The little girl was trying to get the telephone operator to
find a telephone number for her.
OPERATOR: you can
find that number in your telephone directory.
LITTLE GIRL: Oh, I can’t, I’m standing on it!
ALTHOUGH MOST of you do not have to stand on the telephone
directory in order to use the phone, you do have to use it quite often to look
up numbers that you’ve forgotten. Sure, many people feel that it isn’t
necessary to remember phone numbers
since that’s just what the directory is for; but the fact remains that the
phone companies have to keep information operators on duty continually. Next to
forgetting names and faces, I think the most common memory complaint is, “I simply can’t remember telephone
numbers!” as I mentioned in an earlier
chapter most untrained memories are one-sided. Those w ho usually do remember
telephone numbers can’t remember names, and vice versa. Of course, I intend for
you to be able to do both , and more, with equal proficiency.
My good friend Richard Himber, famous musician magician,
realized that most people couldn’t remember phone numbers, so he did something
about it. He made it very simple for everyone to remember his-he just told them
to dial his name, R. Himber. Somehow, he managed to obtain an exchange for his telephone that begins with the letters, RH. The rest of the
number is 4-6237, which you get when you
dial i-m-b-e-r. now, don’t you all dial it just
to see if this is true-take my word for it, it is!
This, of course, solved everybody’s problem when it came to remembering
Mr. Himber’s telephone number (if they remember his name) but unfortunately, we can’t all have
number like this. No, you’ll just have to learn to remember phone number, and
the telephone operators will love you for it.
Telephone number in New York and most major cities consist
of an exchange name, an exchange number, and
four trunk line number,- Columbus 5-6695. By making a ridiculous association of two or three words or items,
you can memorize any telephone number; and by adding one thought to your
association, you can remember to whom the phone number belongs.
Most telephone in use today are dial phones, so all that is
necessary to remember is the first two letters of the exchange name; since that
is all we have to dial. These two letters are all we will consider. Now then,
the first thing you have to learn is to from one word which will immediately help you recall both the first
two letters of the exchange name and the
exchange number. The word of course should ne one that can be pictured easily.
The number CO 5-6695 can serve as an example. How can we find one word to
represent CO 5? Simple! The word must
begin with the letters “co,” and the very next consonant in the word must be the sound that represents
the exchange number according to our phonetic alphabet. In this case, it is the
“I” sound, representing #5.
Any word that can be pictured will do, no matter which
sounds follow the “I” sound; because those will be disregarded. The only things
that matter in the word you choose are the first two letters and the next
consonant sound. For example, the word “column” would represent CO 5; the “mn”
at the end of the word is disregarded. The words, collar, colt, color, cold or
coliseum would also fit the system. If you can think of a word that can be
pictured, that has no other letters after the consonant that represents the
exchange number-use it. The word “coal” is an example that fits this case.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to use a word that has only
the first two letters and the exchange number sound. The first word that comes
to you is usually, although not always, the one to use. If the number you wish
to memorize begins BEachview 8, you could use the word, “Beef” (BE 8). Here are
a few more example to make sure that you get the idea:-
REgent 2
|
Rent
|
Reynard (The Fox)
|
ESplanade 7
|
Escape
|
Escalator
|
GRamercy 8
|
Grave
|
Graph
|
DElaware 9
|
Deep
|
Deputy
|
GOrdon 5
|
Gold
|
Goal
|
CLover 3
|
Clam
|
Climb
|
I’ve given only two words for each exchange, but there are
many others that would fit.
Do you see how simple it is? There’s no reason why you
shouldn’t be able to find a word, immediately, to represent any exchange and
exchange number. Let me remind you that the word you select has to have a
meaning for you only. Probably if I gave
ten people an exchange and exchange number, they would each use a different
word to help remember it. Although nouns are usually best, that doesn’t mean
that you have to use a noun. Some of you may find that a foreign word you know, is just right for a certain exchange
and exchange for you. I could give you a list of all the exchange name used in
New York City and the exchange number used with these names, and also give you
a word that would represent each of them. I could do that, but I won’t I don’t
believe it would help you any. It’s much better if you make up the words as.
Soon as you find it necessary to do so, instead of memorizing a long list of
them.
