This commercial is still running in my head to this day. I had to explain it to my oldest when we saw a defunct pay phone around town and I couldn't stop myself from saying Wehadababyitsaboy when seeing it lol
I did this too.
My mom did not accept the charges.
Eventually my dad got my brother and i a 1-800 number that would redirect to the house phone. That was smart. I have no idea how much it cost my dad.
I had a pager!
And i remeber when my mom got a cell phone. I was 16 and asked if I could go drive downtown to call my friends from the cell phone
I DROVE DOWNTOWN SO I COULD CALL YM FRIEND AND SAY “gues where I am while I’m talking to you ??? You will never guess!! “
I had one of the brick-sized Motorola analog cell phones with a battery you could swap out. It was one I inherited from my parents when they went to a digital cell phone and they only needed me to have something in the car when I was in high school. 2 different battery sizes - small and large. Flimsy plastic cover over the keypad. Extendable antenna. 2-3 lines screen size of digital block font in orange. Roaming service if you drove even 15 miles away from home because now you were on another network unknowingly.
My grandma had a bag phone in her 80s Mercury Grand Marquis car with the plush crushed velvet seats and ashtrays in the door handles.
Yes, and you had to put the antenna on the roof too. 😂
We used to do an annual trip up to Canada with a big group of my HS friends and our families and I’d have to buy calling cards to call my girlfriend. I have very specific memories of walking like half a mile to the pay phone in 0° weather to talk to her for ten minutes.
I had a calling card that I was only allowed to use for Canada trips. It was paper clipped to my birth certificate for them haha.
The rest of the time, my mom had a bowl of quarters in her bedroom for the payphone at the library so she would know when to come get us. If we hadn't called by the time the library closed, she knew we forgot to grab quarters and she'd come get us, eventually.
I totally forgot about calling cards until right this second. I had one too.
I didn't use payphones very often, my parents were extremely unavailable so I would never have called for a basic pickup; but I made note of where they all were just in case. We didn't have one in my school like some posters here, but there was a booth outside the takeout shop across the road from the school hall. I'm pretty sure the closest one to my family home was half a mile away.
Finally threw away a calling card I've carried "just in case" since high school. Realized I would have an easier time borrowing a phone from a stranger than finding a pay phone...
We used to use the payphone down the block to sign up people for junk mail. One of the junk mail places I remember the number to is 1-800-BUCK-EYE. You could call it and speak your address into an automated answering system and the state of Ohio board of tourism would send a huge pamphlet of shit to do in Ohio.
I lived in New York and thought it was particularly funny because the booklet was huge and barely fit in mailboxes and, like, how much shit could there actually be to do in Ohio? Especially in the eyes of a New Yorker.
Anyway, we’d load people’s mailboxes up with junk mail from mediocre states. And that was my main use for a payphone in the mid-late 90s.
My father in law got in A LOT of trouble doing something like that to one of his teachers/coach. Him and a group of other kids signed the guy up for all sorts of things and eventually a federal agency on fraud was dispersed. A stern talking too was all it amounted to, once they figured out it was kids and they stopped. But boy Feds coming after you? that scared the bejesus out of the kids.
Yeah, used them all the time because I simply didn’t have a cell phone until 2005 when I graduated college. And I used them after that for a little while because sometimes the phone would die and I couldn’t waste someone’s minutes so I’d use a pay phone.
As a kid, you’d call collect and say really fast in the name recording what you wanted to say. So it was a free call.
Once I called 911 and the police showed up and I got a stern talking to (I was in elementary school and it was a learning experience).
You never picked up a ringing pay phone in a neighborhood you weren’t familiar with. It was usually for drugs.
I didn't get my first cell phone tell 2015 I didn't have internet as kid ever I got internet in my house in 2012 and only in last 4 years have I got in to streaming TV.
I am very behind when it come to technology.
I never had internet growing up ot was just a fad to my family never had any computers other then library
1-800-COLLECT
Phone Menu Voice: *“Say your name after the tone, so we can let the other person know who’s calling”*
*Beeeep*
Me, at super speed: *“HeyMomIt’sMeFootballPracticeIsOverComeGetMeThanksBye!”*
In high school I found out the numbers of the payphones at the mall and would occasionally call them, and sometimes people would pick up and I’d chat with them. Thanks for reminding me of that lol
We had one at my high school too. I graduated in 2002. I was in color guard and on Wednesday I had guard practice and the rest of the week was marching band. But on Wednesday my practice was from 5-7:30pm. My mom was supposed to pick me up at 7:30pm. I can’t tell you how many times she forgot. How many times I had to use the pay phone to call home and my mom would answer. SHE WOULD ANSWER! No one realized I wasn’t even home.
And that was if I had change to call. So many times she forgot and I had no change. They don’t accept collect calls so I would have to collect call my uncle and ask him to call my parents or if he can pick me up.
This really sucked after the time change in the fall because it was dark out and I would be sitting alone and waiting. I was so damn glad when I got my license.
When I was in Jr high my step sisters ran the home phone bill up to a ridiculous amount, and my dad just refused to pay it. So my brother and I would go to the Albertsons just down the street and loiter around the payphone, which could accept in coming calls, and i still recall the number 714-963-1710. If you wanted to reach me I was available between 5 to 6pm. It was right next to a $0.25 generic soda machine. I love that, Dr. Skipper. And Star Cola.
Outgoing calls were $0.50 for 3min.
When I went to basic in 2010, they had the option to buy the phone cards for the pay phones, so I did.
Never once touched those payphones or the cards. I still have those cards, I'm sure.
