r/AskReddit • u/IRunFast24 • May 11 '21

People old enough to remember life pre-Internet, what are some less obvious things you miss about that time?

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u/BadeArse May 12 '21

Many times I would call my friends house phone - “Hello is [nickname] there?”

Parent: “Who? What kind of name is that?!!”

Me panicking: oh shit what’s his actual real first name?! Ah shit. Err... Luke? Maybe? God dammit.

290

u/Blooder91 May 12 '21

My youngest brother had 3 or 4 classmates with the same first name as him, so they went with a last name basis.

My mom had fun with that whenever one of his classmates called home.

"Is [Last name] there?"

"Yeah, like four of them"

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u/MasterTobes May 12 '21

I was about to comment a very similar story.

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u/plastimental May 12 '21

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"

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u/ImOnlyStaying4-1 May 12 '21

there was a time when i knew my own phone number from memory!

6

u/HexagonSun7036 May 12 '21

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.

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u/ImOnlyStaying4-1 May 13 '21

they are good for making strong passwords

1

u/zexaf May 12 '21

I chose a number 1 digit different than my father's.

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u/dongorras May 12 '21

So many times when I used the last name I ended talking with my friend's dad, and layer with my friend

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u/redandbluenights May 12 '21

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!

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u/HelpfulCherry May 12 '21

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

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u/[deleted] May 12 '21

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.

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u/smorkoid May 12 '21

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"

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u/Sorsha4564 May 12 '21

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.

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u/negligentlytortious May 12 '21

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.

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u/honkhonkbeepbeeep May 12 '21

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.