When people answered the phone with..

Ruu_Old

'Hello 049-12356*' Does anyone do it anymore? A neighbour of mind used to answer the phone like so, this would be before I got mine installed. Ah the excitement when seeing the Telecom Eireann van show up to install the phone.

*not actual number, do not attempt to call!

Creamy Goodness

i remember it but i don't remember why people did it.

"yes i know how to use my telephone you don't need to tell me the number i just dialled."

Dudess

Yeah, my mum still does it. And she doesn't say "hello", just picks up the phone and says "123456". The thing is, about seven years ago, a seventh digit was added to the start of numbers in the Cork area, but she still doesn't include that! To be fair, she never puts in the "021" and she still sounds a lot friendlier than my dad who grunts "yah?" when he picks up the phone!

Irish Wolf

Yup - same thing happened in the Wolf household.. but even after we got the magical telephone installed, when we rang our cousins in the west we had to go through the operator and ask for "Western village - 25"..

Dudess

"Western village - 25" - holy sh*t! Despite its serious retro-ness, sounds kinda futuristic! Ah, the telephone exchange! Many is the time my dad regaled us with anecdotes of how he would have to go through his local post office to speak to someone and when he was put through he would always loudly remark "don't say too much, those stupid bitches in the post office are listening" and whenever he went down to do anything in the post office, said "stupid bitches" would refuse to serve him - which made him keep doing it!

Ah, the politics of rural Ireland in the '60s.

kelle

Dudess wrote:

"Western village - 25" - holy sh*t! Despite its serious retro-ness, sounds kinda futuristic! Ah, the telephone exchange! Many is the time my dad regaled us with anecdotes of how he would have to go through his local post office to speak to someone and when he was put through he would always loudly remark "don't say too much, those stupid bitches in the post office are listening" and whenever he went down to do anything in the post office, said "stupid bitches" would refuse to serve him - which made him keep doing it!

Ah, the politics of rural Ireland in the '60s.

And sometimes those "stupid bitches" only answered when they felt like it! My grandmother had to twist a handle at the side of her phone to alert the post office, then they'd ring and ask for the number she wanted. She awoke late one morning in 1985 to find grandad lying on the floor. She twisted the handle on her phone until her hand was nearly falling off her - but the bitches didn't ring back for over an hour. Ambulance arrived but he was dead.
Grandma knew their daily pattern off by heart, and knew they always went on an hour-long teabreak at that time every day!! Thank goodness we don't have that systen anymore, could you imagine your child having symptoms of meningitis, having no car and NEEDING an ambulance but unable to ring 999??? And if everybody in your workplace went on tea or lunch break at the same time everyday, there'd be war!

Ruu wrote:

'Hello 049-12356*' Does anyone do it anymore? A neighbour of mind used to answer the phone like so, this would be before I got mine installed.

My mother and father died in 2005, but up until then always answered the phone "Hello - 54321"

Dudess

Good God, that's horrific! Yeah, everyone going on their lunch break/tea break at the same time is a thing of the past in any establishment that deals with the public - rightly so.
God love your poor gran - talk about extra trauma on top of her bereavement. I'm amazed that system was still on the go in 1985 too. Was it in a very rural area?

kelle

Dudess wrote:

Good God, that's horrific! Yeah, everyone going on their lunch break/tea break at the same time is a thing of the past in any establishment that deals with the public - rightly so.
God love your poor gran - talk about extra trauma on top of her bereavement. I'm amazed that system was still on the go in 1985 too. Was it in a very rural area?

It was in north Mayo, she had no car and the nearest house was a mile away. That system changed in 1986 there. It's still a very remote area, despite a huge arrival of foreign nationals there (can't imagine why they like living there!)

Wishbone Ash

Ruu wrote:

'Hello 049-12356*' Does anyone do it anymore?

The reason that people don't answer like that nowadays is mainly because:

1. the Gardaí always advise against it. Perverts/heavy breathers etc. may be dialling numbers at random hoping for an answer but may not necessarily recall it but if it's answered and the number is repeated, they may be inclined to ring again.

2. it's naff and pretentious and so 1970s.

Dudess wrote:

Yeah, everyone going on their lunch break/tea break at the same time

I don't know if many here remember "The Kennedys of Castleross". It was a RTE Radio soap which came on at 12.50pm (?) daily. (It was a forerunner of Harbour Hotel). Anyway, my parents tell me that it was pointless going into a shop, post office, pub, bookies, workplace or a house at that time as everywhere was deserted for 10 minutes while the latest installment was listened to.

jb91

My mom does and she starts the number with "87" instead of "287" even though it changed like 20 years ago :rolleyes:

It's just like that episode of the Simpsons where Mr Burns tries to do chores for himself. He picks up the phone and says "Hello? ... Oh no, this is 012 34576. ... Not at all! You appear to need some practice operating your telephone machine!"

Angus MacGyver

My Friends Da still does it. I always get a laugh out of it. Old habits die hard.

bullets

I used to do it as a kid still living at home.
Once I hit about 16 thought it was naff and stopped doing it.

~B

Wishbone Ash

My father picks up the telephone but says nothing initially. It's a bit weird he says that 'they' rang so it's up to 'them' to speak!

mike65

In our house it was de-rigure to say the number as it was best practice of the day but for some reason it fell out of fashion. I blame the rise of the mobile myself, now no-one knows thier own number.

Mike.

Voodu Child

This thread jogged a few memories...

My folks used to do it back in the '80s. As kids we used to do it too...

