Call in for time and temperature

DWalt

DWalt

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I saw a little news piece today that there are still call-in time and temperature phone numbers in many cities. I could hardly believe it as almost everyone now has a cell phone or iPad that displays it. But it is true. San Antonio has one, operated by a bank. It gives the date, time, and temperature, plus a bank ad. I tried it, only problem was that the time given was about two minutes slow. There is even a NIST national time number. Actually two of them. 303-499-7111 and 808-335-4363.
You can put those in your file of useless information.
 
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DWalt said:
I saw a little news piece today that there are still call-in time and temperature phone numbers in many cities. I could hardly believe it as almost everyone now has a cell phone or iPad that displays it. But it is true. San Antonio has one, operated by a bank. It gives the date, time, and temperature, plus a bank ad. I tried it, only problem was that the time given was about two minutes slow. There is even a NIST national time number. Actually two of them. 303-499-7111 and 808-335-4363.
You can put those in your file of useless information.
Click to expand...

LOL that brings back some old memories. We used to call it all the time because we were kids and didn't have anyone to call.
 
When I was in HS I had an uncle that worked for Cincinnati Time. They were the nation's leading manufacturer of time punch clocks. They partnered with the department store Shillito's and provided a time number which was free when using Ma Bell's pay phones.

"At the tone the Shillito's time will be...".

It told me what my life expectancy was for breaking dad's curfew.

 
From the 1970's...and this thread brought back memories...

"Brought to you by American Opinion Bookstore. **** Richmond Ave. Houston. Phone Jackson 8-4831....Let Freedom Ring"

That voice in a deep, almost sinister male voice was the voice of a what would be called "right wing" bookstore that had a different editorial every week. I used to call it just to listen to this for laughs because some of the stuff was so far out of the ballpark it made Dale from "King of the Hill" look like Rush Limbaugh!

I remember the closing statement almost verbatim even after over fifty years. I'm sitting here laughing about it now.

Houston National Bank used to sponsor a time reminder phone service...it was usually off by up to ten minutes.

Time and technology march on.

(Postscript): I have since found out that the store was part of at one time a large chain of such bookstores that were O/O by the John Birch Society.
 
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That 303 number is NIST in Boulder,CO. The number we used back in the day was 443-1910 (303 prefix now) and I believe it still works ��
 
How about that. When I was a kid 60-something years ago we could call SPRINGS to get the current time. 'Just tried it, after 60+ years, and it still works! Of course now you have to dial the area code first. CT area code 203-777-4647
 
Like calling a radio station with a song request.
 
Onomea said:
Man, I haven't thought of time punch clocks in years... I remember punching in and out, and later, when I got promoted, initialing cards for employees who were late but had halfway plausible excuses.
Click to expand...

I clocked in/out for twelve years until I retired a little over ten years ago. Before that I signed in with a five minute grace period while driving bus. If you were over five minutes late to sign in your daily work was given to a standby and you could do a free standby in hopes somebody else would mess up or call in sick. I had little sympathy for people who couldn't make it to work on time and believe me I heard everything while I was a grievance steward representing the guy that was late. If getting paid was important, give yourself enough time to allow for extra traffic or road conditions. Some guys came running in every day to sign in with 30 seconds to spare. I gave myself thirty minutes and drank coffee at my leisure, took my time going out to the bus, make sure everything was in order. Chronical lateness was enough to get you canned, more than three times in a six month period would get you a letter for the first offense, then progressively a couple days suspension without pay and termination if you couldn't make it. I've heard them all....
I had a buddy that got afoul of the attendance record, was on the last step, he missed-out the last time. I went in to represent him with management, he had a flat tire or that was his excuse. He was black and from Detroit originally, one of the funniest people I've ever known. He could put on this act around management types using all the rhetoric common and uncle Tom slang "Why mistah Harmon I hads me a blow-out on the way to work." Harmon said "Well you ought to have good tires to prevent that from happening." "Mistah Harmon I can't pay dat kine a money for tires." Harmon said "Well what kind of tires do you have?" Drew said "Why I gots may-pop tires on ma car." Harmon says "May-pop....May-pop, what kind of tire is that?" Drew says "Why dey may pop anytime." I just lost it, the manager was furious, but gave him one more shot...which he ended up blowing.
 
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