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crimycarny

(1,648 posts)
30. Anybody remember the "beep line"?
Tue Dec 3, 2024, 11:12 PM
Dec 3

I grew up in the midwest and I remember something referred to as a "beep line" which was a number everyone could dial and there would be a constant beep--beep--beep, but in between the beeps you could call out your number and others could hear it and would call you (a teenager thing).

For example, my childhood number was 241-6860. I remember calling into the beep line and yelling out each individual number between the beeps:

Beep--2!--beep--4!--beep--1!--beep--6!---beep--8!---beep--6!--beep---0! We'd hang up and then our phone would ring with some stranger who was on the beep line and wrote down the number we screamed out between beeps. That, I guess, was our closest thing to an "internet", in that several people could be on the same line at once.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Guilty chicoescuela Dec 3 #1
🤗 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #2
Yeah, I always have to reset passwords. mucifer Dec 3 #3
🤗 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #6
284-8884 OAITW r.2.0 Dec 3 #4
🤗 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #7
sounds like an ambulance chasing lawyer rampartd Dec 3 #15
Was my childhood phone number True Dough Dec 3 #5
🤔 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #8
Is that you, Jenny? Xavier Breath Dec 3 #18
From the block? Like JLo? True Dough Dec 3 #33
Main 5 65 21!!! elleng Dec 3 #9
😃 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #11
Hint: Make your next password your childhood phone number.... Sogo Dec 3 #10
🤗 Floyd R. Turbo Dec 3 #12
GOOD idea!!!!! elleng Dec 3 #13
I've done that already! catchnrelease Dec 3 #24
lol! FemDemERA Dec 3 #26
Raises hand! virgdem Dec 3 #14
Not only my childhood phone #... fairfaxvadem Dec 3 #16
B-R-549 SalamanderSleeps Dec 3 #17
Not me Faux pas Dec 3 #19
I remember my childhood phone number. It started with WH. Dem2theMax Dec 3 #20
That would be me. NNadir Dec 3 #21
Ours was TRINITY 2-1575 Jeebo Dec 3 #22
Texas-4-3023. Hubby's was - Avenue - something, something. Srkdqltr Dec 3 #32
Ours was ... dsvajda Dec 4 #47
I moved every two years Skittles Dec 3 #23
010 353 4636677 mwooldri Dec 3 #25
7642 - and it was a party line. There were 6 other houses on our line dai13sy Dec 3 #27
Childhood phone number was easy to remember mwooldri Dec 3 #28
Yeeup WestMichRad Dec 3 #29
Anybody remember the "beep line"? crimycarny Dec 3 #30
Remember my phone # from the 1970s and those of 5 or 6 friends AdamGG Dec 3 #31
Wow, I just remembered my neighbor's phone number in Greece 50 years ago. Pompoy Dec 3 #34
These days only mine and my wife's, not the son's and daughter's. Pompoy Dec 3 #38
Vernon 7 -2628 later 837-2628 in late 1950s. PufPuf23 Dec 3 #35
I guess I am older than most of those that replied.... walkingman Dec 3 #36
Yes! snacker Dec 4 #48
Yes snacker Dec 4 #49
I carefully write my passwords down on a piece of paper. Then I only have to remember where I put the piece of paper. hay rick Dec 3 #37
The password I created the other day was my childhood telephone number Brother Buzz Dec 3 #39
Same here. My siblings and I use that number for lots of things. Midnight Writer Dec 4 #57
EL5-7442 bobandrileysmom Dec 3 #40
25 R 12 DallasNE Dec 3 #41
My parents still have the same phone number as when I was a child... RockRaven Dec 3 #42
BRunswick 8 5748 boonecreek Dec 3 #43
Yep IbogaProject Dec 3 #44
Sure Cirsium Dec 4 #45
ARdmore 1-1307 hedda_foil Dec 4 #46
Does the one from age 12 count? By the time i was 12, my family... 3catwoman3 Dec 4 #50
Me. TE-7-3942. Try it. See if I answer. HUAJIAO Dec 4 #51
That's me! KitFox Dec 4 #52
Can't remember that phone number other than it started duncang Dec 4 #53
All the time. Think it through. DFW Dec 4 #54
Yep Figarosmom Dec 4 #55
I remember the one phone number until I moved out at age 16 airplaneman Dec 4 #56
Well, I use a password manager.... CousinIT Dec 4 #58
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