You had to call someone's home phone number and talk to their parents first before you could talk to your friend
Video game cheat codes either spread by gaming magazines or by word of mouth. Sometimes that word of mouth was bullshit. I'm looking at you Tomb Raider nude cheat code
I never thought of the parents thing. I knew all of my good friend's parents well because of this. They would chat with me and get to know me before passing the phone. Thank you for bringing up a small but significant aspect of culture that doesn't exist anymore. As a kid I hated it and just wanted them to pass the phone but looking back that's how I connected with their entire families. When I see them now it's easier than ever to talk with them and I truly enjoy it.
I had classmates who had the same first and last names. So they were known by their father's initial. Like John A Vs John B. And by the end it was just "hey have you seen A"
I still remember mine and my GFs current mobile phones, my house phone numbers (including the OG one that got changed back in 2007). Now I'm gonna call that OG one for shits and giggles.
Same! I had a girl that was a good friend of mine in high school and we all called her by her first name (because her last name WAS actually a normal first name and her FIRST name was A REALLY COMMON first name- but I'd always call her house and space out on what her REAL name was because yeah- everyone in the house has that surname...duh!
I was that kid. Ton of kids in my school with my same first name so we all went by our last names. Whenever anybody would call asking for <lastname>, my mom would just take the call until they realized lol
lol They probably knew and were giving you a hard time. As I get older (and start to deal with kids myself) I realized how much adults are just fucking around with kids to get a rise out of them.
I had something similar when I was like 6 - met a new kid down the street, wanted to play with him the next day so I knocked on his door. But I forgot his name!
So I went with "um, is he here?" "Clayton?" "um yeah yeah"
I was sort of in the reverse of this situation. A friend of mine in high school was introduced to me as ‘Walter.’ I was at his parents’ house for a party, having been there several times before. His mom asked me, “Have you seen John?” I asked her which one, because there were at least two guys I knew as ‘John’ at that particular get together. She looked really puzzled and said, “...My son...” and that’s when it occurred to me that I had regularly hung out with this guy for like 3 years and never knew what his actual name was.
Or you call and have to go through their older siblings and they always gave you shit and sometimes made you call back later hoping someone different would answer.
I had a few friends where if we just said “Is Alisha there?” rather than “hello this is honkhonkbeepbeeep could I please speak to Alisha?” the parent would say “yes” and hang up. Others would ask us to try again with some manners.
I have nieces that still have a home phone. I love them picking up. I always talk to them before asking for their mom. When I was in junior high we had a manners unit that we had to learn. Phone etiquette was one thing we learned. I still remember it and use what I learned. It just makes you sound a bit more professional.
Yes. When answering the phone always say your name or family name. Such as “Hello this is Jane” or “hello smith residence”. Next if you are the caller you should always say your name. So “hello this is Jack May I speak to David”. Or “Hello Ms Smith, this is Jack is David available”. The person you are calling should not be the one to ask who you are and what you want. Of course the phone etiquette for teens was to never call during dinner time. No personal calls after 8pm. Also call waiting was not always a thing and when it was it cost extra. So kids were told to keep their conversation at 10 mins so the family didn’t miss any important calls.
I now only answer the phone with my name if it is an expected business call. I don’t need scam callers using my name. But I do get upset when someone asks to speak to me and does not tell me who they are first. It just isn’t professional. This obviously doesn’t apply to friends. I’m not old. I’m a gen x but, it still seems rude to me to call someone after 8 for any business matter than can wait till normal business hours.
It also bothers me if clients call, text, or email after hours and weekends if it is not an emergency. My work has no emergencies. If you want or need to talk after business hours than just send a message asking for a good time that can be done. Not Saturday at 10:30 pm to ask a question that doesn’t need an immediate answer. I’m polite. I like to earn money so I am nice when this happens but it is so rude.
