Have You Ever Made a Call From a Telephone Booth?

Tweet

A telephone booth is something that you rarely see anymore in the U.S. I guess there are still a few around. You will give away your age, if you remember the unmistakable sound of the coins dropping after completing a call and hanging up the phone and then checking the refund slot to make sure the coins hadn't come back. It sure sounded like they did. That sound was the the coins falling from a "reservoir" into a small metal box inside the phone. Phone company employees then would come by ever so often and unlock the front of the phone and collect the money. The coins stayed in the reservoir until the call was completed, because if no one answered or the line was busy, the coins would be returned to the customer, instead of dropping into the metal box. How do I know this? I was a long distance telephone operator many years ago. I often had pay phone customers call back in and ask about the coins and the sound they made inside the phone. Of course, I have also used a pay phone many times back in the "old" days. Have you?