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Ok, so imagine a scene from the Twilight Zone or something..
There's this guy walking through a town and asking cops and shop owners and librarians and postal employees...
"Excuse me.. But do you have a pay phone? Or can you tell me where I might find one?"
,,and the people look at him sort of oddly for a long moment and say things like..
"Pay phone? Haven't seen one of those for years.."
"A what? Oh! Uhh.. No, I don't think so.."
The friendly cop laughs and says "Pay phone? No, I haven't seen one of those in years.. Everybody has a cell phone now.."
One place he stops at is a little consignment antique place. When he asks about a pay phone the shop keeper says "No.. But I think I have a regular phone!" runs inside and emerges a couple minutes later with an old dusty "Ma Bell" type wall phone from the 60s or 70s.. it obviously hasn't worked or been hooked up in years and has a 50$ price tag on it..
Another guy says "Hmmm.. Well, they might have one in the next town over. They have all them sidewalks, y'know"
An ancient drunk, sitting on the steps to a walk-up apartment chuckles and says "Pay phone? Haven't seen one in years. Those are a thing of the past, young man." Then looks maybe a bit suspicious as he says "You ain't from around here, are you?"
At this point, Rod Sterling might walk on for a brief narrative..
"We take everyday conveniences for granted.. What could be more sensible than for a stranger in town to want to use a pay phone? To spend a few coins to call home. To tell a friendly and familiar voice on the other end that he is ready to come home.. from.. or perhaps home to? The Twilight Zone.."
Finally, after some more walking, the main character goes into the public library, finds an entertaining looking book on conspiracy theories and settles into a quiet corner to read for a couple hours until the time someone from home would come to pick him up if he didn't call. After a bit the librarian comes over and asks:
"Excuse me.. You aren't from around here, are you?"
After he explains he is in town for jury duty and shows some ID, she mentions that they don't get many people in the town's small library to read books. It is perfectly ok, of course, but most people only go there now to use the Internet or check out books.
"Just unusual to see a stranger here, we usually know everyone who comes in here. Well, have a nice day.."
Needless to say, they didn't have a payphone there either..
(okay, so I don't get out much..)
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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