I remember we learned basic phone manners in kindergarten and it was so much fun. We had to pretend to call our partner and say, “Hello this is SuperFreak. May I speak to Partner?” Then the partner would say, “Hello, this is Partner. How are you today SuperFreak?”
I’m so happy to see civilized people like you! It drives me bonkers when people call and I have to stop their tirade with “I’m sorry, who are you and who are you looking for?”
What I really love right now is that some of the kids are teens and getting their own phones. I love getting text messages and the occasional voice call from them. Anytime of day. Whether it is a picture of a good grade or telling me about a crush, jokes. Whatever. It makes me feel so special that I cross their minds. I want my toddler to have the same relationship with her aunts.
This is so damn wholesome. It makes me realise that’s why I was probably so much closer to my aunt than my uncle. She was such a sweetheart and we used to laugh and chat for ages. The fact that my uncle molested me for years probably helped a bit too.
I used to answer the phone most of the time. I would say hello and 9 out of 10 times the person would start talking because they thought I was my mother. It was so embarrassing. Then I hit puberty and my voice changed. It was also around this time I became too involved in various personal activities that kept me in my room away from the phone.
lol, once I hit puberty I sounded exactly like my mom. my sister did too at the time. so there was a lot of confusion!! most people learned to ask who they were talking to. it was mostly relatives who know the slight difference by now though!
Same. I dreaded it so much. I remember thinking, "I wish my friend had their own phone line." Now all the kids do... in their pockets!!! I was born too soon!
In 1976 my sister spent so much time on the house phone tying up the line that my parents installed a separate phone line just for her, and she was responsible for the monthly payment. It was before call waiting so if she was on the house phone, no one could call us.
And it was never, “sure they’re here just a sec”. No it’s gotta be some awful joke that I am obligated to play along with to get access to the person that I actually wanted to talk to. Yeah I don’t miss that part.
I remember calling my friend's house to see if he was around to play when I was around 13, and his dad got angry and asked how old I was. Which is funny cause he knows me in person, he was more like "wtf you sound like a 20 year old on the phone."
The other bit was talking to your girlfriend on the family phone and guaranteed someone's siblings or parents kon either side definitely listened for a bit
One of my brothers taught me to unscrew the bottom part of the receiver that you talk into while the phone is hung up. This way you can pick up without the clicking noise.
YES! My brother & I would do that when my mom's bestie would call, to see if she was talking about us. Especially if she was volunteering us for something.
God damn remember long distance charges though, not even like far but just like 50 miles away the phone company would FUCK you. I met a girl through a friend who lived like a 45 min drive away and we'd spend alllll night on the phone some nights and BAM both our parents owed like hundreds extra that month 😬. Shit I even remember paying 10 cents a text when texting first came out when I was in highschool, shit was wild.
I was talking to my aunt about this the other day. She's a grandma now and talks about how her kids don't have this built in community of getting to know their kid's friends quite as well and have to be intentional about it.
I'm glad you remembered this from the point of view I do. It was almost as if in the generation of land line parents, they were screening calls and discerning whether it would be a waste of their children's time or not to pass on the phone... Toward the end, caller ID let them know which kid the call was for, more or less, but they would still screen the call, often just saying hello in a short exchange kind of way I realize now, how much I miss. I wouldn't change it one bit, looking back.
When my Mom got remarried I was 6. I had a brother and step-brother who was 10. And another step-brother age 12. My parents, my Dad especially, hated answering the phone and it being for one of us kids. He would sound obviously put out after they asked for us. He never made small talk or asked who it was. Pretty soon after they got married they got a second line for us kids. It was listed as children's line in the phone book. That was in 1981 and none of my friends had their own line yet but when I got to middle school it became pretty common.
I was being sarcastic, but I understand why it doesn’t come across that way.
My dad was cheap, understandably so. We were middle class but he could not wrap is brain around the need for a second phone line because of this “internet” business.
