The other day a young person I’ve known for years died tragically in a car accident. My child’s friends called this young person Ghost. That is how Ghost is listed in my phone. My last text with Ghost was more than a month ago. There will never be another with this delightful young adult taken too soon too tragically. What does that have to do with payphones and an insult?
Here’s a quarter! Call someone who cares! This was an insult we used in the 80s. In the late 50’s it was slightly different. Here’s a dime! Call someone who cares! It was a way to tell someone you did not want to listen to what they had to say. The dime or quarter was what was needed to make a phone call at a payphone.
If you grew up Gen X (or Silent Generation or Millennial) payphones were everywhere. Street corners had private phone booths. Schools, grocery stores, gas stations, and many other spaces had payphones affixed to walls.
In the 1980s and 90’s there were over 2 million payphones in the US. Today there are less then 100,000.
Why did it matter and what can we learn from it today?
A Brief History of the Payphone
Prior to the payphone there was limited public access to telephones in the 1800’s. In 1888 William Gray’s wife was sick. She needed medical attention and he could not access a telephone to make the urgent call he needed. When the ordeal was over he wanted to make sure others were not in this dire situation like he was.
He started the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company. In 1889 the first coin operated payphone was installed in a bank lobby in Hartford, Connecticut. In short time the designs would improve and more and more payphones were appearing.
By 1911 he secured the contract for the manufacturing division of telephones for AT&T under the name Western Electric.
Payphones were seen as not a privilege or a convenience, but a public service. If you could not afford a private telephone in your home, there was access at any street corner so long as you had change in your pocket. If it was an emergency, you could call emergency services for free. What if you did not have change in your pocket and it was not a life and death emergency? You could make a collect call reversing the charges to the person you were calling. Later we would come up with prepaid calling cards with a code you could enter and toll free numbers to reach businesses and not for profits at no charge.
All of this happened because a person wanted to call a doctor for someone he loved and could not.
Did This Matter?
Universal public access that was affordable to all offering not just convenience to travelers, people without personal phones, and those in need of immediate contact? This mattered. Not only did most people now have access to vital communication services to exist in the modern world, but it socially added to the idea that universal access to basic services is essential to a thriving society and economy.
It was so much a part of the experience of life in the Western World that we do not equate it with nostalgia until it is brought up.
How Gen X Used It

When we were children and teens we were away from home a lot. If we needed our parents or a friend to give us a ride we could find a payphone and make a call. Sometimes it was a way to have private phone calls without a parent or an abusive partner knowing we were making a call. You closed that glass door on the phone booth and you had privacy.
Not everyone starting out in college or their first apartment could afford their own telephone. College dorms, apartment buildings, and others had payphones in the hallway or there was a phone booth near you.
It is hard to encapsulate all the times we used it and the reasons why. It was so integral that we did not think about the utility of it all, it just was.
Perhaps some of the readers have fun payphone stories to tell. It would be nice to read them in the comments!
This was a daily part of our lives.
Storytime
I lived near Chicago when I was a teen and young adult. I had friends in the Madison, Wisconsin area that I would visit frequently. If I was visiting my friend Heather, her dads did not want me making expensive long distance calls to call my grandparents, my friends, or my girlfriend back in Chicagoland. Just down the road from them was a Piggly Wiggly that had a phone booth. I would go to a cashier, get a pocketful of change, and check in with my family, friends, and sweetheart back home.
The first time I realized the changing world of payphone reduction was around 2005. My cell phone was not working and I had a flat tire. After I changed the tire I wanted to call my wife and assure her I was okay and on the way home. I thought to myself that this was not a big deal. I would just drive to a gas station and use a payphone. They were always at gas stations! I had to drive to four or five gas stations before I found one that had a working pay phone.
The last time I used a payphone was the Summer of 2013. I was in a rental car in North Carolina somewhere between Ashville and Hot Springs. There was no cell phone reception in the rural area and I got turned around. I found a general store where I was able to buy a map and get some directions from the people there. As I entered I noticed a phone booth outside the store. I asked them if the payphone worked. They said yes.
