Ode To Phone Booths

[RangerDanger]

I miss phone booths.
Inside a business they were quite elaborate. One at the local theater was made of oak & glass. It had a door, a light, a fan, a seat and a small table.
Outside there weren't quite as fancy, but they did have a door and were a welcome shelter when traveling on foot during a rainstorm.
I guess I should have seen it coming, when I noticed that a lot of people were using them as urinals. They were also frequently vandalized.
The prevelance of cell phones was the death knell.
I live in a city of 2,000 people and there are only 3 public telephones, right next to each other. Often 1 or 2 don't work, sometimes all 3.
There are no other phone booths within 40 miles, so if it's late at night and you can't beg to use the phone at a business, you're shit out of luck.

 

[blowin.endo]

shit yea, i miss phone booths too.... i only seldom see a few

 

[Wilbur]

they have a nice drive up phone near me.

i think its on hwy 50 in nevada out in the literal middle of nowhere, there is a phone booth. the sign reads loneliest phone booth in the world. its on the loneliest hwy in america. you might have seen it years ago on letterman. been there, slept there. my wife was with me so it wasn't too lonely.

the yellow pages in them was always helpful when in a strange town, car problems etc. (when they hadn't been ripped off) i did once liberate one of the nice hard plastic phonebook covers which i still have and use.

found quite a bit of change in them over the years too.

ahh.. nostalgia

thanks for the memories bro

 

[Akornpatch]

Back in the late 70's I had a girl 'friend' in Cali. I'd call her from the phone booth and we'd talk for hours. Well one time I ran out of change and we just kept talking. When we were done I just hung up and walked away. The phone started ringing it was weird. I just let it go. It was a few weeks later that I found out that they billed the call to her dad. LMAO It must have been the operator calling to ask me for the money from the call. We still laugh about that to this day. Her dad didn't think it was so funny back then tho.

 

[Hichhiker]

Just think, Dr. Who has no place to hide anymore. Without public phone booths his time ship stands out like a sore thumb now. A childhood hero of mine, perminantly crippled, I think I need to take a moment. Excuse me.

 

[Daisychain]

Just think, Dr. Who has no place to hide anymore. Without public phone booths his time ship stands out like a sore thumb now. A childhood hero of mine, perminantly crippled, I think I need to take a moment. Excuse me.

There there. Everything is going to be ok. I'm sure he'll adapt... start using McDonald's bathrooms or something.

 

[Racefan]

no not mcdonalds bathrooms....porta-potties.lol

Hey ranger...tell me what business is open "late" in that little mud hole you call a town?

 

[chancedebris]

Every bookie I knew worked out of a phone booth.
Also when driving through the mostly dry South, by calling a few of the phone numbers written down, you could hook up with the local bootleger
who was also usually a cab driver.

 

[alanwatts420]

I've driven a large stretch of NV's hwy 50 on one of my ramblings. Pretty damn lonely I'd say. Basin and Range. Occasionally good mountain views.

I'm still holding out on getting that first cell phone. Everyone I've mentioned it too either thinks I'm crazy or just a Luddite. I've been in situations that demand I use a pay phone like at the airport. Payphones still exist but you can already tell that the powers that be hate them and want them minimized.

Even the phones at the airport allow you to sit down and get a tiny bit of privacy and not feel like you are in a fishbowl.