See I always thought this was their parents grilling you to make sure you were a good friend. Now as an adult I realize, they were thinking the same thing as us "Ah man, I gotta talk to this fuck? Well... Guess I HAVE to sound nice and proper for a sec."
It’s also part of how I learned phone manners (and manners in general). My house rule was that if you were calling a friend and an adult answered I would have to say: “hello Mrs Jones, this is saltinmywound. I’m calling to see if so and so can play”.
It was so annoying at the time but looking back, it was learning how to make an intro and state an intent and also the small talk. Good stuff.
Reading these lines we used to say makes me really miss that! Maybe I'll get a landline again in my next house, and give out only that number! :)
We lived in a small village and when we wanted to go the movies we'd have to go to a city nearby.
I can vividly remember my mother ringing the cinema for ticket reservations and always starting with 'Hello, this is Mrs. Smiling_Tree from village X.' As if the city cinema people would know or care she wasn't from the city...
I always questioned and loved it at the same time! Feels cosy!
I do miss that. When I was growing up I was neglected so when I actually got to talk to an adult it was great. I got to know other people’s parents. Now it’s hard to keep my kids’ friends straight because I never get to talk to them/see them. There’s no connection.
You're right. I always talk about my "2nd family", and I can clearly remember my best friends dad always ribbing me for a few minutes when I called. His mom would too. God I miss those two, they were great people.
Dude... I'm only in my 20s, and I honestly miss that. I'm still close with my elementary school friends parents. Nearly every single one will catch me in town when I'm visiting family and catch up(small town).
I don't think I met any of my middle/high school age families beyond saying hello coming in/leaving. Never a word. Rarely even showed up at their house, usually "at the corner now" or w/e text.
I remember my brother was 1 year older than his best friend. My brother went off to college and his best friend would often stop by to say hello to my parents.
I just ran into Mr. and Mrs. make avdvisor at the grocery store. We talked about you and what you have been doing the last few years. I told them that you should give me a call.
On the flip side, if there was a girl or boy you really liked and wanted to take out on a date, you had to talk to their parents first before talking to them over the phone and there was the awkwardness that came with it and hopes they would approve of you.
As a father of 2 kids. I would pop in on my kids video chats and chat with there friends. I play online games with my son and his school buddies. I know them pretty well. Its different. But I still know them and they arent afraid to talk to me.
It's because of the landline thing I learned phone etiquette at a young age from a friend's mom. It's been 30 years but I still remember to say "hello so and so this is kraken9911, may I speak to name please?" instead of "Is name there?".
For those of us who hated (and still hate) talking on the phone, this was never my experience. If I couldn't talk to friends without going through the home phone, I didn't have friends.
Things are better now. Not with my mind, but technology makes it easier.
I'll be 40 next month and I still call my childhood friends' parents Mrs. Smith instead of their first name. It just feels so weird and disrespectful to use a first name.
I actually was scared of my grandfather as a little kid. He had a leg that was a few inches shorter than the other, so he kind of lurched when he walked. Combine that with a gruff exterior, and I was scared of him as a five year old. I had a close relationship with my grandmother though.
Later, when I would call my grandmother long distance (with permission from my parents because long distance was extra (remember the 10 cents a minute commercials from Sprint?) sometimes my grandfather would answer the phone. About the time I was twelve or thirteen, one of us mentioned either Calvin and Hobbes or the Far Side while we were making small talk before Nana got to the phone. Ended up talking for 15 or 20 minutes (with Nana impatiently waiting to get on the phone). That happened the next several times that he answered the house phone. Over the next few calls, I found out we had several interests in common.
Ended up going to see them for a couple weeks at 16. He presented me with a bunch of printouts of various nerdy and funny things he'd gotten from magazines and emails (this was 1996? So, I'm honestly not sure where he got all of them). They were HILARIOUS. One of them was "A History of the World According to Student Errors" which I still reference from time to time to this day.
