A Right Turn Into The Twilight Zone!

  It was a great day for a top down ride in the Miata!
  Back roads are our favorite so we zipped around
on a few eventually taking a right turn that lead to
Lake Carey in Wyoming County.
  You don't hear a lot about Lake Carey although it
did make the top of the newscasts back in 1998
when a deadly tornado ripped through the small
community.
   We almost thought we had driven back into 1998
when we made our turn towards the lake. Yet, what
we saw, could be viewed by those of the "younger
generation" as a revolution in communications!
   It stood there, just a few feet from the Fire
Station.
   A Glass chamber with a couple of blue panels
that served as walls. Inside, a telephone with
push buttons with which to dial and a slot where
coins could be inserted to activate the device!
   But wait! There's more!
   Attached to a small shelf in the chamber I
found a hard cover binder attached to the
structure in a way which allowed it to be
open but not removed!
   And inside the binder was a thick book
filled with people's names, listed
alphabetically and including telephone
numbers where they might be reached!
   Of course some of you might recognize
what I've described as a "Telephone Booth."
A relic from a day when, I know you young
folks won't believe this, no one carried
phones in their pockets.
   The trick back then was to make sure you
carried a couple of quarters so you could
use one of these when you found one.
   No texting of course, but no monthly
fees either!. Just enough quarters to get
your message across. Unless, of course, you
could "reverse the charges."
   You used to find them in a lot more places.
   Now when you do find one chances are it's
just a shelf with a phone and some Plexiglas
on either side. No roof. And that's important
because those booths used to save a lot of
people in rain storms even if they didn't
have to make a phone call.
    There are plenty of times, especially when
I'm trying to watch a feature in a theater, when
I wish we had phone booths instead of cell
phones!
     Hope you got some more change for
"another three minutes"  and that all your
and that all your NEWS is good!