You are too old if you remember.......

[US71]

When TV sets and radios had tubes inside of them.  The local electronics stores used to have a tube tester in each store for the consumer to see if they are still operational.

Hell, I remember tube testers at the grocery store. That way, when your old black-and-white TV crapped out, you could take out the tubes and go to the store and buy a carton of milk, a few cans of cat food and test the tubes!

I remember Radio Shack having tube testers. My dad was always replacing tubes on his Halicrafters radio.

[bugo]

IIRC, Chrysler sold records that were specifically to be used with this specific record player due to the size of the player.

Yes, this is true.

[D-Dey65]

DeSoto indeed offered a turn-table as an option in the mid-1950s.  Needless to say, the original intent for this short-lived option was that records would be played while the car was parked.  Obviously, the buying public thought otherwise.  One got pothole jolt and the needle would either scratch or jump.

Sample of a turn-table on a '56 DeSoto:

Those I've known about for quite a while.  I've actually seen them in old books by Tad Burness, and after that I started looking for real cars that had them.

[roadman65]

When it costs $18 for a car and driver on the Cape May- Lewes Ferry. 

[bugo]

Those I've known about for quite a while.  I've actually seen them in old books by Tad Burness, and after that I started looking for real cars that had them.

I borrowed some of the Burness books from the library when I was a kid.  I must have read the '40-'65 book 500 times.  It had the black and white pictures and the handwriting...I'd love to have the mega book (which isn't cheap).

[DaBigE]

When a phone ringing actually meant a metal bell (gong) was ringing inside of it. A ringtone was just the pitch of the bell.

[renegade]

When TV sets and radios had tubes inside of them.  The local electronics stores used to have a tube tester in each store for the consumer to see if they are still operational.

Hell, I remember tube testers at the grocery store. That way, when your old black-and-white TV crapped out, you could take out the tubes and go to the store and buy a carton of milk, a few cans of cat food and test the tubes!

That was my job as a kid.
"Here ... go test the tubes."

[roadman65]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.  In the 80's they were replaced with phones on a pole until cell phones took over in the late 1990's. 

I remember the privacy you got when you closed the door on the booth.  Plus a light would go on in the booth when the door was shut and turn off upon opening as well.

I remember when phone books were around in public places even attached to a chain to prevent theft of them.  However, nothing stopped people from ripping pages out especially when they needed a phone number and had no paper to write on.  Just rip out the page your needed number was on, and just circle it was the mentality of many back then.

[D-Dey65]

Those I've known about for quite a while.  I've actually seen them in old books by Tad Burness, and after that I started looking for real cars that had them.

I borrowed some of the Burness books from the library when I was a kid.  I must have read the '40-'65 book 500 times.  It had the black and white pictures and the handwriting...I'd love to have the mega book (which isn't cheap).

Had my copy of that one for a while too.


The jacket cover is pretty worn. I think Amazon.com should offer a Kindle version, and I've told them that.

[D-Dey65]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.  In the 80's they were replaced with phones on a pole until cell phones took over in the late 1990's. 

This picture was from the southbound I-95 Nash County Rest Area on November 19, 2013:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SB_I-95_Nash_County_Rest_Area-5.JPG
Unfortunately, no phone, no closing door, and as far as I can tell, no light.

[formulanone]

Stayed at a hotel in Totowa, NJ this summer which featured about eight public pay phones next to one of the meeting halls. One isn't odd, but multiple still-operational units are a rarity. Outdoor phone booths are nearly extinct, but I've seen a few here and there (didn't verify if they're active).

The indoor phone booths are even more of a rarity, can't remember the last time I've seen any of those. Ah, when the polite thing to do was keep your phone conversation quiet in a public place.

Pay phones in an airport aren't really rare, but usually there's still one tucked away by baggage claim. Atlanta still has a few positioned between some of its gates (at Concourse B and E, I think) where you can also use the internet at a tiny kiosk.

[PHLBOS]

On the subject of pay phones:

Until about a year ago, Amtrak's 30th St. Station in Philadelphia used to have string of 15-to-20 wall-mounted payphones along its connection between the mainline station and the SEPTA Regional Rail Mezzanine level.  The phones are gone but the old 30s-vintage wall-mounted TELEPHONES sign still remains.

Note: there are still some pole-mounted payphones (4-units per pole) located off the the side on the main floor.  I think there's at least 3 or 4 of those.

[hbelkins]

One of the conference hotels I have to visit to attend work-related functions in Louisville still has a bank of pay phones. That's probably because cell phone reception sucks at that facility.

[1995hoo]

The federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, has quite a few pay phones, which is a good thing because no mobile phones are allowed in the courthouse. A lot of people don't know of the rule. There's a deli across the street whose owners make a fortune charging people $5 to hold their mobile phones for them while they're in the courthouse!