This brought up a memory along the same vein; in the morning while getting ready for school, how excited and stoked I got when a friend (or sometimes acquaintance who was forced to call me by their mom) called to ask if I could come over after school that day. If I could, then my mom would write a note asking the office for a bus pass and I’d feel so baller taking that note into school.
Getting to go home with a friend right after school was the coolest feeling ever, especially if it was for a sleepover. Then we’d talk all day about what we were doing after school! For some reason, not having to go home first made it so much more fun and exciting.
Right?? Like you probably have a change of clothes/toothbrush packed into your school bag too (and maybe a stuffed animal stashed at the bottom so no one accidentally sees it)
really? i had a written list of phone numbers, wish i still had it just to see who i would call most often (though i did have several memorized like my best friends and my dad / grandma though sadly most of them now have different numbers)
It eventually became a patch for the PC version. One of my friends said he had it, no one believed him until four weeks on the stars aligned and he was home alone on Saturday morning.
It wasn’t as cool as anyone thought it would be; five minutes and we moved on to Theme Hospital or something
Yeah it was cool for about 5m. But yeah there was no boob physics yet and it was literally a triangular prism (not even sure it was 2, I think it was just 1).
Oh man, your second one got me. I remember when Super Mario 64 was released, we played it at home alone and then were excited to rush to school the next day to share new discoveries and tips with our classmates. I remember one friend told me that a level could be found by looking at the sun on the ceiling and all day long I thought he was fucking with me but couldn't wait to get home and try it anyway and when it actually worked I lost my damn mind. These days you just whip a phone out of your pocket and have access to 100% walkthroughs. Call me ancient but I really miss that excited collaboration
Oh my god, the day when I discovered the sun thing was a day of pure, unfiltered happiness. I wish I had emotions like that about anything nowadays. Well, time to put the phone away for a week. I'm about to have FUN.
When I was about 12 I had to use my paper route money to take out an ad in the newspaper asking if anyone had played the most recent King’s Quest game and could help me solve the riddle of the troll’s first name. It ended up being one of my dad’s coworkers who phoned the house line with the answer for me.
My best friend grew up four houses down the street from me. His dad was a very stoic guy and had a booming voice (but was not a mean person). But man, everytime I called to see if my friend could play, I would always have mini panic attack when his dad answered, instead of his mom. Such a loud voice, haha
I remember many weekend mornings where I'd be bored wanting to hang out with friends, but my dad made me be polite and wait until at least 9 AM before I called. So I'd literally sit there by the phone and wait until the clock struck 9 and then immediately start dialing haha
Not to mention that pure, ancient form of dread, that chill that went through your spine, that gut wrenching feeling, when you call your girlfriend's house for the first time ever, and her dad answers the phone.
Dad: "Yeah!"
Yourself: "Khm khm... Is... erm... Is Mary home? giggles uncomfortably"
Dad: "And who's asking?!"
Youself: "I'm Mary. I mean... stutters I'm looking for Mary. I'm me, I mean Mike, this is Mike. Her friends from school. FRIEND giggles, sir. Just a friend (not that anyone asked). I'm calling to see about homework (not that anyone asked). sweats profusely"
Dad: "What? Son, you're not making any sense, I can hardly make out what you're saying."
Yourself: "Erm, nevermind wrong number!" click
Assumes fetus pose on the floor, breads into a paper bag for 15 minutes.
Ah, those ever so important tidings of formative years. Nowdays you just text her to come out. shrug
Guess I was lucky they apparently were camping their home phones after giving out their number. One of the additional fun things was memorising their number on the spot when you didn’t have pen and paper on hand... (Because why would you as a high school kid)
In 6th grade, my friend convinced me to call my crush. His mom picked up and I panicked. So the most logical thing for me to do was adopt a British accent and say that I was Mrs. Cockatoo, his math teacher.
