| Field | Basic Lifeskills |
| Went Obsolete | 2002 |
| Made Obsolete By | cell phone |
| Knowledge Assumed | understanding of phone number structure |
| When useful | When cellphone dies, electronic records lost, or internet connected device not available |
The ability to effortlessly phones numbers from memory, potentially remembering many, many numbers was very handy prior to the advent of cellphone and other small electronic gadgets with memory and/or connection to the internet. If you had a bad memory, you would have create a written record of everyone's phone number to carry around or keep posted near the land line telephone.