171 replies to this topic

[D.L.]

lol yeah

[gumgum]

Phone book pages are perfect for lining your new kitchen compost bin.

[Mike K.]

That's what I do

[D.L.]

Sent three phone books to the recycle bin and two to the fire starting bin in recent days

[Sparky]

Our company used to pay for display ads in both the Telus and the brand X book.

Now we display in neither.

As VFH would say......"The times ....they are...a ....changing..."

[Dimitrios]

I gotta say - I'm glad we don't get phone books anymore. Considering the price of shipping these days, it's unbelievable what heavy bricks those things are; free delivery, what a joke.

That said, the GTG household has gone back to a land line. We're in a bit of a cell service hole, and the real phone doesn't make my head hot. Though I have no data, I have a sneaking paranoid theory that this will be good for my brain in the long run.

[LJ]

^Well don't use a cordless phone then.

[Sparky]

History Buff, it took me over a year to get it from Ken at General Salvage....but I got it today. 1946 Victoria phone book.

Priceless.

[VicHockeyFan]

Sweet! ^

[HB]

History Buff, it took me over a year to get it from Ken at General Salvage....but I got it today. 1946 Victoria phone book.

Priceless.

Well I think the beer date us getting closer this I need to see and I have some nice cold Stsnley Park Brewery Amber waiting

[Sparky]

^ & ^^

[Sparky]

C...you know where I live.....you are always welcome....

[HB]

That phone book is not only Victoria but teh whole Island bet theres not too many pages in it 70 years ago

[Rob Randall]

Is Robert W. Randall in there?

[Sparky]

Is Robert W. Randall in there?

R W Randall 528 Michigan Empire 8542 Do you want me give him a call?

[Rob Randall]

^I doubt you'd receive an answer, both man and house are long gone.

The house was on the site of the post war government offices behind the Legislature in James Bay. This is pretty much the only reference to the address on the Internet, from the 1908 British Colonist:

TO LET-Comfortably furnished front
room with use of kitchen if required 528 Michigan James Bay

Sometime in the 40s my family relocated to a new subdivision on Scott St., south of what would become Hillside Mall. My great-grandfather David lived nearby on Shakespeare St., he may be in that book.

That's David on the left with three R W Randalls including yours truly.

[Sparky]

^ So that's where the ears came from.

There is a David Randall plumber 2815 Shakespeare E mpire - 7933

Neat that they supply his trade in the phone book.

[Rob Randall]

^Yes, that's him. Family lore says David the plumber helped with reconstruction following the San Francisco quake. He also installed plumbing in the Belgian battlefields in WW I. Spent most of his life in that Shakespeare St. house, which still stands in more or less its original state.

That's why I have a sentimental attachment to the old phone books, there's so much history there. Online directories are handier but so ephemeral. All the data disappears in such short order.

[James Bay walker]

The phone book recently delivered to my place went straight into the paper bin used for starting fires in our fireplace

Phone books still have their uses though. 

 

If you're a landlord, if you keep your old ones they're a cheap way of checking a local tenant's application history to see if he or she really did live here or there for X years earlier; (in those instances where the rent application credit check does not make this obvious). 

 

And personally, they're my first choice for looking up phone numbers anyway.  Helps me feel I'm getting something for paying Telus an outrageous price for monthly phone service (btw, the first one's worked so well I'll soon be switching the rest of my phones to [Rogers] Fido's 'home phone' alternative to save myself $27/mo each].  (Built-in rechargeable battery backup lasts about 36 hours' standby, you can readily jury rig a few D-cells for a two week backup supply, in case of civil disaster.]

 

jbw

[dasmo]

Everyone should opt out at http://delivery.ypg.com/

 

I just did after starting to write that they should have an easy way to opt out lol! Such a waist. Two were on my door step and went straight into the recycle. Handy they showed up on a Tuesday before the Thurday pickup at least. This is not a good use for our precious trees!