Last time I saw one of these, it was in front of a 7-11 and the handset was cut off.
h/t Doc.
44 Comments on “…Go touch it and see what happens”
Comments are closed.
iOTWreport.com ©2024 ----- iOTWreport is not responsible for the content of comments. All opinions in comments are solely the commenter's.
It’s a device that’s too politically dangerous to mention nowadays. If you don’t believe me, ask Best Buy:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/12/11/best_buy_serial_tweet_what_s_wrong_with_brand_jokes_about_a_murder_podcast.html
Last time I thought about using one it had a condom stretched over the hand held receiver
Look! A manual database of local phone numbers just hanging there belonging to no one!
That’s messed up. Who do you pay to look up each number? Where is that guy? On a pee break? No wonder we don’t see these any more.
I miss those days.
Did the pilgrims bring this over on the Mayflower?
There’s still some around. I think that Bell (Canada eh!) or the other telecoms have to put a specified number around town and service them. Last time I checked each local call was 50 cents but that could have changed. It may not be cost effective but it’s a good practice.
Headed down to the Western Union to send a telegram. I’ll comment on this later.
LOL! ^
Me so analog, I dial you long time.
I MISS THESE!! I USED TO CARRY A NAIL IN MY POCKET THAT I USED TO SHORT THE SYSTEM AND TAP OUT ANY NUMBER WITH THE RECEIVER HOOK, ALL FREE OF CHARGE!! THAT AND SNEAKING INTO THEATERS AND OUT OF RESTAURANTS GOT ME THRU MY LEAN TIMES AT UCLA!!
It used to be you’re driving in your car and you were totally cut off from the outside world and unreachable.
I miss the before multi-tasking days!
it’s an old war monument to Clark Kent aka Superman but the antifascists / liberals took the “booth” and moved it to an unknown location and all they left was this derelict reminder of the past. oh well, probably doesn’t work anyway……
That must be a nice area— no vandalism.
I’ll bet they didn’t even think to check the coin return!
Did it have a rotary dial or a touch tone key pad? If you really want to confuse the millennials show them an old black heavy Ma Bell phone with a rotary dial.
Extirpates, no that was the one with dial. This one has push buttons like the one Abe Lincoln used in the White House.
Confederate Army communication device. Protest this Saturday for its removal.
Now that they are gone, I don’t know what number to call for a good time.
We were a far more civil society back when there were phones like that. You can call me an old fart, a geezer or whatever but phones like that made people more responsible (for the most part) to keep in contact with others. And God forbid you forgot that you had a curfew and didn’t check in with your parents (or your boyfriend/girlfriend etc.) to let them know them know you were OK and running a little late and would get there as soon as possible. I caught hell more than once for not calling home when I should’ve.
Anonymous, I’d bet it’s still posted on the restroom wall or the stall at a rest area or truck stop along with the rest of the graffiti.
This device required you to have a dozen phone contacts commited to memory. Now, the only number I know is my own. Sad.
I was talking to ma on the princess phone, which sits next of the directory on the phone table just yesterday.
Remember those metal directories where you position the pointer next to a letter of the alphabet and push the button and it would spring open to the correct page?
If only SIRI worked as well. Tired of arguing with that bitch.
Anon: it’s 867-5309
Last few years of their lives I would not go near one. Drug dealers had them all staked out and stood close enough to hear them ring. Same thing with pimps n ho’s. You could see the phone’s diseases half a block away. Now all of Obama’s relatives have free phones and we paid for them.
JB – I need an area code please
My grandmother used to carry a sack of disinfecting wipes. “In case I need to use a public phone,” she would say.
Duh! Who doesn’t know this? What do we have to do, put in a song for you so you can remember?
“I need an area code please”
555
It’s always 555
I tried 555-867-5309 and all I got was the stupid weather.
Who cares?…it’s a party line anyways…..remember those?…..I had a neighbor who was the last one on the party line and they charged her extra for that privilege….she never figured out why her neighbors were silent….
Phenry, they still make those believe it or not.
Wheres the crank?
On the other end of the line…
Have an old Texas Instrument calculator that’s bigger than a book. A nephew saw it, tried to turn it, on but thought it broken. He never saw one that needed to be plugged in.
One other thing, I bought it on sale for $160.00.
I still have my original early 70s TI SR-10. Still works too! Converted it to a 3.7V Lithium battery… much better!
@JBinNM:
No, it’s not! The correct number is BR 549!!!
Merc – Stretching a condom over the receiver must be a courtesy so you can hear ’em comin…
It has a phone book. i can’t remember the last time I looked up a number in one.
Be careful! You might fall through the floor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3kcnI72Ec
.
I was a telephone operator for about five years in the 70s. I’d love the odd call from an elderly lady or gent (got so I’d recognize many of their voices) who always called us “Central”. “Central, what is the correct time?” Great memories.
Actually that’s what the CO was – the Central Office.
From the days when there were 5-digit phone numbers:
Weird little guy with a lisp dials the operator for assistance.
When she answers he says, “Gimme twee, twee, twee, twee, twee.” (3-3333)
The operator says, “What was that again?”
“Gimme twee, twee, twee, twee, twee.”
Operator says, “I still can’t hear you.”
“Gimme twee, twee, twee, twee. twee!!!”
Operator says, “I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to speak up – this is a Dictaphone.”
“Well, Dictaphone up you ass and gimme twee, twee, twee, twee, twee!”
There was one just like that outside a school near me. It hadn’t worked in at least 10 years. One day, I was walking by and saw they were ripping up that whole end of the school. It was all going in the dumpster. I reached out to grab the phone booth, which I would have put in my basement, but stopped suddenly when I saw there was a gigantic bee’s nest in it.