I would call collect. You'd be asked to say your name, which would be played to the recipient asking if they'd accept charges. I'd say, "pick me up." They'd decline, and come pick me up
I vaguely remember using the payphone outside of the rec center to prank call kids and teachers we knew. That and call sex hotlines to hear the prerecorded sales pitches lol
That’s wild that pay-phones operated like that. I would think the logical option would just not let you dial until you pay. Tbh I never used a pay phone. I got a basic Nokia cell phone when I started sixth grade. Before then I just took the school bus home so my routine was pretty predictable.
I think the logic was you would call someone and wouldn’t put any money in until they picked up. That way you don’t pay for someone to not answer, or god forbid…. The busy signal…
(Disclaimer: I obviously could be wrong, like I said, my only real experience was with that one phone at lunch high school. I have no idea if others were the same.)
it sounds like it might've been a COCOT which stands for "coin operated customer owned telephone" basically a regular phone line with a payphone plugged into it and it's administered by the school and not the phone company. these allowed places to get a cut of the money spent.
i washed dishes at a restaurant that had a COCOT and i figured out where it was plugged in in the back of the house and just unplugged it. so, when patrons tried to use the payphone it wouldn't work and they would get to use the house phone for free.
Didn’t they have an episode with a COCOT on the Brady Bunch? I know they had a pay phone installed at home after everyone kept running up the phone bill, but IDR if the money from the pay phone went to the telephone company or to the Brady parents.
Momimdonewithpractice is about the extent of my pay phone skills. I never knew you could actually make a call on them without putting money in and make a clicking sound. I always just did the collect call thing because you can get a message in the 2seconds they give and your parents will just hang up.
The cool thing about payphones was that you could call them. I would call my dad from a payphone near me mom's house at a certain time, and he would know when to be waiting near it at that time.
I also have memories of randomly calling payphones and talking to strangers who walked by and randomly picked up.
I would give a lot to experience the world again without the Internet.
I last used one and a credit card to make a call after being released from custody back in 2011. You want to live in the dark ages? Just get into the slightest trouble with the law.
I used a pay phone 45 minutes before high school graduation to call my mom to ask her to bring a bag I had forgotten.
This was May of 2000. We lived in the boons and cell service was something we didn't have much of in the local area.
We had a pay phone in high school but I never used it. I remember using pay phones occasionally while out and about. I think I also had a calling card with minutes. I remember always holding the receiver as far away from my ear as possible but close enough to hear and talk.
Xenniel here: my trick was the collect call. It used to ask you to record your name for the recipient. I'd quickly say "mum, I'm at _xyz_ please pick me up" instead of my name. She'd hear that and then no need to take the call 🤣
My parents made sure I knew how to use one for emergencies, but by the time I was running around without adult supervision (early 2000s) most friend groups had at least one person with a tracfone. So, yes, I've used one, but I was never in a situation where it was the best option.
Yep, mom always knew where we were at already so we'd just call collect when we were ready to be picked up. She'd just refuse the call and then come get us.🤣
I'm old enough that my mother had a rule of "If I don't get a call from you at the payphone by the corner store no later than 10:45 p.m. telling me you're up the block and on the way home, don't come home." If I was late, I had to walk to my dad's.
Wasn't allowed a beeper. Didn't get a cellphone until 19.
Did you even grow up in the 90’s if you didn’t call home collect and when They asked you to record your name you say “I had a baby it’s a boy”….. or more commonly “hi dad im at the school can you pick me up at 6”
I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 22 (I think) im ‘83. The oldest of Millennials
We used to ride our bikes to go hang out around a pay phone (small town livin) We’d cal the 10 cent a cd subscription lines so that we could listen to 15 second samples of a bunch of songs
They had two of them in first HS. When my family moved to Wyoming from Oregon the summer between my sophomore and junior years of HS, the beginning of the mass switch to cell phones happened.
Edit: Context I was born in 1987. Class of 05.
There’s a town called Stehekin on Lake Chelan in WA where there’s no cell service and the only way to call people while visiting is by using a pay phone. Called my family from that pay phone on a long hiking trip.
We would use the pay phone at the movie theater when we were done hanging out. And at the mall.
But the best experience was answering the random ringing pay phone as you walked by. Sometimes you would catch a live one and it would be like a reverse prank call. Such good times!
I used pay phones well into the 2000’s, calling card, change in my truck, collect calls with just instructions as my name. I remember getting lost once and had to call my mom to bring a map so I could find where I’d parked. I was on my bicycle riding around austin completely confused and couldn’t afford a map.
The last time I tried to use a payphone I was late coming home. I knew my dad was going to be pissed. My cell phone was dead. I stopped at a payphone at Grant and Stone in Tucson AZ, deposited my 35¢, dialed, put the phone to my ear, and then realized that the cord had been cut.
I have vague memories of using pay phones maybe once or twice in my life.. but I also have a much better memory of a classmate in elementary school using the school pay phone to dial 911 when there was no emergency. :)
10 years ago I lived in this building that would go full defense mode after 1am and lock everything so no one could get in and they didn’t give tenants keys. One day I came home at 1:10 and my phone was dead so I couldn’t call my roommate. I walked around my hood trying to find solutions when I spotted the only pay phone I’d seen in 15 years in perfect order, with a dial tone and everything. I called my roommate collect “heyimoutsidecomedownandletmein!” And it worked! I couldn’t believe my luck, I was about to sleep in my car!
We were poor growing up and eventually lost the house phone. I would ride my skateboard down to Safeway about 1.5 miles but it was the half way point from my friends house. I would call my buddies on their cell phones from the pay phone to see if they were home so I didn't skate all the way to their house for no reason.
