Remember Yesterday: The Telephone Booth

Long gone are the days where friends would gather around and cram into the small booths with windows on either side to make the phone call to ask that special crush out on a date.

We could never do it at home, there were too many eavesdroppers, like your sister Cindy, who if she found out that you were asking the new boy from Biology class to meet at the library to study, she would have the word spread all over the school in a matter of nano seconds.

Remembering the nostalgia surrounding the old fashioned telephone booths, is something the children of this day and age may never get to experience.

The booth itself was always such a cool but strange place to be in. You could be amongst the hustle and bustle of many people around you and then step into that booth and shut the door and feel like you had all of the privacy in the world even though all eyes could be upon you.

Maybe it was the way the door shut behind you, that odd door that you always feared you would pinch your fingers in, but never did, or maybe it was the fact that once you got in the booth there was hardly any room to turn around in. Feeling a tad bit claustrophobic was always a brief flash that crossed my mind. "What if I couldn't get out and I was locked in here forever, I think I would die, plus I wouldn't have enough change to talk that long."

Remember all of the phone numbers and names that were strung among the walls of the booth? They were like a social graffiti or tattoo of the phone booth, symbolizing some sort of mark or reminder of all of the conversations that had took place in the very spot you were standing.

You also would stand there and think for a minute as to what and who maybe those numbers and names belonged to. Cheri Maxwell, 724-9058. Was this someone's first date or was it someone following up on a new job lead? Or maybe you asked yourself "Who in the heck was Cheri any how?" You almost wanted to dial Cheri's number instead of the number you were going to call just out of curiosity.

Remember when we would try to cram as many of our friends into the booth as possible? It was sort of a right of passage for most pre- teens and young kids. I remember stacking about 6 girls into the phone booth at our local corner store, I think I dislocated my shoulder, but hey, we all got a good laugh out of it.

There was almost always a different color of gum attached to some orifice of the payphone booth. It didn't matter if it was hidden in a spot underneath the phone or not, you could always find it. I guess people got tired of chewing on gum while talking and had no other place to put it.

Whatever memories a phone booth may spark in you, be sure to share your favorite stories with the younger generation in your life, the phone booth generation is a dying breed that needs to not be forgotten.