cost of the phone call. We did this for Doom "deathmatches".

You could dial into a server for multiplayer but you would typically have to pay for that access because the server's owner was paying for fancy multi-line service that could handle all the connections at once.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Oh I see what you mean now. Like if your friend is calling you and your mom picks up in the kitchen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yeah before that we had BBSs or bulletin boards you could dial in to.

None of this explains how a phone in another room would ring when you are on a call.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could you please explain the one with the street lights for me?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Kids were out all day, with the only rule of being home when the street lights came on

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Ah, OK. Street lights weren't a good indicator for time when I grew up. I live too far north. Street lights would turn on at 1400 in the winter and never in the summer. That's why I was gifted a wristwatch when I was 8 or so.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

That's still a thing in the city & country towns with closely nit housing. Sure, these days most can just check their phone for the time, but not every kid has a smartphone, which is a good thing.

Millennial, Zillennials and GenZ had this rule, it's only just started dying out with Gen Alpha.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Lol I think gen x had this rule. And probably even boomers.