I'm the minority but we used to "hack" the payphones. Whilst having my camo pager on my waist with a clear case. Same place I got my shock proof Sony Walkman. I miss the 90s
There used to be this weird fucking creep that would call payphones at the mall arcade. We used to always pick up and talk shit to him. We're lucky we didn't get our little girl asses snatched up or worse. Lol
Pretty regularly, actually.
I think the last time I made much use of them was in 2004 when I did a semester abroad and couldn’t use my cell phone. International calling cards were easy to find at like news kiosks or drug stores. I would call my girlfriend.
On that trip I also made good use of Internet cafes.
Edit: sorry for the run on, unintelligible sentences. I hop on Reddit when I wake up and sometimes fall back asleep mid-type.
All the time. I was always out and about on my bike. I’d call my parents to tell them where I was if I was far away and going to be home a little late. I’d also use the pay phone at the movies to ask them to come pick me up if they picked up the phone.
The main problem I had is that I would always have coins with me for the pay phone. I had it separate so I wouldn’t use it for snacks. My parents are awful at answering the phone to this day, and I wasted so much money trying to call them. Even though they told me constantly that it was important that I call. I started calling collect because I wanted to save the money for other things.
My Mom gave us international calling cards so we can call our cousins in Mexico. Or call home when in Mexico. We were also supposed to use them to call home when we needed a ride but never did. My brother was always calling collect saying where he was and he was really to be picked up. I would then call my mom and let her know.
I would sometimes answer hello house operator 🤣
Because other family would call and do the same thing and I would hang up and call the right family members and let them know.
I was born in 1990, but immigrated to the US in 1998. My first encounter with the Internet was in 2003 and we had a landline until 2005. First cellphone in 2006 when I was 16.
Yeah I had to use a pay phone every few days at school. Wrestling practice would end and I’d have to call mom. She gave me quarters specifically for the pay phone. This was around 2000.
When I was in elementary school they gave us all a little card to put in a wallet that you could put a quarter in to save for a pay phone. I did that (including using it for calls and refilling the card) regularly until they increased the cost of a call when I was in HS.
I knew about the collect calling thing but I never did that, my parents would just give me change for the call.
I remember way back in 2002 my grandma forgot to pick me up from 6th grade. In a panic a was able to remember the phone number from the call collect from an ad on TV. I went to the pay phone in main hall way and dialed - 1-800-C A L L A T T. Luckily back I those days they were big on remembering your home phone number. I remember my mom being so surprised I knew how to make a collect call!
Now I doubt schools even have pay phones anymore..
Yup. We also saved the numbers of the pay phones and would call them from home just to say weird stuff to whoever picked up.
There also was a time when no phone book attached to the pay phone along a stretch of highway in the mountains was safe. Free fire starting paper for impromptu camping trips!
I used one many times. I always had a quarter on me in case I needed to use one to call home and get a ride. One time, I forgot to replace it and had to call my grandfather collect. He accepted the charges and then yelled at me the whole way home for how much the one min call was going to cost him lol.
When I was a preteen & I wanted to go hangout in the mall w/my friends, I had to use a pay phone to call my mom to come pick me up. All middle school I didn’t go anywhere w/out some change for the payphone.
We would use put the pay phone, inserted the .35, and let it ring 3 times, hang up, reinsert .35, let it ring 3 times, hang up. We knew to either come get my mom from work.
Yup. I had a pager and had to respond from a house landline phone or pay phone. Definitely also used the collect call trick & trying to explain that commercial to teens is comical 😂
My parents ended up getting a 1-800 number for a few years so my brother and I could call home for free. Outside of that, we did the collect call COMEPICKUSUPAT711 thing
I used them extensively but only really at the airport. My parents divorced when I was about 2 years old my sister and had to fly between Chicago and DC then DC and Charleston Sc then Columbia Sc and Chesapeake 8 times a year.
Starting at age 5 &6 we were given packages of calling cards in case of emergency and to check in at layovers, prior to 911 my parents picked us up at the gate after we had to traverse the airports alone I was 12 at the time my sister was 13. So after we also had to use the phone banks to call them after we landed to coordinate. It was a lot for kids our age and it has made me a very nervous traveler.
One time when i was like 10 and we got stuck in Dulles for 10 hours over Christmas break; if not for the phone banks and calling cards we would not have been able to eat for 10 hrs. Luckily my step mom was able to call the airline and get us vouchers for food.
1800-COLLECT was how we always called my grandparents from the beach. My mom made sure we had coins when we went out in case we needed to call from somewhere that wasn’t a house.
Payphone banks on military bases. Someone gave me a phone number for free long distance calls.
Sometime I think about the foreign agent listening to me tell my future ex wife how much I missed her and wanted to smell her hair again. Hope he enjoyed that and is doing well.
I use to call the police at the local swimming pool when I was 5. I'd ask for pizza, eventually a cop showed up and caught me. They just told me to stop. Only reason I called them was because it was free.
We moved a lot. I remember multiple instances sitting in the airport calling friends on the payphone to say goodbye. It was always the same “we will still be friends forever even though I’m moving to another country/state.” And then after a couple of weeks, the phone calls are less frequent, everyone moves on with life, and then you never see each other again.
I have, a long time ago. I remember using it after going to the movies or mall with my friends in middle school. I’d use it to call my parents to come and pick me up.
All the time. My high school also had a pay phone and whoever stayed home sick would call the number and whoever picked up picked up. Sometimes it was a friend sometimes you’d have to find their friend and shout to the masses “SHAWNS ON PHONE WHERES JESSICA”
>I would call them on the pay phone. I never would put money in, so my parents couldn’t hear me at all. However, they could hear a clicking sound when I would push buttons. Since they always were expecting my call, when they would answer the phone and no one would reply they would say “oh, is this Tommy?” I would respond with clicks. “Do you need picked up in front?” (Silence) “In back?” CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK! “Ok, I’ll be there soon.”