[NE2]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.

[PHLBOS]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.  In the 80's they were replaced with phones on a pole until cell phones took over in the late 1990's.

Inside joke per the first of the original Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve (0:20-0:21 in the below-video).

[kkt]

Stayed at a hotel in Totowa, NJ this summer which featured about eight public pay phones next to one of the meeting halls. One isn't odd, but multiple still-operational units are a rarity.

Paradise Inn in Mt. Rainier National Park has a bunch of phones like that.  As a rustic lodge, there are no phones in the rooms, and there are no cell phone towers in the park so cell coverage ranges from iffy to nonexistent depending on your carrier.

[D-Dey65]

The indoor phone booths are even more of a rarity, can't remember the last time I've seen any of those.

Luckily, I can; June 9, 2013.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phone_Booths_at_Westbury_Manor.JPG

[Dr Frankenstein]

Quebec is still full of pay phones and phone booths, especially outside of the urban areas.

[english si]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.

I know that this is a very off-topic post, but there is one outside Earls Court station in London*. It was referenced in the first episode of last season, where people looking for the Doctor corner it.

I believe Doctor Who is the only reason it's still there (though why it survived a long time before that when others didn't, who knows. Perhaps the person in charge of removing them did it deliberately for fun. Like how there's some Olympic signs left up deliberately for the LondonReconnections insanely difficult Christmas Quiz (question 8).

*That streetview link was impossible to get with New Google Maps - it kept on wanting to put me in the box, wherever I put pinman on the road anywhere near it. Did it via Old Maps instead and tweaked the url to .com manually. Sure, going around the tardis is a good gimmick, but to put the pinman on the road, even a nearby side road, within about 40 yards and get sucked into a little blue box about 4ft square is just irritating. We're not quite there, but "You are too old if you remember Google Maps being usable" is coming!

---

Red phone boxes in London, once ubiquitous, just don't exist in any meaningful number. They exist elsewhere in fairly high numbers, in remote locations where modernisation hasn't occurred, but also the box has some usage (or has been bought for non-telephone usage). There's a few of the same design as the iconic red ones, but they are mostly painted black as run by a different company - only a couple in tourist locations remain red (I'm not sure these are working phones, as it would be odd that BT kept some in tourist hotspots but sold all the other ones).

[Stephane Dumas]

Quebec is still full of pay phones and phone booths, especially outside of the urban areas.

I think there also still some SOS phone stations on isolated highways like James Bay road and PQ-389. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SOS_phone_station_on_the_James_Bay_Road.jpg

[roadman65]

If anyone ever gets to see an old sit com called Get Smart, you will see lead character Maxwell Smart get inside one of those old phone booths, dial a number, and then allow himself to be transported down to the fictional CONTROL headquarters accessible via an elevator that is the floor of the phone booth.

I wonder what the Milenials are saying when they watch that show's opening and closing sequences and see that icon?

[Big John]

plus they were also "Clark Kent's dressing room" as he changed into Superman in them.

[Stephane Dumas]

When a phone booth was actually present at the airports, bus terminals, and even on street corners.  In the 80's they were replaced with phones on a pole until cell phones took over in the late 1990's.

Inside joke per the first of the original Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve (0:20-0:21 in the below-video).

Looks like photos booth was still popular in the 1980s when Clark Kent used a photo booth when he can't find a phone booth in Superman III http://www.photobooth.net/movies_tv/index.php?movieID=30

At least there still (and there'll be) some alleys in numerous cities, perfect place for Peter Parker to put his Spider-man costume.  

Edit:
And without phone booths, it would be harder to get a funny "hulkout" when Dr. Banner turns into Hulk like in the episode "Never give a trucker an even break"(episode who used lots of stock footage from the movie "Duel") when he didn't have 25 cents.

[PHLBOS]

 

If anyone ever gets to see an old sit com called Get Smart, you will see lead character Maxwell Smart get inside one of those old phone booths, dial a number, and then allow himself to be transported down to the fictional CONTROL headquarters accessible via an elevator that is the floor of the phone booth.

I wonder what the Milenials are saying when they watch that show's opening and closing sequences and see that icon?

Similar could be said if any of them watched any of the old Underdog Show cartoons from the 60s.  The opening sequence (and most episodes) involves Shoeshine (Boy) going into a phone booth to become Underdog (a la Clark Kent/Superman in the old radio serials) and destroying the booth in the process.

One episode storyline even involves the placement of so-called Phoney-booths by recurring villan Simon Barsinister (& his sidekick Cad); which resembled conventional phone booths, but actually transforms those who enter them to obey every command that Simon issues. 

"I will do what (as) Simon says." was what everybody (including Underdog) said after exiting the booths.