The Prank Phone Call!
I do feel a bit sorry for the kids growing up today, as they will never get to fully experience the amazingness of it!
In today's world, where everyone has a cell phone, clearly you see every number that is calling you.
But boy, oh boy...did we have fun back in the day!
Remember disguising your voice to try to make your prepubescent tone sound much older, and then asking a random neighbor if their refrigerator is running? And when they said 'yes,' you responded with, "Well, then you better go catch it!"?
Ahhhhh, memories...
Some people were a little more cruel with their prank calls. I remember being at a friend's house for a sleepover, and one of the more 'rebellious' kids among us decided that it would be fun to order a pizza for the neighbors across the street.
We would then spy ever-so-carefully out the window, watching the pizza guy walk up to their door, only to see their shocked faces: "We didn't order any pizza!"
Oh brother...
So many varieties:
You could whisper in an eery, soft tone.
You could just randomly keep calling and then hanging up on people.
You could pretend to be from a radio station, telling them they won a prize!
Prank calls worked SO well back then, before we had Caller ID, because you had NO CLUE who was calling you. The element of surprise made people automatically answer their phones! (you know...if by chance your bookie WAS calling, you needed to pick that phone up!)
One of the most amazing calls my friends and I ever made occurred late on a weekend night. We just picked a random phone number out of the phone book, (eesh...remember when phone books where also a necessity...WAY before the internet) Anyway...
We picked a random number from the phone book. First, I would call and say, "Hello is Stacy home?"
"No, I think you have the wrong number..."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you sure? Is this 555-1234?"
"Yes, but there is nobody here by the name of Stacy."
"I apologize. Have a good evening."
Then, 10 minutes later, another one of us (a girl this time...so that the voice is clearly different) would call: "Hi, is Stacy home?"
And the same conversation would take place, although this time the person we called was a little more annoyed. "No, There is no Stacy here...are you sure you have the right number???"
Another 10 minutes would pass and a 3rd friend would call back and ask for Stacy. By now, the person on the other end is irritated. "Look, there is no Stacy living here! I don't know where you got this number, but it doesn't belong to a Stacy!"
Finally, about 5 minutes later, my friend Jennifer called the same phone number (now, being the 4th call) and when the contact answered the phone, she responded:
"Hi, this is Stacy. Did anyone call for me?"
HAHAHAHA!
I still find this HILARIOUS! The person was so pissed off. I will never forget seeing Jennifer's face as she was getting screamed at through the handset!
But the BEST part is that they had no idea where we were, or how to find us in order to STRANGLE US TO DEATH for our rude prank!
What....a nice memory.
I realize that in today's world you can still pull of a nice prank phone call, but it takes much more work and planning. Most people do not pick up their phones anymore for random unknown calls
So...take that you young kids of today! We old folks got to experience this great joy in life.
Suck on that!
I had a classmate who always called my house to prank us. I knew it was him the whole time, but there was no way of proving it. Thank god for callerID today! ha!
ReplyDeleteHAHA! SUCK ON THAT!
ReplyDeleteYou are an excellent writer. Thanks for bringing me back to my teenage memories!
Matthew, i agree! Caller ID has changed our lives for the better!
ReplyDeleteDavid, thanks for your nice comment!
Caller ID is such a wonderful thing! I'll gladly give up the prank calls so I know who is calling me!
ReplyDeleteI actually have a couple applications on my iPhone that can be used for prank calls. One will change your number to whatever you want it to be. The other can alter your voice.
ReplyDeleteOf course, nothing is a substitute for prank calling in the old days.
Is your refrigerator running?
hahahhah LOve this...the refrigerator what a classic...we always called random numbers really late at night and would pretend we thought it was the chinease take away...people get really mad at two in the morning when you try and give them your order for egg drop soup...go figure, lol
ReplyDeleteI love a good caller ID.
ReplyDeleteI'm a screener par excellence!
Remember the prank answer? Your phone would ring and instead of saying hello, you'd say something like, "Jone's Funeral Home, we're sorry for your loss."
ReplyDeleteHhahahaa :)) Omg, this just reminded me of my childhood and all the crazy and iditic prank calls we used to make with my best friend... Omg, the things we'd say! Oh God, I am a little ashamed by some haha
ReplyDeleteOh prank calls. Paul...I nearly forgot much fun they were. Thanks for reminiscing with us. I will be thinking of all the crank calls I've made and all the trouble those calls created. That'll keep me laughing through the week.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there were a couple close calls. But you learn from those quickly: no prank calls to the fire department, the police department or the operator. They all trace your number, call right back, and of those three - the operator takes it personally. We had an operator call us back repeatedly with her own prank after she caught us. She called back several times and told us "Just calling to check the line...or see if your parents answered so I could tell them what naughty boys you are." I sweated it out for a couple days but haven't dialed Zero to this day.
Ha Ha.... We always loved calling random numbers and screaming as loud as we could or make sex noises as soon as someone answered. We also called a teacher representing "Pig of the Month" magazine asking her to be a centerfold.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even going to begin to tell you the stories of the prank calls that me and my friends did. We were bad. In fact, we were probably doing things that were borderline illegal. Isn't it nice to grow up though, and look back at how you've changed as a person. I will admit though, they were so much fun!
ReplyDeleteSean, funny things to say to the caller when answering. We, as youngsters, would answer the phone by saying, "Johnsons mortuary, you stab 'em, we'll slab 'em". My Mom would have a fit. We also had party lines, who remembers that. You shared the same line with at least two other phones in the area.
ReplyDeleteI once called Hooks drug store, and asked the lady that answered if she had cotton balls. When she confirmed that she did, indeed, have cotton balls, I asked her if they itched when she ran. :)
ReplyDeleteGood times! I remember when I was about 10 or 11, the me and the rest of the girls in my class were at a birthday sleepover and called Toys R' Us to the see if they "had big balls." Looking back on it, I am disturbed by our sick behavior at such a young age! LOL.
ReplyDelete"Hi, is your refrigerator running?"
ReplyDelete"Yes, why?"
"Then you'd better go chase it!!!!"
LOL - yes, phone pranks did provide some kicks back in the day.
I can't even begin to figure out how many times we did the "stacy" prank - different name though. I do remember doing it and one time the person on the other end said, "Yes as a matter of fact, Dave, Sue and Jane called looking for you. You must have given them my number by mistake." We didn't think that was funny.
ReplyDelete