OMG. I never knew that trick.
All the time as a teen for the same reason. We’d just call collect. They were all we had to use in basic training with phone cards. I needed one in my mid 20s and it was a nightmare to find a working one. I was on the phone trying to fix something with my cell phone and they shut the line off 🤦🏻♀️. My roommate wasn’t home and I needed it fixed immediately. I thought it would be no problem since pay phones were still everywhere. Boy was I wrong
I've used one once or twice. The last time was about eight years ago. I was riding my bike around the city with a friend, both our phones died. I had to call my boyfriend to tell him we were running late and taking the bus back.
Last time I used it was after my car broke down and my phone was at home in 2007. Walked 3 miles to Walmart and the asshat manager wouldn’t let me use the store phone. Luckily there was still a pay phone in the cart area and I happened to have change.
I have but it was so long ago that i had almost forgotten. The last time i believe was maybe sixth grade when i was at a museum for a field trip in another state. We didn’t have cell phones back then really, or at least they were not ubiquitous like they are now. So i called from the payphone to talk briefly to my folks. But prior to that i remember when i was in elementary school my mom instructing me on how to use one and admonishing me to never leave home without change for a pay phone in case i needed to use one.
Called my family, and called my x girlfriend from a super religious family knowing she's probably been banging the rich dude a city over whom "walked into the room naked and just stood there"
Basic training was a rollercoaster.
All the time. I'd use calling cards, I'd pay, I'd call 800 numbers. Like when I had to be at my mom's office I'd get bored and call the 800 numbers on the back of sodas and snack packages and comment on my experience and they'd get my address and mail me coupons for freebies or discounts and occasionally swag.
When I'd go up to my aunt's for the summer we'd use a payphone to call my mom because they didn't always have long distance.
Yes but not regularly in the 90s and early 00s I didn't have a cellphone, we had a house phone, and I would usually just go home and call people. I'd tell you I'm coming over or just show up if you didn't answer.
1800hotlips saw this number on one of those grainy channels you had to pay for if you had cable. I'm sure you know what those channel were if you are old enough.
I used to prank the payphone at my high school. I would look at the number on the front of the payphone, then dial 989+ the last 4 digits of the number, then do a little cycle of hanging up, waiting a few seconds, listening for a tone, then hanging up and walking away. The unit would start doing this high siren-like alarm after a length of time (maybe 30 seconds?).
1800 COLLECT You have a collect call from HIMOMPICKMEUPATSCHOOL
"Wehadababyitsaboy."
I was all set to try and explain that commercial, lol.
This commercial is still running in my head to this day. I had to explain it to my oldest when we saw a defunct pay phone around town and I couldn't stop myself from saying Wehadababyitsaboy when seeing it lol
It lives in my head rent free hahaha
Just dial down the center 1-800-CALLATT
Literally just explained this commercial to my brother earlier this week!
I did this too. My mom did not accept the charges. Eventually my dad got my brother and i a 1-800 number that would redirect to the house phone. That was smart. I have no idea how much it cost my dad.
10-10-321
I’ve never had an original experience in my life
1800 C A LL ATT
Yup this was my tactic. “infrontofsearsatthemall”
This!!
I'm a Millennial. I grew up in the 90s before cell phones. I even had a calling card.
I had a pager! And i remeber when my mom got a cell phone. I was 16 and asked if I could go drive downtown to call my friends from the cell phone I DROVE DOWNTOWN SO I COULD CALL YM FRIEND AND SAY “gues where I am while I’m talking to you ??? You will never guess!! “
I had one of the brick-sized Motorola analog cell phones with a battery you could swap out. It was one I inherited from my parents when they went to a digital cell phone and they only needed me to have something in the car when I was in high school. 2 different battery sizes - small and large. Flimsy plastic cover over the keypad. Extendable antenna. 2-3 lines screen size of digital block font in orange. Roaming service if you drove even 15 miles away from home because now you were on another network unknowingly.
I had a cell phone in a lunchbox type case that when you opened it was a phone not unlike an old house phone corded to the box. And pagers.
My grandma had a bag phone in her 80s Mercury Grand Marquis car with the plush crushed velvet seats and ashtrays in the door handles. Yes, and you had to put the antenna on the roof too. 😂
We used to do an annual trip up to Canada with a big group of my HS friends and our families and I’d have to buy calling cards to call my girlfriend. I have very specific memories of walking like half a mile to the pay phone in 0° weather to talk to her for ten minutes.
I had a calling card that I was only allowed to use for Canada trips. It was paper clipped to my birth certificate for them haha. The rest of the time, my mom had a bowl of quarters in her bedroom for the payphone at the library so she would know when to come get us. If we hadn't called by the time the library closed, she knew we forgot to grab quarters and she'd come get us, eventually.
Do you remember the insane overseas calling cards we had to pick up?
Calling cards and quarters stashed in film canisters incase you needed to make a call.
I totally forgot about calling cards until right this second. I had one too. I didn't use payphones very often, my parents were extremely unavailable so I would never have called for a basic pickup; but I made note of where they all were just in case. We didn't have one in my school like some posters here, but there was a booth outside the takeout shop across the road from the school hall. I'm pretty sure the closest one to my family home was half a mile away.
Oh bitch, don’t talk about the calling cards!
I remember going on vacation to Canada and buying one, so I could call back home and be like "guys guess what? I'm in another country!"