The funny thing is I have no idea when or why we stopped doing it.. late '80s at a guess. Must have gone out of 'fashion' or something..

dbnavan

I think it went out when caller Id came in now I just anwser phone with...."Howya[insert name on caller ID]" or just "hello" to withheld numbers

cailinoBAC

My Dad still does this. I mean, we had to do it when we were younger, can't remember exactly when we changed - probably was about the time of called id. And I remember when the extra 8 was put before the 49, sounded as if it had to be squashed in at the start.

Hmmm, I wonder what people would say if I started answering my phone like this....

Dudess

Wishbone Ash wrote:

My father picks up the telephone but says nothing initially. It's a bit weird he says that 'they' rang so it's up to 'them' to speak!

Grrrr! It drives me MENTAL when people do that!!! Your dad obviously has his own logical (to him!) reason for doing it but the times I've experienced it, I've just found it to be so RUDE! It surely makes sense to ANSWER the phone when you pick it up. If you say nothing, the person on the other end might just presume there's something wrong with the phone. Whenever it's done to me, I will not open my mouth until the person says something. Normally they're rude pricks too...

peckerhead

Since this is obviously going to turn into a grumpy-old-farts thread, can I (as a card-carrying GOF) ask whether any of you find yourselves increasingly inclined to pick up the 'phone and just growl your surname, without any of that 'Hello/how are you/you've reached...' patter?

smdweb

This is very interesting - I remember as kids we had to answer the phone like this ... I think the advent of mobile phones might have stopped this. Either that or these social niceities are gone.

Mrs. MacGyver

We say ...residence, ...speaking. In our village there a 3 people with the same name as my father so the post etc keeps getting mixed up! One of them has a garage and sometimes i feel like his answering machine! (hes a nice guy though!).

I remember having to go through the operator in the 1980's to ring my father in work, you asked for something like ballygobackwards 3 and you were put through. My father and the other employess in x company were paranoid as they thought the operator listened in on their conversations!

Ruu_Old

Grr as above, two McEnroes on our road, one of them a farmer and we get several calls asking for directions as they have fertiliser/cattle/feed/anything else farm related for us!

rubadub

My parents used to do it, and I did too, just copying them. I presumed it was to let the other person know they number they dialled, I remember getting lots of wrong numbers in the old days of the big spinny wheel dialling system, I would often list the number and immediately they would say "sorry wrong number". I would do the same if people listed it back to me. In days of phones with memories people are usually just pressing the name and not entering a string of digits. Far less wrong numbers these days. If you are on a mobile, or a lot of house phones, the numbers you are entering appear on the display, so even if it is a number you never dialled before you can recheck it before hitting "call".

Wishbone Ash wrote:

1. the Gardaí always advise against it. Perverts/heavy breathers etc. may be dialling numbers at random hoping for an answer but may not necessarily recall it but if it's answered and the number is repeated, they may be inclined to ring again.

Never understood that logic, is the pervert going to instantly remember a number quoted back to him? Is he going to write it down? if so he would write it first and ring. And these days the "perverts" will have memory on the phones, even when they didnt it made no sense to me.

Wishbone Ash wrote:

2. it's naff and pretentious and so 1970s.

Pretending to be what??? pretending to be back in the 70's & 80's??

My mom does and she starts the number with "87" instead of "287" even though it changed like 20 years ago

My old man gave a big pause after the 2, and then would rattle off the rest like he always used to.

chopperbyrne

My dad used to always answer the phone saying "Hello Ministry of Defense".

The amount of people who hung up straight away!

stovelid

Not so much these days but she does still switch over to the 'Phone Voice'.

chopperbyrne

My brother gives out to me for using phone voice, but after two years of tech support it just became my natural way of talking on the phone.

Jesus Wept

My dad opened a business in the late 70's in Oldcastle (Co. Meath).

They got the first phone in the area, and it was a dublin number. :D

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Ah I thought this thread was gonna be about when you answered the phone with "Whaaazzzzzzzz uppppp?". Now those were happy times.

Corkette

chopperbyrne wrote:

My dad used to always answer the phone saying "Hello Ministry of Defense".

The amount of people who hung up straight away!

When I used live at home and the landline rang, if there was a good chance it was another family member ringing, my Dad would pick up the reciever and say "Hah-low Chin-ese take-away. Wha you like?" in a pretty spectacularly politically incorrect voice! (Usually screwing up his face at the time!)

As you can imagine there was a lotta people who hung up too!

Hail 2 Da Chimp

My dad also used to answer the phone with "Hello St. Columbus", this is the name of a well known local mental hospital...

Why is it dads are the main offenders here

stipey

When my dad answers the phone the following conversation often ensues....

Dad: Hello, I wonder could I speak to Robert please?
Caller: Who?
Dad: Is Robert about? Could I speak with him please?
Caller: I'm sorry, there's nobody here by that name. You must have the wrong number.
Dad: Oh I'm sorry for disturbing you.
Caller: Not at all
Dad: Bye now.
Caller: Bye


cue the phone ringing 2 minutes later...

Dad: Hello?
Caller: Was that you? You %$#*ing %$#*er

Pyridine

Our home phone used to be 1 digit away from James's hospital so we would answer the phone with "hello city morgue".

The stunned relatives would usually just hang up and dial the right number!

Spyral

*not actual number, do not attempt to call!

aww...

a neighbors is nearly the same as the taxi service... poor guy but thankfully I dont have any phone number related shenanigans to relay sorry