This is a pay phone...or a technology unicorn...rarely seen, unconfirmed existence. The other morning Henry and I went to breakfast and there was a man standing outside using a payphone. We both stopped and said...PAYPHONE. (Just so you know, there are not enough Chlorox wipes in the world for me to touch a payphone) I told Hen the man was obviously talking to his girlfriend...or he would be using his cell phone. But after 20 years of Law and Order we know that if she wanted to track down who he was seeing they could quickly run all the coins and get FINGERPRINTS...but I ramble.
When we traveled we would go to banks of payphones at the airport and make our calls. Once I miraculously ended up on a plane seated next to Kurt Russell. I could barely contain myself---racing from the plane to call my friend Andrea and let her know what had happened. The seas definitely parted that day. Seriously, look at that man and tell me what would you do. Spend two hours wanting to ask him to say
"You can call me Snake"
Oh, yes I will. (Any excuse to include Kurt)
There will be a whole generation of people who will not know what a collect call was. We asked Clifford this weekend as a quiz. He said sure: You dial the 1-800 number, say it is collect, give them your name. Then when your parents answer, you yell our "Pick me up at the busstop at 2PM." Then, we, the good dutiful parents would say, no I won't except the call...but we would be at the busstop.
The early highlight of this era was the Princess Phone...real Princesses had the phone with a Push Button, Princesses in waiting rotary dial. It was slim not clunky...so much better. It made it's singing debut with the classic number from Bye Bye Birdie with Ann Margaret. Their communication method was a phone tree of Princess Phones...title song--Goin' Steady!
"You can call me Snake"
Oh, yes I will. (Any excuse to include Kurt)
There will be a whole generation of people who will not know what a collect call was. We asked Clifford this weekend as a quiz. He said sure: You dial the 1-800 number, say it is collect, give them your name. Then when your parents answer, you yell our "Pick me up at the busstop at 2PM." Then, we, the good dutiful parents would say, no I won't except the call...but we would be at the busstop.
The early highlight of this era was the Princess Phone...real Princesses had the phone with a Push Button, Princesses in waiting rotary dial. It was slim not clunky...so much better. It made it's singing debut with the classic number from Bye Bye Birdie with Ann Margaret. Their communication method was a phone tree of Princess Phones...title song--Goin' Steady!
The other movie in which a telephone was immortalized was the incredibly wonderful sharing of a party line by Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk. In the dark ages (or when we lived in Salida, CO) you had to share phones with other people. You had a special ringtone from whoever else was on the party line, but you would still quitely pick up and listen to the whole conversation. My mother did not solve this issue as creatively as Rock and Doris did...her resolution was to not say anything on the phone that you did not "want the world to know"--"those operators were all gossip". Which is probably proven by the most famous operator of all: Ernestine. I am sure that she was the person mannig the phones in Salida.CO.The future was all about Dick Tracy and his two way talk TV:
Suffice it to say, changes have come and gone. Most for the better. They all make our lives move at warp speed....when I often would like to slow it down.
Time for bed--no pun intended.
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