time and charges

  I shared a little story yesterday, and in that story was the mention of phone booths. Isn't it strange that I should remember the location of a great number of them in my hometown. Well, alight maybe not a great number, but a number of then. When I was young they were made out of aluminum. The frame was anyway, with a bi-fold door. The phone was black with a small shelf beneath it, to hold your change I suppose. A big phone book hung from a chain beneath that. When walking to town I would check the change return on every one I passed, sometimes collecting enough for a pack of baseball cards or a piece of candy. Those booths made a fine shelter from a passing shower as well. If I remember correctly a local call was ten cents. I certainly didn't make many calls, after all, who was I going to call? I didn't want to call home most of the time, no point in that, I already knew what time I had to be home and they didn't want to be bothered with any bad news. Truth be told, I only knew a few numbers in the first place. I have a vague memory of when my home phone number began with a letter, J I think, followed by four numbers. After that it begin with 324, you didn't use area codes unless it was a long distance call. For that you needed the help of the operator.

 If you didn't have a dime and really needed to make a call you could ask the operator to make it a collect call. If the person accepted the charges you were connected. If you just wanted to let that person everything was alright, for whatever reason, we had a little trick for that. When the operator would ask for your name you gave her, and it was always a her, some fake name. The person being asked if they would accept the charges would simply say no, your message got through without you saying a word. I thought that was pretty clever. You could even work out other code words to relay information without having to pay that dime. I'm certain the operators were all well aware of all that.

 Ah, the phone booth. It was like a beacon on a dark night. Well it was as long as someone hadn't broken the light. It's amazing that there wasn't more vandalism than what there was. The booths I frequented rarely had any damage to them. They were a bit dirty, trash on the floor and graffiti written on the phone itself, but the glass wasn't broken and the door worked. They also served as markers, like a 1960's GPS. I'm at the phone booth down in the hook, by the liquor store. Or I might be in the one, in the parking lot, by Rexall. They were often places to meet your friends.

 Today I see a phone booth every now and again. I'm not certain if they are functional. There were two on the corner here in Greensboro. They weren't really booths though, they just had those little side plates on each side. When I first moved here, before I had a home phone, I did use those phones. It was on one of those phones that I received the news of my fathers passing. I had just returned from visiting him in the hospital, in Florida. I called my Mom to check on him and she told me he had passed. Those little "booths" still hang on the pole down there, without phones, and I am often reminded of that day when I see them. That was in 1990! Thirty one years later and I will not forget those phones. The "bank" of phone booths they had in basic training during my Navy days stays with me as well. Standing in a long line waiting for a booth. There was a set time for that, once a month was it. If you didn't get in a booth in the allotted time, too bad, better luck next time. I can only imagine what messages had been sent over those phone lines. 

 Time and progress have changed all of that. Gone are the days when you would be asked, do you have a dime to make a call if you have to?  When going places far from home, twenty miles or more, we often carried a dime for emergencies. That dime would be hidden somewhere, stashed just in case. Maybe it was stuck in the corner of your wallet, or even in your shoe, but it was your lifeline. When I was in the Navy we would roll a dime inside our neckerchief to ensure you could make a call if you had too. Why we didn't just think of calling collect I can't say, of course if you were calling the Navy they wouldn't accept charges anyway. Today we all carry a phone around, with a camera, still and video, and access to the internet with the proper calling plan. As far as I remember we only had one plan back then, connected or not connected. A dime would get you three minutes, that was the plan. Time and charges could be requested after the call ended. I called collect once , from Spain! Yes, I had been drinking a few beers and called home. Don't remember the time, either in Spain or at home, but Mom accepted the charges. It cost over fifteen dollars! I remember that because Dad reminded me almost every time I called. Yes, I called from a phone booth on some street in Spain, Barcelona to be exact. Long Distance! 

Time and charges. Yes it's been some time and there has been some changes. Now you could call home but the people you are calling aren't home. No matter, they will still answer the phone. Now you have to ask, are you home? Today few people have a phone, attached to the wall, with a cord on it. You still see desk phones though, mostly at a place of business with multiple lines. I expect that will change at some point. I'm thinking when we are all connected. Time and changes having replaced time and charges.