The Payphone...and NYC Past

The Payphone...by John S LES

I was in Times Square a few days ago.  While walking around, I saw this strange metallic, boxy thing sitting near the corner of one of the blocks.  It was at first familiar and then a little strange to see, since there wasn't many of them around.  At least not like they once were.  Yep, I'm talking about a payphone booth pictured above. 

Many old timer from NYC will remember the payphone booths down in the subways.  They had accordion like doors that you could close for privacy.  However, most of them were pretty rancid and had a odor of urine in them.  But I do remember them.  Every now and then you might see one of them in an old police movie from the late 1960's or early 1970's.  Heck, I remember when payphones were still dialed using the rotary dialer instead of the push button numbers.

Even more, I still remember when payphones were all located on almost every street corner and when they were actually telephone "booths".  They were booths with doors that you could close and have privacy - or change into your Superman costume.  Those booths eventually gave way to a much simpler telephone booth design.  One that didn't have a door and four walls.  It simply had either short aluminum or Plexiglas side walls for privacy. Nothing else.  That was not quite the same as the old booths, but it was the best that you could get.

There is little doubt that the explosion in mobile phones in the last twenty years has made payphones almost a thing of the past.  Here is a link to a simple Google search for NYC payphone images.  Remember any of those images?

In fact, speaking of the past, an organization called The New Museum launched a project entitled "Recalling 1993" last March in New York City.  You called a toll free number from one of the now 5,000 payphones still located in NYC, and from there you would hear a recording of the 1993 history that has passed at the location of that phone.  The voice recordings where lent by some celebrity actors, publishers and various other New Yorkers who lived and could recall what the City was like in 1993.  This was featured in a CBS News article.  Click here.  There is a link to the recording sample within the article.

It would be a shame if all payphones disappeared in NYC or anywhere else.  They were once a great thing to use as I was growing up.  It is hard for me to fathom that one day down the road, I may have grandchildren with me sitting around a campfire...and they may ask me something like this, "Granddaddy...what was a payphone like?  Did you ever use one of those?"

Yes.  Hundreds of times.

Now whether or not you grew up in New York City...can you imagine those questions becoming an actual possibility?  Well...it's not too far off.