That sentence, that you just read, is amazing to me because if someone had said that to me when I was 15, I wouldn't have had the slightest idea what they were talking about.
I was talking to an old friend of mine yesterday (she is 90 and I have known her for 30 years so she qualifies as on old friend on both counts) about pay phones and phones in general. I think you would have a pretty hard time finding a pay phone now. The last one I remember was outside the local high school about 5-10 years ago. It rarely worked since the receiver was usually torn out of the wall. When almost every kid started carrying a cell phone the pay phone disappeared. Pay phones used to be easy to find. Mothers used to tell their children to keep a dime in their shoe in case they needed to call home. At some point that dime needed to be a quarter and now it is 30 dollars a month for an unlimited data plan. If you want to see a pay phone now, you may have to watch on old movie or TV show.
Thinking of phones brought two memories back to me.
When I was between the ages of 6 and 10, I was sometimes home alone after school for a while. My parents were at work and my older sister got home a little later from school than I did. My brother should have been around; but I don't remember him being there. He was probably out running around the neighborhood with his friends. Back to the phone memory...it used to be that you could dial O on the phone and talk to an operator. They were there to find numbers for you or help you place a long distance call. I, however, used to call the operator for help with my homework. I didn't do it often, just now and then when I was really stuck and needed to know how to spell a word. I remember them as being very kind, never grouchy or telling me to not call. They were also good at spelling. I also liked to call TIME. I suppose when most people had to wind watches and clocks it was very helpful to be able to dial the time for accuracy. Time was already automated. Since I couldn't tell time much better than I could spell,( no digital clocks to cheat with, thus not having to read the big hand and the little hand) it was very helpful in addition to being fun.
Next I had this vague memory of calling Emerson 9. When we first moved to Rolla, MO in 1964, I remember only to have to dial the last four digits of phone numbers because all local calls that the same prefix, 364. An online searching brought up that the old exchange for Rolla MO was Emerson 4! I am amazed that this almost correct information was tucked away somewhere in my head. I must have heard people saying their phone numbers as Emerson 4...or calling the operator and asking for Emerson 4...but I don't really remember that.
I am tempted to call the old home phone number that we had all my growing up years and that my parents had for many years after that, but with the advent of caller ID the joys of another old phone game...the prank phone call...has also passed into the history books.
Thinking of phones brought two memories back to me.
When I was between the ages of 6 and 10, I was sometimes home alone after school for a while. My parents were at work and my older sister got home a little later from school than I did. My brother should have been around; but I don't remember him being there. He was probably out running around the neighborhood with his friends. Back to the phone memory...it used to be that you could dial O on the phone and talk to an operator. They were there to find numbers for you or help you place a long distance call. I, however, used to call the operator for help with my homework. I didn't do it often, just now and then when I was really stuck and needed to know how to spell a word. I remember them as being very kind, never grouchy or telling me to not call. They were also good at spelling. I also liked to call TIME. I suppose when most people had to wind watches and clocks it was very helpful to be able to dial the time for accuracy. Time was already automated. Since I couldn't tell time much better than I could spell,( no digital clocks to cheat with, thus not having to read the big hand and the little hand) it was very helpful in addition to being fun.
Next I had this vague memory of calling Emerson 9. When we first moved to Rolla, MO in 1964, I remember only to have to dial the last four digits of phone numbers because all local calls that the same prefix, 364. An online searching brought up that the old exchange for Rolla MO was Emerson 4! I am amazed that this almost correct information was tucked away somewhere in my head. I must have heard people saying their phone numbers as Emerson 4...or calling the operator and asking for Emerson 4...but I don't really remember that.
I am tempted to call the old home phone number that we had all my growing up years and that my parents had for many years after that, but with the advent of caller ID the joys of another old phone game...the prank phone call...has also passed into the history books.
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