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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhen Was The Last Time You Used a Pay Phone?
I got curious, so I looked up how many are in my city. 85 pay phones in Boulder, CO!!!! https://www.payphone-directory.org/payco.html
Who is still using pay phones? How come so many are still available? Think of the last time you had to make a call but didn't have your cell phone on you. What did you do? Did you ask to borrow someone's phone or did you look for a pay phone?
I don't know why this fascinates me, but it does.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)I can't remember the last time i SAW a legitimate pay-phone...
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)And then come to find out there are still 85 of them! They used to be ubiquitous, one on every corner. Now I feel like finding one of these extant pay phones and doing a stake out to see just how many people use it in a day.
RockRaven
(14,784 posts)"Mojave Phone Booth"
Skittles
(152,967 posts)but I've had people ask to use my cell phone.....last month I was walking on a sidewalk with metroplex rush hour traffic halted due to accident ahead....a guy waved me over to his car and asked could he PLEASE use my phone to call his son to tell him he would be late, he had left his phone at work.......people pretty much assume everyone has a phone now, and they are right.
targetpractice
(4,919 posts)I had a cell phone before most of my friends, back when it was still considered rude to answer/make calls in stores, restaurants, etc. If you did get a call back then, you'd excuse yourself and step outside.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I last used one in 1997, but I'm not going to say what for.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)I know very well you were ordering up some hookers and blow.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)in another thread of mine: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181236060
The hookers are different every time, but the pay phone is the same. We have still pictures and video of you. If you ever want to run for president you had better watch out!
I can hear it now: "No pay phone, no pay phone! You're the pay phone!"
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)from Albany to San Fran?!?!
Mystery solved and case closed!
RockRaven
(14,784 posts)but the specific incident/call, I could not identify.
Rorey
(8,445 posts)I was driving home from Denver and about 20 miles into my drive I realized that I had left my phone at my son's house. I stopped at the first opportunity, which happened to be a campground, and asked the person at the counter if there was a pay phone. He said no, so I asked him if he'd call a number for me, and he just handed me his phone, which I think is risky. I wouldn't hand a stranger my cell phone, and mine isn't expensive.
Anyway, I had to go back and get my phone because it was the only option. Bonus: I got to drive through road construction for an extra 40 minutes. Yay. The real bonus was that I got to enjoy seeing that stretch of the Front Range again. I never tire of that. I've been in Colorado for 38 years and I still feel like I need to pinch myself so I know it's real.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)South or north from Denver?
Rorey
(8,445 posts)From Castle Rock to Monument. It's funny, I used to hate driving on that stretch because it seemed like everyone was going 90 mph. Now that I drive it every week, I don't mind it.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Now you get into traffic from Monument (sometimes Castlerock) on down.
But you can see Pike's...
Rorey
(8,445 posts)I mean the view, not the traffic. It'll be nice when the work is done.
I'm in Pueblo, and my destination is near Parker, so it's not a difficult drive, really. I leave myself plenty of time and just kind of settle in to the right lane for the construction part. Between the bottom part of Springs and Pueblo it's all cake. I could practically take a nap. Just kidding, of course.
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)of communities with none--Fort Collins stood out for me.
I'm not sure it is only the homeless or working poor who benefit from their continuing to be available.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)But I was in law school prior to that and didn't go out much. I MIGHT have used a pay phone sometime during those three years.
I definitely used one while I was in Basic Training in 1992 to call home.
I'd say mid-90s definitely. But for sure not after 2001.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)I stopped using these to take a selfie.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)And I don't take very many selfies with my phone. Hmmm, I guess I just never fit the selfie demographic.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)rain for another hour to participate in a conference call. It was the middle of nowhere 20 years ago. That was it, got a cell the next day.
PETRUS
(3,678 posts)But a few years back, my sister-in-law was bemoaning their disappearance, so my brother bought one and installed it in their house!
Sneederbunk
(14,208 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)You may be a mild mannered reporter, but I know your secret!
If the phone booths were all glass, what made him think he was changing where nobody could see him?
hunter
(38,264 posts)One of my nieces regularly works in such places.
My wife and kids and I once lived in a community that had four phone lines serving several thousand people. Two of these lines were payphones. The other two were used by emergency services and other official business.
There were always people waiting to use the payphones, day and night.
One of the pay phones was awesome, people would answer when it rang, take messages, a real community service for anything that wasn't an emergency. Hanging out there was like a 24 hour 7 day a week party, exchanging gossip, sharing food, celebrating people in their triumphs, commiserating in their tragedies.
The other pay phone, out in the parking lot behind the laundromat, was where people did more private, don't ask, don't tell sorts of business. Nobody would answer that phone when it rang or take a message. It was a lonely place of frequent horrors and sometime suicide.
There was a payphone in Fresno where all the prostitutes used to hang out. I had occasion to use that phone a few times, but I never let it touch my ear and would thoroughly wash my hands afterwards. A few weeks ago I had occasion to stop in that place but the pay phone was long gone.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)It was JUST before the cell phone explosion, and pay phones were still very popular at that point.
I found myself out of a job one day, and a family friend had a contract with a Bay Area company called Pacific Coin doing installs and repairs out of their San Leandro warehouse, and offered me a cash gig, paid weekly.
For about 1.5 years me and my work partner drove all over the Bay Area every day, anywhere from Redding to the north to Sac to the East to Capitola to the South ... We were both single, early 30's, and most of the job was driving and playing tunes in the van TBH. Usually we'd knock out our 'job' in a few hours, and we'd go and hit local bars after for a bit, then head back ... and always got paid for an 8 hour day no matter how long the job took.
Really fun gig looking back. I went to some really trippy spots over the years ... in particular the SF and Oakland gigs took me to some obscure underground locations in order to find the terminal where the signal was delivered. There's friggin' cities under the Cities, I'm tellin' ya. A lot of these underground places are now run down, and have been used to dump extra shit by the businesses above them for decades ... but you can tell they used to be nice, public places, like they're 'basements' ... but they're all still done up with tiles, it's like you're in old 50's subway station or whatnot ... its kinda surreal, almost time-travel kinda stuff ...
Anyways ... pay phones are still kinda dear to my heart ...
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)I wouldn't know where to look. You know, that could be tourist thing: "Visit the Cities Under the Cities." Just take people on a walking tour of a few places and tell them about the history. See, there's your next comfy gig.
csziggy
(34,120 posts)And I think some other cities.
Here is Seattle's:
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,750 posts)I got my first cell phone about 1996, maybe a year later. There are very, very few cell phones anywhere these days. I was somewhere just a day or two ago and noticed someone on a cell phone, but for the life of me I cannot recall where I was. Maybe the library?
When I worked the information desk at the local hospital a while back, there were a couple of pay phones right next to my desk and then one day they disappeared. I frequently lent my phone to someone needing to make a call, and was glad I could do so.