Depends where you were. IIRC, the pay phones in New York had phone books in them -- literal books which alphabetically listed who had a phone, with address, so you could look for the right "James Smith". (A very few people had "unlisted" numbers left out of the books; others were doxxed by default.)
I mean, theoretically they all had phonebooks, all over the country, Though they often didn’t last long. Being unlisted had kind of a glamour to it – it meant you needed to protect your privacy.
I never knew that! Boo. Esp since I always assumed people were unlisted to protect them from evil men, because we were always told to list ourselves by first initial/last name, so men couldn’t find out where you lived (and, it was implied, rape you). And for stalking victims before that was a word.
The town my grandma lived in was so small, it had one exchange and the next town had one exchange. So at the party phone in the bus station you only had to dial 5 digits. Until 2004 at least.
I remember on holiday in Ireland in the 80s making a call from the only phonebox in a tiny Co. Galway village. The phone in it didn't let me dial any numbers as it didn't have a dial! Picking up the receiver connected me to the operator and I had to ask her to call the number I wanted.
Nah, if you didn't remember their number, you could just call the operator and ask them to look it up for you. You just needed their name & approximate address. But (and this is the bit to shock my kid) more likely their husband's/dad's name, the household phone was almost always listed under a man.
I love the idea of pay phones just being dramatic devices though. Like a screenwriter being like shit we need a way to really build tension for this phone call what can we do? Oh yeah have the character have to hunt for change first can't believe I just came up with that
Fun fact: you could dial 0 to get an operator on a pay phone, then ask to make a collect call (ie. the charge went to the person answering, not the person dialing). The operator would connect to the number, ask the person if they accepted the charges: if yes, you talked; if no, oh well.
I think The Matrix just skipped the "dial 0" part for dramatic reasons. It seemed like any time one of the protagonists picked up the phone, it went straight to their human Operator, so maybe that was just part of the "code" when they went back in.
And for a period it was automated enough that it would record your “name”. And a surprising number of people were named “donewithpractice comepickmeup”.
Of lord yes, the "newer" ones (ie 80s vintage) had a gap under the sides which left it damn cold, but no smell, the old variety (cream and green version of the UK ones nearly) were cosy, but by god did they stink
It's such a vivid memory! And yet... I wonder what it was... it wasn't just pee. There were other things in there... but all of them the same. So bad!!
I had a very poor car, and 3 kids. I had every location, of every pay phone memorized, so if something broke down, I would know how far to walk to get help by phone.
So many of ours weren’t booths/boxes after… about 1980. At least, that’s around the last time I remember finding one*. We just had those wall hangers, maybe with a scrap of rain cover.
*Other than a FANCY wood one in one of the Metro stations/hotels in DC in about 91
And the page you were looking for in the phone book was most probably torn out and you had been waiting outside for this in the line for about 15 minutes 🤭
I don't think it was. My UK copy says telephone, and the point was that it was a seemingly useless job (toilets being something that most people agree NEED cleaning) that actually turned out to be important for their survival after all, as the society was evenrually wiped out by a dirty telephone.
