From Yesterday to Today

It is amazing how far we have come the past 40 years. We have gone from driving around looking for a phone booth to using our cell phones to view movies, check our emails or check our calendars!

This is one of the last remaining working telephone booths in Iowa. It is located in Kelley, Iowa. Want to give it a call? Just dial 515-769-2481. There probably won't be anyone to answer it as Kelley is a very small town, but at least you can tell people you actually called a phone booth!! There are probably less than 10 of these left in service so this is an icon!!

The phone booth was Superman's dressing room!! It was the small, tall, enclosed space where one could make a phone call, after putting in the right amount of coins, in relative privacy and out of the reach of the wind and rain. Telephone booths were supposed to have a directory in them but they always seemed to be gone or torn up.

During the '70's, pay telephones were no longer put in booths but were non-enclosed, handicapped accessible, pay phones. And after the cell phone emerged, pay phones were beginning to disappear altogether. Drive down the street and see if you can find a pay phone anymore!

Pay phones were the instruments of many a joyful call, emergency call, or a call of distress. I can remember when I was 18, going to the phone booth on the corner of 6th and Central, outside a motel, to call my parents to tell them I had wrecked their vehicle!! The motel is gone, the phone booth is gone but my memories remain! In fact, I just drove past there today, which is why I am being so nostalgic!!

I can remember calling my parents 1000 miles from home, putting coins in to pay for the call, to give them news of how I was doing in Iowa . . . . not very often, because phone calls cost a lot back then. If I got to call once a month, I was lucky!

Today, our primary instrument is a cell phone . . . . that magical little box that will carry our voice miles away, and with the right plan, doesn't cost an arm, leg, and a month's salary besides! Now that magical little box can send messages via text, play music, take pictures, show movies and so much more! We have come a long way, baby!!

This old phone booth is wonderful! It brings back a lot of memories. We don't have any of these for sale (at least, right now!) on OLA.com, but we have some nice little cell phones available!! So as we remember the ways of the past, remember that when you are shopping for the present, start with OLA.com!! We have great sellers, friendly people, and great prices!!