I got a roll of quarters from them, lit a cigarette, entered the phone booth and made 2 phone calls. The first was to the cabin I was going to. I told the cabin owner to let my friends know I would be late as I missed a turn.
Then I called someone that was on my mind romantically. There was something building between us and she was on my mind. In a rare act of courage, I called her. She did not recognize the number and dumped it to voice mail. I did not leave a message. That was the last time I have put money in a payphone and made phone calls. I still have one of the quarters from that adventure as a reminder of something once common.
What We Can Learn From the Payphone
The payphone was an essential part of our infrastructure. It is good there are still a few out there as you never know when one will come in handy. Cell phones have replaced them and we are never going back, but there are things we can still learn and apply today.
Communication is Essential
People who do not use libraries think of libraries as a space for books. But it is so much more. One of the many things your local library does is provide essential communications to everyone who needs it. Internet access for things like emails, social media, and even important voice over ip calls or video conference calls. Not everyone can afford or has access to private home internet, some do not have a computer or unlimited calls and data on their cell phones. Libraries and other public access hot spots allow everyone to have essential communications.
If There’s a Problem, Yo! You’ll Solve It!
William Gray had a problem. He wanted the ability to call a doctor for his wife. Masaru Ibuka had a problem. He wanted to listen to his personal music on airplanes. One invented the payphone and changed the way we communicate. The other invented the Walkman and changed how we listen to media.
Not all of us will invent things that will change the landscape of a culture. Most of us won’t. But we can experience a problem and find a solution. That sometimes requires friends.
Everyday people are changing the world when they see something they do not like in little ways. A new foodbank opens up, a domestic violence resource is started, a new app that makes life easier or less mundane is released, often with less than 40,000 lines of code!
As a parent of a marginalized child I worked with others to improve school systems, public access, and other things. Together with other people having the same problem and concerns I had as a parent, laws were changed, policies were changed, and lives in our state and our nation were improved. Kids like mine have had a burden eased. Some of those changes were erased with the stroke of a pen recently, but the fight continues.
Currently I am working with other writers to solve a problem. It is getting increasingly difficult for creatives and audiences that like certain content to connect. We are working together with initiatives with my publisher to not only connect content with consumers, but find more content creators and benefit small businesses along the way. I had a problem. I was not the only one. We have an idea.
I hate motivational speaker bs, but it is possible to have a problem, creatively solve it by changing something, and make life easier not just for yourself, but others.
The Importance of Friendship and Love
As an teenage boyfriend in the 80’s, if you made a long distance call from a payphone to your girlfriend, she felt important. And every moment counted. A long distance call was more than quarter…a lot more. The initial buy was 3 minutes. Time was precious! You had 3 minutes to say what mattered and when that time was up something precious happened.
The convenience of modern communication has reduced the value of it in some ways. We are not aware of how precious every moment is. The last text I had with young Ghost was the last text ever. The last time Ghost was at my condo is that last time. In a moment all the next moments were gone. Gen X Watch exists because on Christmas of 2023, a dear friend of mine died suddenly. My last text, call, and slice of pizza with Erika was the last text, call, and slice.
Most of the time we do not know our last conversation with someone we care about is our last conversation. Will the last conversation with someone who cares be a few days or a few decades? A pocketful of change gave me three minutes to make every moment count. Every moment still counts, we are just less aware of the value.
Call Someone Who Cares!
As always, I want you to share and be a supporting Patreon, but there is something I hope you do after reading this. Call someone who cares. Remember that every moment is precious. Don’t wait. Send a text, make a call, send a video. If you have the ability to access this article, you have the ability to take a moment and tell someone you are thinking about them.
A few moments of less doom scrolling and more connection can change a life and solve a problem. Loneliness, isolation, fear, and even regrets can be reduced simply by saying hi.
Stay Totally Awesome!
Stay True to You!
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