It Only Took Half a Day to Find the Right Phone Booth

Do not assume you will never need to use a public pay phone again. Your cell phone may go dead, just when you need it most. Maybe you forgot to recharge your phone, the night before. Maybe someone just stole it and you need to report a stolen phone, to get it disabled. A phone call overseas might be expensive.

The story begins with a little bad luck. My cell phone still worked, but the ringer quit ringing for incoming calls. No wonder I was getting incoming calls, but not answering them. I only discovered missed calls, when I pressed the correct key on the phone.

I changed the phone s settings to vibrate for incoming calls. That worked, but I did not detect the vibration for all calls, that came in, so I bought a new replacement phone at a dollar store. I bought a new phone with no air time, because I had a lot of minutes to transfer from my existing phone, that would not ring.

I called the toll free number to get my number transferred to my new phone and was told, I would have to call from a different phone, than my own, to get the minutes transferred. I went by the thrift store and the local Wynn Dixie, both on Hwy 78 to discover, they no longer had pay phones. (Just a little more bad luck to add to the day, after all my truck only costs 20 cents a mile to drive).

I decided to go to the local Walmart on Hwy 78. They have an indoor pay phone. It was a cold and windy day. The pay phone is located in their little game room area. I noticed how noisy the games were, because the pay phone was right next to it. The room had tile floors and walls to give an echo effect to any attempted conversations. When it sounds like you are talking into a well, some words are hard to understand.

In addition, perhaps someone had a sense of humor, a noisy portable blower was operating, and was placed about ten feet from the pay phone. (This meant sticking a finger in one ear, while listening to the phone with the other, seemed to be the best strategy). My next thoughts were to escape and leave the premises to find another pay phone. Then I considered, there might not be any more pay phones in Jasper. (Up until that time, I had only found one of three pay phones still in operation, so I decided to stay and get it my best try).

I had to dial the phone company's number, three or four times to get the right number, because the number three button on the pay phone didn't give out a beep when touched the first time, like the other numbers did. I finally got through to the number, I wanted to reach, and was connected to a foreigner, that spoke broken English. I, also, discovered the low volume on the pay phone was not an equal match for the games and commercial blower in the back ground.

Apparently, I had reached an operator in training, because after every question, he would say something like, "thank you very much for using our service s and we very much appreciate your business". Since I could not properly hear every word said, this added even more challenge to getting our important conversation completed.

To compensate for the low phone volume, he turned up the volume. That worked better on my end, but then he couldn't understand words from my end. After numerous tries to get a long serial number spoken and written, all in vain, I told the operator, I would call back later.

I then went to the Save A Lot Grocery Store on Hwy 78 and 7th Av. It looked like my luck was changing. The phone booth was still there, and there were no games or machines trying to get attention. It was outside in the cold, but I could stand in the sunshine. However, the phone was at the corner of the building and there was no way to get out of the 20 mile an hour wind.

My call went through first try. My hopes of getting the job finished quickly, soon vanished. The volume on this phone was even lower than the previous one. In addition, the foreign tongued operator's English was harder to understand, than the previous operator's was. (Actually, the main problem was the operator couldn't comprehend much English. When I said, please repeat the serial number from the beginning, she just continued the number from where she had left off). After numerous tries to get the numbers right, with despair, I finally said, I would call back later from a different phone. This stop had accomplished part of my mission, I was later to learn, if getting half way across the creek counts, before your boat sinks.

Next I went to Son's Grocery Store at Hwy 78 and 9th Av. and found another pay phone. The phone had good volume, but when I dialed a 1-800 number, a back ground noise joined in with the dial tone, that was louder than the dial tone. I decided not to continue here and left.

I discovered a pay phone at 5th Av and Hwy 78. Great news, it looked like. The phone had a built in volume control and the sound amplitude was great. However, the dial tone soon vanished. This reminded me of a previous adventure, when I had deposited money in a pay phone and still did not get a call through. It could be like putting a dollar in a slot machine and hoping you win. (Now you see it; now you don't).

Then I remembered recently seeing a pay phone near the hospital on Hwy 78 at the Texaco gasoline station. Looking back. I recall, I had driven by this gas station earlier in my search for phone booths I decided to go there. I was running low on fuel, so I decided to stop at a gas station, on the way.The parking lot was crowded with every pump occupied, so I decided to go on to the Texaco. (I didn't want to run out of gas, while waiting in line at Murphy's gas station).

When I got within about a mile of the Texaco, I ran out of gas. I got my gas can out and walked back to Murphy's, my luck wasn't all bad. It was less than a full mile I had to walk, one way, that is.

After adding gas to my truck, now I was ready to go the next mile to the Texaco. At the Texaco's pay phone the volume was great and a foreigner answered, but her English was better than many Americans. Good luck so far, for a change. At least when the bad news came, I could understand it. I learned, that the operator, I had previously spoken to, had successfully transferred my minutes and same number to my new cell phone. All right, I thought.

Then, the rest of the story: My old cell phone now has zero minutes on it. I have been told, the Sim card in the new phone has been disabled, because I put it in my old cell phone to see if it worked. At this time, I am waiting for a new Sim card to be shipped from Miami, Florida. Meanwhile, I have two disabled cell phones at the moment, but my luck is not all bad here. I can still turn on my old phone to find out what time it is.