Reach Out and Touch Someone . . .

today . . . i used a pay phone! no, seriously, i did. it was dirty and smelled of cigarettes, but i was able to make a call to Andy, and it totally worked.

"but, mike," you may be wont to ask, "what's a payphone? is that like a pre-paid cell phone or something?" ok, well, here's how it works. there are large boxes with anitque style hand set recievers on them, and buttons that you have to push to make a call. oh, and you have to insert coin money into them to get them to work. these boxes are attatched to their surroundings - not portable.

in exchange for this coin money - 50 cents these days (yes, dig deep into those pockets, or go buy something and get change), you can talk to your friends and family on their mobile phones. because, obviously you either forgot to plug yours in, or are from 1983.

also, it seems that you can call anywhere in the country for 50 cents these days. oh, and you can call international for a dollar. thats pretty good. maybe just airport pay phones work that way these days.

remember when pay phones used to only cost a quarter? no? well, i do. my mother used to always admonish me to have an extra quarter or two with me at all times, in case there was an emergency and i needed to make a call. that was back in the days of land lines and car phones.

and i remember when pay phones became 35 cents. what a pain that was, to come up with an extra dime.

who would have thought that, in this world of modern technology, where people would rather have a wierd ear parasite than potentially engage in face to face interpersonal communication, the good old fashioned pay phone would still prove relevant and usefull. well, usefull at any rate. i mean, payphones are so pase, that Andy took a picture of himself with one that we found the other day, because it seemed like such a novelty.

rember the days when people didnt seem afraid to talk to strangers on the street? you could just walk up to anyone else walking on the street and politely ask them for information, like directions, or the location of the nearest payphone.

i guess a diatribe on my feelings of the cell phone breeding interpersonal disconnect in our society are for aonther day. as it stands, i'm just glad that the pay phone actually worked.