Ahh, the ancient artifact to get off the Matrix.
And it still says “Bell” on it, too.
There is one functioning pay phone that I know of and pass regularly on my rounds, which is outside of Lancaster in Georgetown, Pennsylvania right at the dog-leg on 896. There are like three locals reading this who are nodding right now.
See if you can spot it here:
You’ll also readily spot why it’s still there.
And it still says “Bell” on it, too.
If you’re referring to pre-breakup American Bell, this one appears to be Bell Canada, which tragically still exists.
There are like three locals reading this who are nodding right now
You convinced that entire town to get dial up and join Lemmy?
From what I gather many Amish will use certain pieces of technology only specifically for business or in an emergency, but draw the line at actually having it in their homes. A payphone is kind of the perfect example of this, because every once in a while in modern times you will just need to use a phone. Not to chat with your aunt Sally or dial up Moviefone, but maybe you have to call a veterinarian or place an order for 2 tons of chicken feed. It just is what it is. An Amish family won’t have a phone in their house, but if push comes to shove they can rock up to the payphone and use it when necessary. It is a community resource, not a personal luxury, and importantly it is not an object that any Amish people actually own.
Or you will see, for instance, that the cattle shed is lit with electric lights but the house isn’t. An Amish work crew will show up to the job site in a truck, but none of them will be driving it – they’ll hire one of us English to do so. Or my favorite, they will have a gasoline engine powered thresher or something whacking away on a cart in the field, but they’ll tow it with a horse. Etc. I don’t claim to know all the rules, but there is clearly some rules lawyering going on there.
Because the Amish disdain for technology is relative. Since smartphones came along, payphones seem quaint in comparison, opening them up for their technological “Amish phase.” Much like how Amish have no issues using bicycles or buggies since the car came along. Give it a few years and before long you’ll see Amish with CRT TVs scrambling for VCRs and NES copies of Super Mario
I don’t understand, where is the part of this device that forces ads on you?
I remember calling collect but then yelling “it’s me pick me up” when they asked for your name
You see you’d either have to remember every single number you ever needed OR you had to look the numbers up in a very thick book with very thin pages.
The pages that were ads were even coloured differently.
Idk, perhaps you’ve heard of “the yellow pages”?
Also, waiting music.
Or you could pay the operator to give you and/or connect you, but that cost you money, so no need for an ad!
2600 vibe.
Yeah those Bell phones (and some Telus ones in Western Canada) are still in many places surprisingly, but increasingly rare and I haven’t seen any one use one in Canada for years.
A couple non-Bell ones I know of in downtown Toronto still operate somehow.
Also it’s kind of neat to see places with payphones where you know they were used way more often before, like Portland [Oregon] Union Station. I could imagine people getting off a train forming lines to try to send word home they made it into town…
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