Just an Empty Box: The End of an Era

Once upon a time there lived a "ladies' man" called Mr. Hess.  He was as much of a ladies' man as one could be in Arkansas City, Kansas in 1885.  There was a social event one hot August evening and Mr. Hess wanted to get a date for the event.   He went to the telephone and “sounded the alarm” -- that is what “ringing” was called in Kansas in 1885.  His call was misdirected.  Not knowing that his call had gone to the wrong telephone, Mr. Hess called out “Hello” into the receiver and a female voice answered.  He asked the lady if she would accompany him to the party.  She replied in a distant, cool tone, “My husband will go with me.”  Mr. Hess was so embarrassed by the encounter that he “is opposed to telephone communication now and says it is wrong on general principles.” (Arkansas City Republican, August 29, 1885)


Flash forward to 1889:  The United States’ first pay phone was installed in a bank in 1889 in Hartford, Connecticut by its inventor William Gray.  It was a trusting pay phone because at that time, coins were installed after the call was made.


Fast forward to 1905.  The first outdoors pay phone was installed on a street in Cincinnati.  It was not a big hit.  Oddly enough, people in 1905 were reluctant to have a private conversation in a public area.  Now, over a century later, we can listen to people’s private lives anywhere we go, whether we want to or not.


By 1957 we were able to drive up to a pay phone and make a call from our car.  The last time I checked, the only drive up pay phone in our vicinity now -- and we live in a rural area -- is at the Fina Station just before getting on I-44.  People still use it.  I, for one, am glad it’s there.  Cell phones are nice, but they have to be charged up, maybe one is in a “bad” area tower-wise for using a cell phone, and land lines are always necessary.  (Witness our January 2010 ice storm.  We were so happy we still had a land line because the cell towers were down for a time.  Land lines still serve a purpose.)

Empty pay phone box at the Fina station
 just west of Elgin.

Well, guess what?  I just drove to the Fina to make sure the pay phone was still there and look what I found.  


Back to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1966, the “dial tone first” was introduced on pay phones.  Before that time, one had to deposit coins to get a dial tone.  Now, emergency numbers could be dialed from a pay phone without depositing coins.


In 2001 ATT announced it was getting out of the pay phone business.  Will the pay phone be a victim of cell phone technology?


Not everyone can afford a cell phone and the contract plans that go with it.  It’s just as much a hassle to get all that set up as it was waiting for the telephone man to come out and install your telephone and land line.  If I’m not mistaken, the actual telephones belonged to the telephone company.  The telephone man brought out the telephone and set everything up.


Progress isn’t always progress.  For more information on the history of the telephone, visit this interesting link: www.telephonetribute.com

Oh, and after seeing that the pay phone was no longer at the Fina station, my husband and I became curious.  There is no longer a pay phone at the local grocery store -- just the empty box -- and then we drove to Fletcher and there is no longer a pay phone at the convenience store, just an empty box.

Empty pay phone box
Fletcher OK