There are just things you don’t see anymore: pagers, mail boxes on street corners, afternoon papers, and phone booths.  I am not the first person to write about this, but I certainly will not be the last.  Today I will write in my 90-year-old-man voice.

The phone booth used to be important.  When I needed a ride home from the Lark Theater, I went to the public booth and dropped a dime in and my Mom would answer the phone at home.  Now I suspect kids drop Mom a text which she may or may not get.  People used to answer the phone.  Then came caller ID which, at first, people balked at the expense of it vs the benefit…now I think even our closest family members decide if they are in the mood for a chat when the phone rings.  Back back to the phone booths for a moment.  They were useful outside the need to make a call.  They had the yellow and white pages in them, so before Google you had some idea how to find something or someone when you needed to, you just needed a booth.

But the slope into oblivion was steep.  First, when pagers came along, the phone booths were closer to the pipeline of constant conversations.  Ones in the shade or in questionable areas turned into business centers of those in illicit pursuits.  The phone books became ravaged or missing all together.  And if I had a nickle for every booth I saw without a hand piece I’d be wealthy.  Now the once powerful communication hub is almost a signpost for blight.  This was such a cultural icon that Superman and Spiderman would seek them out before getting to work.

I suppose it makes infrastructure cheaper.  There is no repairman out visiting site after site re-installing keypads or pulling jammed quarters out of slots.  There is a notion in business that what you want to do is get people to pay a lot more for something which is actually quite cheap.  Take water for example, 75% of the Earth is covered in it, but we’ll pay $2.00 a bottle for it.  Now the basic smartphone with any kind of a data plan will run you at least 70 dollars a month.  I know a lot of people with cell phones that barely ever make a call.  Imagine how many quarters that is?  I am not saying to go back, but just that we totally eliminated an option without blinking.

Off the direct topic, my current frustration is the lack of mail boxes.  I rarely have to mail anything anymore, but whenever I do it is a hassle.  Do I have a stamp?  Where IS the local post office?  What?  Closed by early Saturday afternoon.  I am not sure what will be obsolete first the mail or hand written checks…probably the latter.  We’ll need the postal service to deliver all the goods and services after all local stores are closed.  By the way most of the local stores don’t take checks…I wonder if they are connected?

(This blog is from the archive section of the site and was one of the top viewed.  I will occasionally re-post some of the classics but encourage you to poke through the archive yourself.  Click HERE to check it out.  Posts in this section are more than 1 year old)