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Are there any pay phones left? any telephone booths?

Asked by Jeruba (55832points) May 20th, 2016

I’m putting this in Social because I’m not standing on the street looking for a phone, but I really would like to know.

Are there any public telephones left in your area, and what is your area? When’s the last time you saw one, and where?

Until recently, they used to be everywhere: in schools and office buildings, restaurants and motels, gas stations, shopping centers and retail stores, airports and bus stations and parking lots, and just hanging out on a street corner. As a little kid I learned to make a call from a public phone booth for a dime, and I couldn’t guess the number of times I phoned home from somewhere to say I was late or to ask for a ride.

More than once, my friends and I stuffed ourselves into one to get out of the rain.

Now—does everyone really have a cellphone? Really? What if you don’t? What if you lose yours or the battery is dead? Can you still make a call for coins anywhere, or has an excess of communications cut off that resource that we once took for granted?

(And where do characters in movies go to phone in anonymous tips? Where does the hero wait to receive a call from the bad guys?)

 
Topics as I listed them: telephones, phones, phone booths, pay phones, public phones, cellphones, communications

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