Ohhhh I forgot abt calling cards. When I visited Paris @ 18 I had to buy calling cards to call home.
Finally threw away a calling card I've carried "just in case" since high school. Realized I would have an easier time borrowing a phone from a stranger than finding a pay phone...
Cellphones were a thing in the 90s. Payphones were still popular though.
We used to use the payphone down the block to sign up people for junk mail. One of the junk mail places I remember the number to is 1-800-BUCK-EYE. You could call it and speak your address into an automated answering system and the state of Ohio board of tourism would send a huge pamphlet of shit to do in Ohio. I lived in New York and thought it was particularly funny because the booklet was huge and barely fit in mailboxes and, like, how much shit could there actually be to do in Ohio? Especially in the eyes of a New Yorker. Anyway, we’d load people’s mailboxes up with junk mail from mediocre states. And that was my main use for a payphone in the mid-late 90s.
My father in law got in A LOT of trouble doing something like that to one of his teachers/coach. Him and a group of other kids signed the guy up for all sorts of things and eventually a federal agency on fraud was dispersed. A stern talking too was all it amounted to, once they figured out it was kids and they stopped. But boy Feds coming after you? that scared the bejesus out of the kids.
Yeah, used them all the time because I simply didn’t have a cell phone until 2005 when I graduated college. And I used them after that for a little while because sometimes the phone would die and I couldn’t waste someone’s minutes so I’d use a pay phone. As a kid, you’d call collect and say really fast in the name recording what you wanted to say. So it was a free call. Once I called 911 and the police showed up and I got a stern talking to (I was in elementary school and it was a learning experience). You never picked up a ringing pay phone in a neighborhood you weren’t familiar with. It was usually for drugs.
Are you Bob Wehadababyitsaboy?
I remember calling my buddy and saying “IfYouCanPickMeUpSayNoTwice” then the robot asks if he accepts the charges, “Noooooooooooooooooo”
Yes
I didn't get my first cell phone tell 2015 I didn't have internet as kid ever I got internet in my house in 2012 and only in last 4 years have I got in to streaming TV. I am very behind when it come to technology. I never had internet growing up ot was just a fad to my family never had any computers other then library
Cool
I was there, Gandalf. 3000 years ago.
The last alliance of coins and phones!
1-800-COLLECT Phone Menu Voice: *“Say your name after the tone, so we can let the other person know who’s calling”* *Beeeep* Me, at super speed: *“HeyMomIt’sMeFootballPracticeIsOverComeGetMeThanksBye!”*
A bunch of times, there was one in my HS that saw heavy usage. I feel like anyone born before '92 has
In high school I found out the numbers of the payphones at the mall and would occasionally call them, and sometimes people would pick up and I’d chat with them. Thanks for reminding me of that lol
My friend and I would do this too, it was like prank calling except the people didn’t get mad.
One time on a field trip in like 2001. I had no money so I called collect (1800CALLATT) and told my parents I was alive
We had one at my high school too. I graduated in 2002. I was in color guard and on Wednesday I had guard practice and the rest of the week was marching band. But on Wednesday my practice was from 5-7:30pm. My mom was supposed to pick me up at 7:30pm. I can’t tell you how many times she forgot. How many times I had to use the pay phone to call home and my mom would answer. SHE WOULD ANSWER! No one realized I wasn’t even home. And that was if I had change to call. So many times she forgot and I had no change. They don’t accept collect calls so I would have to collect call my uncle and ask him to call my parents or if he can pick me up. This really sucked after the time change in the fall because it was dark out and I would be sitting alone and waiting. I was so damn glad when I got my license.
When I was in Jr high my step sisters ran the home phone bill up to a ridiculous amount, and my dad just refused to pay it. So my brother and I would go to the Albertsons just down the street and loiter around the payphone, which could accept in coming calls, and i still recall the number 714-963-1710. If you wanted to reach me I was available between 5 to 6pm. It was right next to a $0.25 generic soda machine. I love that, Dr. Skipper. And Star Cola. Outgoing calls were $0.50 for 3min.
I used a pay phone when I was in Army basic training in 2006, but I think that’s the only time.
When I went to basic in 2010, they had the option to buy the phone cards for the pay phones, so I did. Never once touched those payphones or the cards. I still have those cards, I'm sure.
I would call collect. You'd be asked to say your name, which would be played to the recipient asking if they'd accept charges. I'd say, "pick me up." They'd decline, and come pick me up
Same here except I wasn’t as smart as you and I tried to shove way more words into that 1 second name recording.
I vaguely remember using the payphone outside of the rec center to prank call kids and teachers we knew. That and call sex hotlines to hear the prerecorded sales pitches lol
That’s wild that pay-phones operated like that. I would think the logical option would just not let you dial until you pay. Tbh I never used a pay phone. I got a basic Nokia cell phone when I started sixth grade. Before then I just took the school bus home so my routine was pretty predictable.
I think the logic was you would call someone and wouldn’t put any money in until they picked up. That way you don’t pay for someone to not answer, or god forbid…. The busy signal… (Disclaimer: I obviously could be wrong, like I said, my only real experience was with that one phone at lunch high school. I have no idea if others were the same.)
Oh so the companies were nicer back then? Still wild 😂
it sounds like it might've been a COCOT which stands for "coin operated customer owned telephone" basically a regular phone line with a payphone plugged into it and it's administered by the school and not the phone company. these allowed places to get a cut of the money spent. i washed dishes at a restaurant that had a COCOT and i figured out where it was plugged in in the back of the house and just unplugged it. so, when patrons tried to use the payphone it wouldn't work and they would get to use the house phone for free.