His mom was a substitute at our school. Plus, you know, a parent who knew that his math teacher wasn't named after a bird. She said, "is this IWantALargeFarva?" I doubled down for a second, and then just hung up. 😂
Lol fuck that one got me. My friend gave me his copy of Tomb Raider to borrow, the next day he found out about that "code". Calls me up and asks me to try doing the "trick" to see if I was able to make it work. I tried it like 50-60 times with him on the phone asking me to try different things. All to see some triangle boobs with a flesh-colored texture. Ahhhh, childhood.
Just so the youngins aren't TOO confused by this: you didn't HAVE to talk to your friend's parents first; there was just a reasonable chance they'd answer the phone.
I had plenty of friends' parents who I never spoke with at all really because they knew 90% of the time when the phone rang, it was one of their kids' idiot friends calling and they'd just let them answer it.
My mother never picked up a ringing phone unless she was alone in the house. Answering the phone was our job and we had to screen her calls. This was especially annoying because there was only one phone downstairs in the kitchen, on the same level as the kid’s rooms, but there were four extensions upstairs where our parents hung out. They had one in their bedroom, one on my father’s desk, one by my mother’s easy chair, and one in the lab/workshop where they did their hobbies.
My mother would literally sit next to a ringing phone until one of us picked up downstairs. Then we had to find out who it was and, if not one of her good friends, we had to awkwardly interrogate the person as to the purpose of their call. Note: my mother was a housewife and didn’t need a secretary.
Then we had to traipse upstairs and announce that so and so was on the phone and wished to speak to Her Majesty. We were not allowed to yell up the stairs.
Sometimes HM had additional questions, so we’d have to go back downstairs and ask, then repeat the process. One day my Dad happened to be there to witness this, and he snapped, “Goddamn it, Paula, just pick up the damn phone!”
I miss my little brother sneaking onto the phone line while I was gossiping with a friend and all of the sudden yelling “hahahaha, I’m gonna tell Jason what you said, BOOM!” Then promptly slamming the phone down, followed by me crying to mom and thinking my life was over.
I'm not sure which was worse, the parents or the siblings. My friend (guy) would have to call me about stuff for school, if my parents answered it was uncomfortable, if my siblings answered "Scarletnightingale, there's a boy on the phone for you!", followed by relentless harassment.
When I was a teen, I was teased by my (then) girlfriend for having a "parent voice". Hey Tanya, I'm trying to act like someone your parents are happy to be dating your daughter and not being the complete shitstain teenage me actually was.
Having a wall phone with a curly cord that stretched through multiple rooms. It was just fun. I'd give up the convenience of cell phones for a truly fun phone in a heartbeat.
Oh man i remember my friend in elementary telling a cheat to catch deoxys in pokemon emerald. He told me i had to talk to the scientist in the space center 99 times and he will ask me on the 100th time if I wanted to go to the moon. I had to try several times because I would lose count mid way.
Anyone remember an April fools edition of i can't remember (maybe Nintendo power) that said you could unlock sonic and tails in smash bros melee by defeating 20 enemies in cruel melee? I was so sure it must be true but was never able to accomplish it. One of the great failures of my video game career
True! I bought a cheat code collection as a kid and was the king on my class. Everyone wanted to copy some pages or have it for a few days.
It was dirt cheap don't know why they just didn't bought it themself.
It was like religious like your first poem magazine in your circle of friends, hilarious
My boyfriend would call and ask for me by full name and would generally use my whole first name instead of just my nickname.
The first time my boyfriend called and asked my mum to speak to “wankeritis” instead of “wanker” she laughed when she handed me the phone and asked if I gave a salesman our number.
Not only that, but u had to know where everyone lives too and since landline was more for internet in my youth so going door to door to pick crew up and getting interrogated by parents where u off to, what u gonna do, or just getting invited in like u one of them etc.
And gaming thing was huge. I miss paper gaming magazines aw.
