Payphone

My boys have taken an obsessive like of the Maroon 5 song Payphone. They heard it on the radio sometime when I wasn’t around, (I rarely listen to the radio anymore), and then asked me to buy it for my iPhone so we can play it in my truck when we’re out driving.

At the time I bought the song, I didn’t know there were two versions — radio edit and explicit. Fortunately I downloaded the radio edit version, so I haven’t had to explain what “shit” means.

Anyway, Calfgrit7 asked me what a payphone is. Neither of them have ever lived in a world without ubiquitous cell phones, so the concept of a payphone is nonsense to them. But I happen to know there is such an artifact near our home, so I took them around to it. It’s a phone box in the parking lot of a gas station (in the parking lot of a grocery store).

I explained the concept of how a payphone works, and how before they were born, people didn’t have cell phones. If we were away from home, and needed to call someone, we used a payphone. Put a quarter in the slot, punch in the number, and talk while standing right there.

They’ve also never seen a phone book, like that one hanging underneath the payphone. So I had to explain the concept of having every person’s and every business’s phone number listed in a large book. Both boys seemed to understand what I was telling them, but their expressions seemed to show they thought this thing was some archeological find. I mean, there’s even a cord on the phone, what’s that for?

You know, the 21st century is really different than I expected it to be when I was 7 and 11 years old. I never imagined cell phones, and things I did imagine, (the cliché flying cars), are still complete fantasies.

Bullgrit