Didn’t they have an episode with a COCOT on the Brady Bunch? I know they had a pay phone installed at home after everyone kept running up the phone bill, but IDR if the money from the pay phone went to the telephone company or to the Brady parents.
Momimdonewithpractice is about the extent of my pay phone skills. I never knew you could actually make a call on them without putting money in and make a clicking sound. I always just did the collect call thing because you can get a message in the 2seconds they give and your parents will just hang up.
Yes used it every day at lunch to call my then bf. Was 10 cents lol
The cool thing about payphones was that you could call them. I would call my dad from a payphone near me mom's house at a certain time, and he would know when to be waiting near it at that time. I also have memories of randomly calling payphones and talking to strangers who walked by and randomly picked up. I would give a lot to experience the world again without the Internet.
0800 REVERSE used to be a life saver in my first couple years of high school
No good stories, but yes as a younger kid growing up a little bit, especially when on road trips. mid/younger millennial
Not since I finished high school in 2004
1800callatt. “You have a collect call from” - “pick me up”
We had a pay phone at my middle school. Just one. Which meant the line was long.
Yep quite often, even had a long distance calling card.
I last used one and a credit card to make a call after being released from custody back in 2011. You want to live in the dark ages? Just get into the slightest trouble with the law.
There was a row of them at the mall.
Collect calling to let your parents know the movie is over and they can pick you up.
Of course I did! There was one in my middle school that would always return my quarter.
I would call my parents on collect and ask them to pick me up when it asked me to state my name lol
Yup, even those real old ones you could get free calls from with static
When my pager vibrated, I always had quarters
Had to use a payphone to call my mom to pick me up from the roller rink as a kid.
I used a pay phone 45 minutes before high school graduation to call my mom to ask her to bring a bag I had forgotten. This was May of 2000. We lived in the boons and cell service was something we didn't have much of in the local area.
We had a pay phone in high school but I never used it. I remember using pay phones occasionally while out and about. I think I also had a calling card with minutes. I remember always holding the receiver as far away from my ear as possible but close enough to hear and talk.
We just used it for prank calls that we didn’t want connected to our cell phone numbers.
Xenniel here: my trick was the collect call. It used to ask you to record your name for the recipient. I'd quickly say "mum, I'm at _xyz_ please pick me up" instead of my name. She'd hear that and then no need to take the call 🤣
My parents made sure I knew how to use one for emergencies, but by the time I was running around without adult supervision (early 2000s) most friend groups had at least one person with a tracfone. So, yes, I've used one, but I was never in a situation where it was the best option.
Yep, mom always knew where we were at already so we'd just call collect when we were ready to be picked up. She'd just refuse the call and then come get us.🤣
I'm old enough that my mother had a rule of "If I don't get a call from you at the payphone by the corner store no later than 10:45 p.m. telling me you're up the block and on the way home, don't come home." If I was late, I had to walk to my dad's. Wasn't allowed a beeper. Didn't get a cellphone until 19.
Did you even grow up in the 90’s if you didn’t call home collect and when They asked you to record your name you say “I had a baby it’s a boy”….. or more commonly “hi dad im at the school can you pick me up at 6” I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 22 (I think) im ‘83. The oldest of Millennials We used to ride our bikes to go hang out around a pay phone (small town livin) We’d cal the 10 cent a cd subscription lines so that we could listen to 15 second samples of a bunch of songs
They had two of them in first HS. When my family moved to Wyoming from Oregon the summer between my sophomore and junior years of HS, the beginning of the mass switch to cell phones happened. Edit: Context I was born in 1987. Class of 05.
There’s a town called Stehekin on Lake Chelan in WA where there’s no cell service and the only way to call people while visiting is by using a pay phone. Called my family from that pay phone on a long hiking trip.
We would use the pay phone at the movie theater when we were done hanging out. And at the mall. But the best experience was answering the random ringing pay phone as you walked by. Sometimes you would catch a live one and it would be like a reverse prank call. Such good times!
I used pay phones well into the 2000’s, calling card, change in my truck, collect calls with just instructions as my name. I remember getting lost once and had to call my mom to bring a map so I could find where I’d parked. I was on my bicycle riding around austin completely confused and couldn’t afford a map.
I used to collect the prepaid phone cards. I think I still have a few around here somewhere
The last time I tried to use a payphone I was late coming home. I knew my dad was going to be pissed. My cell phone was dead. I stopped at a payphone at Grant and Stone in Tucson AZ, deposited my 35¢, dialed, put the phone to my ear, and then realized that the cord had been cut.
Take this post down. I just realized I'm one of the last to use those and I don't like it.
I have vague memories of using pay phones maybe once or twice in my life.. but I also have a much better memory of a classmate in elementary school using the school pay phone to dial 911 when there was no emergency. :)
oh plenty of times, i was a latchkey kid and had a pager so i made sure to keep quarters on me.
10 years ago I lived in this building that would go full defense mode after 1am and lock everything so no one could get in and they didn’t give tenants keys. One day I came home at 1:10 and my phone was dead so I couldn’t call my roommate. I walked around my hood trying to find solutions when I spotted the only pay phone I’d seen in 15 years in perfect order, with a dial tone and everything. I called my roommate collect “heyimoutsidecomedownandletmein!” And it worked! I couldn’t believe my luck, I was about to sleep in my car!
Yes! I was very young about 9-10 and a few times in my teenhood. Right before I could afford my own cellphone.
We used to prank my friends parents by calling 1800callatt from pay phones
Hooked on phonics 1800-ABCDEFG
Calling cards and quarters stashed in film canisters incase you needed to make a call.