At the risk of being repetitious, I must say, again, that
the picture created in your mind is something that I cannot help you with. One
word may create an entirely different picture in your mind, than it would in
mine. Actually. I purposely used one in the above examples. For Regent 2, I
gave “Reynard” as a word to help remember it. Now, Reynard creates a definite
picture In my mind because Reynard the
Fox was a favorite character of mine
when I was a child. If you never read those wonderful stories, then Reynard
would tell me that the telephone number
began RE 2, and not FO 7 (fox) I’m telling you all this just to show you
that even if you can’t think of a word to recall it for you later on. The same
thing holds true, not only for phone numbers, but for anything that makes it
necessary for you to make up a word for an association.
All right, now to go on with the rest of the telephone
number. If you understand the idea of how to make up a word for the exchange
name and number; the rest is easy. All you have to worry about now are the four
trunk line two of your peg words. If you simply associate the two, you’ll
remember the four digits. For the number 4298, you would associate rain (42) to
puff (98); for 6317-on. You now have all the ingredients for remembering use CO
5-6695 as an example. To remember this number simply associate coal (CO 5) to
choo choo (66) to bell (95)! For the
number AL 1-8734, you could use-altar to fog to mower; and for OX 2-4626-oxen
to roach to notch.
Now, before showing you how to remember whose phone number
you’re remembering, let me point out that
there is one fiy in the ointment,
so to speak, involved here. Were you to
make a ridiculous picture in your mind of say, steam, rope and tomb, you would know that the exchange
was ST 3 (steam) and that the trunk line numbers were 4913 or 1349? Therein
lies the problem! You might be congested
a week or so after memorizing a phone number, as to which peg word was first
and which was last. Of course, if you use a telephone number that you memorize, then this is really a
theoretical problem. Once you’ve used it a few times, you’ll know which pair of
digits comes first. As I’ve said many times before, the systems are wonderful
aids to your true memory. Without the use to the system for remembering phone
numbers, you probably wouldn’t know any of the digits in the number.
However, for numbers that you do no intend to use right
away, there are many methods of avoiding
this confusion, some good and some, not so good. I’ll give you there or four
way right now and you can pick the one
of two that you think is best.
The first idea is to make a link of the words, instead of
one complete ridiculous picture. For example, for ST 3-4913 you could make one
picture of a radiator (steam) lassoing
(rope) a tomb; whereas if you made a link you would associate steam to rope,
and then rope to tomb. Since the link system
makes you remember in sequence, you would know that you’ve memorized the
number in its correct order.
Another idea, and one I use quite often, is to simply
make one complete ridiculous picture,
but to make the ridiculous picture itself in a logical sequence. Let me example
I just gave you. The picture of a radiator lassoing a tomb is quite ridiculous,
but it is a good example of a logical
sequence in an illogical picture. Having made the association in this way, you
couldn’t possibly think of tomb being
first, or lasso (rope) being second-the words (which, of course, are
transposed back to numbers when you want to dial the phone number) are pictured in the correct order to
begin with. Let me give you another example of this, so you’ll know just what
I’m talking about. For the phone number DE 5-3196-the words, deal, mat and
beach would suffice in aiding your memory. If you pictured yourself dealing mats on the beach
(getting sand all over the mats and yourself) you’ve got a logical illogical
association. The word mat definitely comes before the word beach, so you know
that the number is 3196 and not 9631.
The above idea is the one I use most often, followed by this
one:- I always try to find a word to fit more than two of the four digits of
the trunk line numbers. For example-ST 3-4913-I might picture a radiator
ripping the hem of a girl’s dress.
Steam-ripped-hem. Or, steam-repaid-me, etc. and, there will be some numbers
wherein you can find a word to fit all four of the trunk line digits.
I believe that most of you will want to use one or more of
these three methods. However, to give you a wider choice, here are one or two
other ways of avoiding the possibility of mixing your numbers. You can always
use your peg word for the first two digits of the four; and any word that is not a pef wor, but does fit
phonetically, for the second pair of digits. i.e.-the trunk line number to be
memorized is 6491-use cherry for 64, but don’t use bat in your association for
91-use any other word for 91, like beet, or boat. Now, after any length of
time, when you want to remember this particular number, you would know that 64
is first because cherry is a peg word; beet or boat are not peg word, therefore
91 is the second pair of digits! For the number in 1-4084, you might associate
Indian-rose-fairy. Fairy is not a peg word, so 84 must be the last or second
two digits.
