Searching one's Marketplace orders

[Madelaine McMasters]

Amazon has spoiled you, Mo.

I'm not aware of any order history search function.

;-).

[Madelaine McMasters]

Amazon has spoiled you, Mo.

I'm not aware of any order history search function.

;-).

[Rolig Loon]

Mostly because there isn't one. I wonder if anyone else remembers that old Yellow Pages jingle ... "Let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages"? ( I wonder if anyone else remembers the Yellow Pages? ) In any case, the answer is to get in there and search manually.

[Madelaine McMasters]

I'm grinning, Rolig.

I'd actually typed "Let your fingers do the walking" in my response to Mo, but took it out because I didn't think many people would get the reference. I barely do.

And you're ancient enough to possibly know the story behind hearing the phone ring and having someone day "Oh, that's Jane. I recognize her ring". And if you aren't and don't, you can learn it the same way I did... second hand.

Party line phones placed up to a dozen or so phones on the same line. Turning the hand crank on the side of the phone generated the current to ring every phone on the line, including one at the switchboard. Each home had a particular ring pattern (it was two longs and a short for my house), and so did the switchboard.

If you wanted to place a call within your party, you cranked the pattern for your intended recipient. If they were home, they recognized their ring and picked up. If you wanted to call outside your party, you cranked the operator's pattern (one really loooooong ring). So, it makes sense that you'd recognize your own ring, but that doesn't explain how you'd recognize someone else's. As it was explained to me, it was not hard to discern more than just the ring pattern. You could also detect the vigor of the person cranking the other phone, as well as cadence and "lilt" as Dad called it. So, when someone called our house back way back then, my Grandfather might just know who was cranking the other end. And so "Oh, that's Jane, I recognize her ring" was widely experienced.

I did get to witness this first hand, simply by ringing an old crank telephone myself, then hearing Mom and Dad do it. Without seeing them, and having never heard such a telephone before (other than in movies), I was able to tell which of them was ringing.

;-).

[Rolig Loon]

Not only do I remember party lines, I remember the first telephone number I memorized, as I was headed off to kindergarten. I'm pretty sure that we lost the party within a year, though, because my sister doesn't remember it. Sic transit gloria technologia.

[Madelaine McMasters]

It's easy for me to remember my childhood phone number. It's the one you dial if you want to contact me... today. In 1970, it rang the wall phone in the kitchen, now it rings my cell phone in the... (wait a minute while I "Find My iPhone")... gazebo outside!

Oh, and if I translated correctly, Gloria got sick on the bus to tech school? I'm glad I wasn't there!