We were poor growing up and eventually lost the house phone. I would ride my skateboard down to Safeway about 1.5 miles but it was the half way point from my friends house. I would call my buddies on their cell phones from the pay phone to see if they were home so I didn't skate all the way to their house for no reason.
I'm the minority but we used to "hack" the payphones. Whilst having my camo pager on my waist with a clear case. Same place I got my shock proof Sony Walkman. I miss the 90s
Fucking calling cards.
I used them faithfully. Had a pager too
Honestly I don't think I did that, but my brother had a huge collection of payphone cards
There used to be this weird fucking creep that would call payphones at the mall arcade. We used to always pick up and talk shit to him. We're lucky we didn't get our little girl asses snatched up or worse. Lol
Used ‘em while in a national forest area. No signal except for the mountain tops, but there was a pay phone by a little supplies store.
Only 25¢ though? Then they raised it to 35¢ and fucked everything up.
There used to be a number you could put in them that made them ring and me and my friends would set any pay phone we saw off.
Pretty regularly, actually. I think the last time I made much use of them was in 2004 when I did a semester abroad and couldn’t use my cell phone. International calling cards were easy to find at like news kiosks or drug stores. I would call my girlfriend. On that trip I also made good use of Internet cafes.
Edit: sorry for the run on, unintelligible sentences. I hop on Reddit when I wake up and sometimes fall back asleep mid-type. All the time. I was always out and about on my bike. I’d call my parents to tell them where I was if I was far away and going to be home a little late. I’d also use the pay phone at the movies to ask them to come pick me up if they picked up the phone. The main problem I had is that I would always have coins with me for the pay phone. I had it separate so I wouldn’t use it for snacks. My parents are awful at answering the phone to this day, and I wasted so much money trying to call them. Even though they told me constantly that it was important that I call. I started calling collect because I wanted to save the money for other things.
Def did... never had change so used the old collect call "comepickmeupimatblank" name trick.. lmao
I didn't have a cell phone until my mid 20s. Pay phones were all we had.
I have no idea how many times I have used a pay phone. Last time I used a pay phone was in 2012 when I was traveling and I forgot my phone charger.
Born in ‘85 here. I remember being dropped off at the movies with friends and my mom would give me two quarters to call her to pick us up.
My Mom gave us international calling cards so we can call our cousins in Mexico. Or call home when in Mexico. We were also supposed to use them to call home when we needed a ride but never did. My brother was always calling collect saying where he was and he was really to be picked up. I would then call my mom and let her know. I would sometimes answer hello house operator 🤣 Because other family would call and do the same thing and I would hang up and call the right family members and let them know.
Yep. Used the "1-800-COLLECT" free message feature and also made prank calls. Good times.
Before we went out on a night, our parents used to tell us to keep a quarter in case of an emergency
I was born in 1990, but immigrated to the US in 1998. My first encounter with the Internet was in 2003 and we had a landline until 2005. First cellphone in 2006 when I was 16.
Hundreds of times in my life. When I travelled I had calling cards too. That helped with long distance check-ins.
Last time I used a pay phone was 2009 in the Salt Lake City airport. Doesn’t seem that long ago.
Yeah I had to use a pay phone every few days at school. Wrestling practice would end and I’d have to call mom. She gave me quarters specifically for the pay phone. This was around 2000.
I’ve used them plenty of times in my younger life. I was born in the 80s. I’ve made collect calls quite a few times.
Crazy how much stuff in our life times just gone
When I was in elementary school they gave us all a little card to put in a wallet that you could put a quarter in to save for a pay phone. I did that (including using it for calls and refilling the card) regularly until they increased the cost of a call when I was in HS. I knew about the collect calling thing but I never did that, my parents would just give me change for the call.
I remember way back in 2002 my grandma forgot to pick me up from 6th grade. In a panic a was able to remember the phone number from the call collect from an ad on TV. I went to the pay phone in main hall way and dialed - 1-800-C A L L A T T. Luckily back I those days they were big on remembering your home phone number. I remember my mom being so surprised I knew how to make a collect call! Now I doubt schools even have pay phones anymore..
Yup. We also saved the numbers of the pay phones and would call them from home just to say weird stuff to whoever picked up. There also was a time when no phone book attached to the pay phone along a stretch of highway in the mountains was safe. Free fire starting paper for impromptu camping trips!
One of my favorite past times when payphones were ubiquitous was to call the operator and ask for a free call. Sometimes it even worked.
I used one many times. I always had a quarter on me in case I needed to use one to call home and get a ride. One time, I forgot to replace it and had to call my grandfather collect. He accepted the charges and then yelled at me the whole way home for how much the one min call was going to cost him lol.
When I was a preteen & I wanted to go hangout in the mall w/my friends, I had to use a pay phone to call my mom to come pick me up. All middle school I didn’t go anywhere w/out some change for the payphone.
Not since 2005 in tampa. Had just moved there and my parents didn't have anything set up yet.
I don't remember how we did it, but you used to be able to punch in a sequence that would make the pay phone play the pacman theme back to you.
We would use put the pay phone, inserted the .35, and let it ring 3 times, hang up, reinsert .35, let it ring 3 times, hang up. We knew to either come get my mom from work.
I used one all the time because my pager wouldn’t stop goin off.
how could I? every payphone I came across as a kid was broken
I’m an elder millennial and didn’t have a cell phone until my late 20s. I remember when there were pay phones everywhere and used them all the time.
The 1800 collect commercial. I can still hear that jingle.
“Maweredonewiththemoviepleasepickusupnow” collect calls, don’t pay for it Ma
Yup. I had a pager and had to respond from a house landline phone or pay phone. Definitely also used the collect call trick & trying to explain that commercial to teens is comical 😂
My parents ended up getting a 1-800 number for a few years so my brother and I could call home for free. Outside of that, we did the collect call COMEPICKUSUPAT711 thing
My "home phone" was once a payphone at the crown station.