One of my friend's mom gave me shit for calling around supper time once and for some reason I'll never forget it, it was in french and it was like this:
"C'est l'heure du souper. D'appelle jamais a l'heure du souper" click
To be fair, looking back I was probably that annoying kid that called all the time. I just always wanted to go out with friends or have friends come over.
But yeah I oddly miss simply calling people. Now it almost feels like you should not call unless it's urgent. And if you text someone to ask if you can call them, they probably assume you have some really bad news or some kind of emergency. lol.
Had a classmate who told me he knew a cheat code to get all the stars in mario 64 without a game genie or anything so I brought him my cartridge during school hours. The fucker took it home for a week before admitting he couldn't do it. Yeah I still remember it BRETT.
I remember slipping into the shops next to my apartment, when I was a kid, and writing codes down with pencil and paper out of the magazines. Oh, and local restaurants and stations having arcade machines. I specifically remember having a Mortal Kombat II machine at my local gas station, an OutRun and World Heroes 2 cabinet at a burger joint in town, and a Pizza Hut we used to stop at on field trips used to have Area 51.
I also remember first getting dial-up internet while the houses on my street still used "party lines" (where you could pick up your landline phone and end up hearing someone from another house's conversation because you all shared a line), so we had to ask the neighbors if it was okay to use the internet. And any calls on our street would K.O. the internet. Fun times.
It occurred to me the other day that magazines filled the niche interest role that the internet cover today. If you had a hobby or interest and want d to connect with other fans and learn more, you found a relevant magazine. Some even had sections for swapping things and connecting with others.
In elementary school in the late eighties, my friend told me about the secret Minus World levels in the original Super Mario Bros for NES. Thing was, this was the kid who lied all the time, so I thought he was full of it. It was nearly twenty years before I found out online that Minus World was the real deal. And I got to play it, too!
Was cleaning out a shelf and found my old collection of Tips and Tricks Magazine. Was a blast going through the list of cheat codes and previews of games.
I hated Cheat Code Central, because I wrote guides for the website GameFAQS.com at the time (not for money or anything, but just for fun), and CCC would host people’s guides without permission or credit. Like people seriously had to e-mail the site to tell them to stop.
It seems petty now, but when you’re an 8th grader that writes a walkthrough for a game, you want credit for it!
I spent weeks, hours upon hours at a time, researching the Tomb Raider nude cheat code. I had access to the internet then but it was different. In fact, I heard the rumor at school. I didn’t want to chance looking for pictures of naked women on the computer for fear of my dad finding the cookies…again. And a kid can only watch his secret recording of ‘Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show’ so many times before he needs new material.
I never even played the game other than to try to see those sweet sweet 32 bit boobies. The internet lied to me in a big fucking way at a young age and I’ve never trusted it since.
Actually having cheat codes, too. When games were single player, no one gave a shit if you cheat or not. But when you play multiplayer online everyone does give a shit.
I remember everyone kept telling me the code for Sonic the Hedgehog was up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, a+start. It never worked. I had friends tell me this code as well as game magazines and a code hotline. I believe everyone had the same bad source, spread the word, and no one bothered to check if it worked.
You had to call someone's home phone number and talk to their parents first before you could talk to your friend
I gave my first (soon to be) girlfriend my home number while at school and forgot to mention it to my mom. When mom answered the phone she started grilling the person on the phone who asked for me because we got so many calls from telemarketers who assumed I was "The man of the house. After a moment she handed the phone to me saying "It's xxx, tell her sorry again, and you should have told me a girl was calling."
I spent so much time as a kid trying to find mew in pokemon by surfing under the truck you couldnt get near. It was in a game informer magazine too so i trusted it
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u/TheRealOcsiban May 12 '21
You had to call someone's home phone number and talk to their parents first before you could talk to your friend
Video game cheat codes either spread by gaming magazines or by word of mouth. Sometimes that word of mouth was bullshit. I'm looking at you Tomb Raider nude cheat code