Wednesday, March 7, 2012

POPCORN...by Jessica

My kids have an ongoing argument about the times on their alarm clocks.

Apparently, Zack and I have our clocks set 2 minutes apart from each other so Anya entered MY clock time and Ian entered ZACK'S clock time and they've been arguing about who's clock is correct ever since.


In the middle of the (stupidest) argument ever I completely dated myself and said "Why don't you call POPCORN and whatever that says is the time and the argument could be ended" and they looked at me all baffled - "POPCORN? What's that?" So I proceeded to call POPCORN and found out there is no more POPCORN. After a little research I learned that effective September 2007 "Time of day information service" was suspended. "Times change," said John Britton, an AT&T spokesman. "In today's world, there are just too many other ways to get this information."

What made me think of this was an invitation from Ian to Anya that I ran across:

032



I thought FOR SURE that the little P.S. was a trick and that since she would use HER clock time, she would be late and he would say - "Sorry, you're late. No party."

But I asked about the party and Anya said, "Yes, he had a party for me. First we had a tea party, then played a game of chess, then I Spy, and then he used a flashlight under all these colored cups and had a light show. It was fun."

I'm here to say I was wrong. As well as being dated and old-fashioned (calling POPCORN? I mean, come on who does that these days???) I was also being pessimistic about my children's desire and ability to throw parties for each other JUST FOR FUN. How cute is that?

9 comments:

jboudreau said...

Yeah I think it's sad they got rid of Popcorn, but I knew they had. There is an online clock you can use to see who is right! http://www.time.gov/
Maybe one is a minute early and one is a minute late? Sounds like a fun party!

Rachel said...

love it! Esp that your son had a party for your daughter. Priceless! A two person party, perfect. Probably my most favorite kind.

And I have never heard it called POPCORN but it did conjur up a memory of calling that number (whatever it was called) quite regularly to be SURE of the exact time. My fear of being late is well ingrained. poporn huh, why was it called that?

Jessica said...

Rachel, it was POPCORN because if you spelled out POPCORN that's the number..it was like 767-something. Jessica, I should just fix our clocks to adjust for it with one minute each way - that would solve the problem!

Jessica said...

Oh - but I think that was the number for Pacific standard time - so maybe yours spelled something different, you're from Minnesota? Maybe it was like SNOWDAY or something?

Becky said...

This is so funny, because I JUST called popcorn like 7 or 8 months ago! I was surprised to find out it was no longer, it was such a handy service!

Juliana said...

I am so sad there is no more POPCORN. There are so many things that kids are going to have no idea about, like developing film, and VCR's. They are going to be computer geniuses that will be teaching us at the senior center.

jbbode said...

Yup...just called POPCORN the other day...; )

Ruthie said...

Aren't cell phones synced into the right time? Or am i totally misguided? That's where we always look when we want to know the real time.

Jessica said...

Yeah Ruthie, you're right. I think I suggested POPCORN because it would keep them occupied for maybe a minute versus the 5 seconds to look at the cell phone. You know what I mean, I'm sure ;)