Last of Its Kind

Yes, it's real.  It says so on the phone.
Click for a larger pic

Hold on to your britches!  I found what very well may be the last operational pay phone.

As I came out of the Ho....whoa, hold on there.  Tricky you are.  I almost gave away this relic from the past's home location.  I certainly wouldn't want thousands...ok, maybe a handful...of gawkers showing up and disturbing its habitat.

Needless to say, as I exited the store, I took a double take and snapped at least a dozen pictures.  Deep in the cobwebby depths of my mind, I remember payphones outside of every story and on every street corner.  A phone book hung underneath, protected from the weather by a hard, notebook-like covering.  If the phone book hadn't been stolen, usually the page you needed was missing...ripped out by someone with a short memory and no pen to jot the number they needed down.

After I took my dozen pictures, I had to try the phone for old time's sake.  Alas!  I didn't have fifty cents in my pocket.  This phone was a true relic from the past.  It didn't have a card swipe slot, either.  I thought about calling the operator and asking to have the fifty cents put on my phone bill, but I don't have a land line and I doubted the fifty cents could be put on my cell bill.  Would an operator today know how to bill another account?

I remember where the phone is.  I'll go back and call someone from it some day.  Maybe I'll try to get the operator to bill my cell phone for the call.



Posted by A Drunk Redneck