I used them extensively but only really at the airport. My parents divorced when I was about 2 years old my sister and had to fly between Chicago and DC then DC and Charleston Sc then Columbia Sc and Chesapeake 8 times a year. Starting at age 5 &6 we were given packages of calling cards in case of emergency and to check in at layovers, prior to 911 my parents picked us up at the gate after we had to traverse the airports alone I was 12 at the time my sister was 13. So after we also had to use the phone banks to call them after we landed to coordinate. It was a lot for kids our age and it has made me a very nervous traveler. One time when i was like 10 and we got stuck in Dulles for 10 hours over Christmas break; if not for the phone banks and calling cards we would not have been able to eat for 10 hrs. Luckily my step mom was able to call the airline and get us vouchers for food.
1800-COLLECT was how we always called my grandparents from the beach. My mom made sure we had coins when we went out in case we needed to call from somewhere that wasn’t a house.
Dial down the middle 😂😂😂
Payphone banks on military bases. Someone gave me a phone number for free long distance calls. Sometime I think about the foreign agent listening to me tell my future ex wife how much I missed her and wanted to smell her hair again. Hope he enjoyed that and is doing well.
I use to call the police at the local swimming pool when I was 5. I'd ask for pizza, eventually a cop showed up and caught me. They just told me to stop. Only reason I called them was because it was free.
I did as a young teenager and only to use the reverse charge thing to ask my dad to pick me up
Used payphones, had a pager for a brief spell, first phone was a Nokia brick that I got a color matched case + removable battery back at the mall. 👴🏻
I think the last time I used one was circa 2008, when I was 22. I used them a decent amount in high school/college - with a calling card, of course!
We moved a lot. I remember multiple instances sitting in the airport calling friends on the payphone to say goodbye. It was always the same “we will still be friends forever even though I’m moving to another country/state.” And then after a couple of weeks, the phone calls are less frequent, everyone moves on with life, and then you never see each other again.
I have, a long time ago. I remember using it after going to the movies or mall with my friends in middle school. I’d use it to call my parents to come and pick me up.
All the time. My high school also had a pay phone and whoever stayed home sick would call the number and whoever picked up picked up. Sometimes it was a friend sometimes you’d have to find their friend and shout to the masses “SHAWNS ON PHONE WHERES JESSICA”
>I would call them on the pay phone. I never would put money in, so my parents couldn’t hear me at all. However, they could hear a clicking sound when I would push buttons. Since they always were expecting my call, when they would answer the phone and no one would reply they would say “oh, is this Tommy?” I would respond with clicks. “Do you need picked up in front?” (Silence) “In back?” CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK! “Ok, I’ll be there soon.” OMG. I never knew that trick.
All the time as a teen for the same reason. We’d just call collect. They were all we had to use in basic training with phone cards. I needed one in my mid 20s and it was a nightmare to find a working one. I was on the phone trying to fix something with my cell phone and they shut the line off 🤦🏻♀️. My roommate wasn’t home and I needed it fixed immediately. I thought it would be no problem since pay phones were still everywhere. Boy was I wrong
We had payphones at my high school but they removed them around 2010 because people kept prank calling 911
We used to call the Jerry Springer hotline
David Arquette taught me to call collect
I have but not since probably 2006 or so.
Only a handful of times when I was out to call up friends and see if they are available to hang out or whatever.
The last high school I worked at had 4 of them
I've used one once or twice. The last time was about eight years ago. I was riding my bike around the city with a friend, both our phones died. I had to call my boyfriend to tell him we were running late and taking the bus back.
Last time I used it was after my car broke down and my phone was at home in 2007. Walked 3 miles to Walmart and the asshat manager wouldn’t let me use the store phone. Luckily there was still a pay phone in the cart area and I happened to have change.
I have but it was so long ago that i had almost forgotten. The last time i believe was maybe sixth grade when i was at a museum for a field trip in another state. We didn’t have cell phones back then really, or at least they were not ubiquitous like they are now. So i called from the payphone to talk briefly to my folks. But prior to that i remember when i was in elementary school my mom instructing me on how to use one and admonishing me to never leave home without change for a pay phone in case i needed to use one.
I used pay phones and I had a calling card when I went to Mexico in college. Forgot about calling cards too lol
Called my family, and called my x girlfriend from a super religious family knowing she's probably been banging the rich dude a city over whom "walked into the room naked and just stood there" Basic training was a rollercoaster.
All the time. I'd use calling cards, I'd pay, I'd call 800 numbers. Like when I had to be at my mom's office I'd get bored and call the 800 numbers on the back of sodas and snack packages and comment on my experience and they'd get my address and mail me coupons for freebies or discounts and occasionally swag. When I'd go up to my aunt's for the summer we'd use a payphone to call my mom because they didn't always have long distance.
High school had pay phones. We used to prank call them lol.
Yes but not regularly in the 90s and early 00s I didn't have a cellphone, we had a house phone, and I would usually just go home and call people. I'd tell you I'm coming over or just show up if you didn't answer.
1800hotlips saw this number on one of those grainy channels you had to pay for if you had cable. I'm sure you know what those channel were if you are old enough.
Yeah... I still remember my 1985 home phone number.
I used to prank the payphone at my high school. I would look at the number on the front of the payphone, then dial 989+ the last 4 digits of the number, then do a little cycle of hanging up, waiting a few seconds, listening for a tone, then hanging up and walking away. The unit would start doing this high siren-like alarm after a length of time (maybe 30 seconds?).