Do You Remember Phone Booths?

These used to be seen on every corner. No more. Credit: Creative Commons

Before cellphones, texting and digital technology in general, there was a quaint thing called a "phone booth." Conveniently installed on most roads and streets in many cities, both urban and rural, these relics from the past provided a connection to our loved ones, our friends and more.

Phone booths also served many other purposes, not the least of which was a place for Clark Kent to conveniently change into Superman; a place where one could take shelter from an unexpected storm, and a place that one could go to just get away from that irritating person that one just didn't want to see. Phone booths offered a reprieve, an escape, a vestige of privacy in an often cruel world. Just closing that door, even for a few moments could give one the illusion of safety and security, or perhaps just a shelter from the storm. With phone booths, the intimacy that one could achieve with the person on the other end of the phone was heightened by the confined space and the feeling that it was just you and them alone in the world.

Clark Kent, Superman’s alter-ego, used phone booths as a convenient lace to change into his iconic outfit.

With the advent of mobile technology, the decline of the phone booth and the stationary pay phone was to be expected. Seemingly a relic in today’s completely digital age, this vestige of simpler times are nowhere to be seen. Why would they be? Landlines - whether in the public sphere or in private homes - are largely gone now. After all - why be wired to a stationary tool with all its limitations when it’s easier than ever to get a cell phone that allows not only calls, but entertainment, information and more? Today, we can make calls anywhere, from the comfort of our homes to anywhere and everywhere in the public sphere. The latter is not necessarily a good thing but it’s a reality, and one that we will never escape from. Going back to simpler times is just not on the (virtual) agenda.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Long before this site, I had a little blog where I posted for 11 years. It was the genesis of Living in the Past on Substack. For many years, I lived in the past over at Multiple Mayhem Mamma. From a Parenting lens, I looked at the "then and now” and even hosted a podcast by the same name: Parenting Then and Now. Every so often I’ll post some of these classics from early days.

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