I devised this last method quite recently and I find that it
works like a charm. Its use definitely dismisses the possibility of exchanging
the numbers. There are other thoughts on the subject, of course, such as picturing
one of your items much larger than the other, etc., but I don’t hold too much
stock in them.
I have taken all this space to explain these ideas because
the same thoughts hold true for remembering prices, addresses, time schedules,
style numbers and anything that requires that you memorize four digit
numbers. As far as telephone numbers are concerned- the worst that could happen
if you exchanged the digits in the trunk line numbers, is that you would dial
the wrong number the first time, but get your party the second time.
By the way, if a zero should be the first of the two digits,
simply make up a word for the digits. For05, use sail, cell or sale; for
07-sick, sock or sack, etc. if you run across two zeros in a row, you could use
seas, sews or zoos.
Well, now you should know how to memorize any telephone
number! In order to remember whose phone number it is, it is necessary to add
only one word to your association. If the number belongs to someone with whom
you deal, say, the tailor, butcher, grocer, doctor, or anyone that can be
pictured, just put that person into your association. For example, the tailor’s
phone numbers is FA 4-8862. Just make an association of tailor-farm-fife-chain.
If you’re using my suggestion of not using a peg word for the last two digits,
you could use chin instead of word for the last two digits, you could use chin
instead of chain. You might picture the tailor (a man sewing) growing fifes on
his farm, which he plays with his chin. If you like the link idea, simply link
the four items.
Since a tailor, doctor, dentist, etc. can be pictured, all
you have to do is get that picture into your association. If you want to
remember names in conjunction with phone numbers, you must use the substitute
word system as you learned in Chapter16. Mr. Hayes’ telephone number is OR 7-6573-you
might picture a bale of hay (Hayes)
playing an organ (or 7) in jail (65) while it combs (73) its hair. If you are
using the link idea-link hay to organ,
organ to jail, jail to comb. If you like my last suggestion on how to
avoid mixing the trunk line numbers; change comb to coma, game or comma, etc.
Let’s say that you wanted to remember that Mr. Silverberg’s
phone number was JU 6-9950. You might “see” a picture of a shiny silver iceberg
sitting in a courtroom as judge (JU 6)
smoking a gigantic pipe that’s covered with lace! This is a logical illogical
sequence in one ridiculous picture. I’ll use this same number to show how you
would handle it using any of the methods for keeping the trunk line numbers
straight.
Link method-associate ice-berg to judge (the ice-berg is
pounding his gavel), then judge to pipe(“see” a gigantic pipe as a judge), and
then pipe to lace (picture yourself smoking a pipe filled with lace, or see a
pipe making lace).
If you want to use less items in your association for this particular
phone number, you could picture the ice-berg as a judge with a lot of pupils
(9950)!
To use the last method, simply change lace, to any other
word that would represent 50; like lass, lose, lies or lasso.
I have given you examples of memorizing phone numbers using
the different ideas, because I feel that it is up to you to use the method that
comes easiest to you. As with anything else in this book, I can only give you
theoretical examples, your imagination must do the rest for you, and only you can
decide which of certain methods are best for you.
I doubt if you would ever find it necessary to memorize a
phone number that you didn’t intend to
use for any great length of time. The fact that you want to remember it means
that you intend to use it. And, as I mentioned before, the association will
recall it for you the first few before, the association will recall it for
you can forget your original
association, or stop trying to remember it, any way, because the phone
number will probably be permanently
etched in your memory.
As usual, the explanation take much longer than the deed
itself. It is but the work or a few moments to memorize a telephone number.
Unless you are using it as a memory stunt and want to do it quickly, you would
ordinarily have plenty of time to find the proper words and make your associations. The fact that you
must think of the number in order to set it into your mind in
the first place. If all I accomplish with this book, is to make you think
of, or concentrate on, anything you wish
to remember-then I will feel that I’ve accomplished quite a bit, because you
will certainly have improved your memory.
You can check your improved memory for phone numbers right
now by trying test #6 in Chapter 3 again, and comparing the scores.
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