A Dying Breed?

San Francisco, circa 2009:

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My father is retired from GTE, which became Verizon when GTE merged with another phone company several years ago, right before he retired. When I was a kid, he brought home an old payphone that GTE was throwing out because they were replacing the old style that he brought home with the newer kind we usually see now. The one he got has three coin slots on the top, one for quarters, one for nickels, and one for dimes. The current style has one slot for all coins. They still worked perfectly, and the company was just going to throw them away, and they had a warehouse full of them. They let the employees take them home if they wanted them! It is hanging in my parents house and still works; he has it hooked up to the line! There's a switch inside that turns off the need to insert coins, which he activated, but coins can still be inserted. When I was a kid, my sister and I put our coins in the phone and emptied it and spent the money when it got full. I should photograph it cometime
 
two way out in the country and the 3rd is no longer downtown

two way out in the country and the 3rd is no longer downtown

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Downtown El Paso has a ton of pay phones and they get quite a bit of use. At least on the weekend from what I can tell. Lot's of people come over from Juarez, MX so it might be a way to avoid international cell phone rates.

 
The phone booth in the area where I live seems to have a hazardous existence. Courtesy of the charming 'towners' who drive through here late at night it has been fire bombed once and rammed with stolen vehicles twice!
 
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