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Phone boxes: Do we really need them?

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ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

KittytheLearnerCook

KittytheLearnerCook Report 15 Jun 2013 20:07

*lets John out* :-)

jax

jax Report 15 Jun 2013 20:09

Don't you mean Dorothy Squires John??

Gwyn in Kent

Gwyn in Kent Report 15 Jun 2013 20:18

I don't have a mobile phone, but haven't used a phone box for quite a while.


There are alot in a reclaimation yard near Canterbury, but not cheap if you want your own red box.

http://www.bygones.net/thumbs.asp?strCategory=Telephone_Boxes

Gwyn

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 15 Jun 2013 20:20

What did I put,Jax? Oh, flippin heck. Yes, absolutely right. I must have gone out with a Rosemary Squires :-S :-S

Kitty. Thank you muchly, In this evening light, can I say how young and attractive you look :-) :-)

Rambling

Rambling Report 15 Jun 2013 20:25

Phone boxes. yes I have used one recently, and though I rarely carry a mobile with me (except when away from home for a few days) , I have sometimes lent my phone for someone to make a call when there was no public phone available...so there is still need for them.

( that is another story re lending phone as I then got return calls from the person's partner asking what she was up to and if she was 'playing away')

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 15 Jun 2013 20:30

Is your friend Rachel Yankey perhaps, Rose? She is a famous England lady footballer and would therefore play away quite a lot.

Hope it wasn't a euphemism for adul****** :-0

Kay????

Kay???? Report 15 Jun 2013 20:47


I bet if John had posted Paddys Wigwam ,he would still be getting prodded with the ugly stick... ;-),

I see an old red telephone box often ,its kept beautiful........lovely flowers planted round it,shiney windows,,,,,and its in use,

Although they can be of great use,where they are often situated doesnt compare to a mobile in an emergency when someone is well off the beaten track......

Rambling

Rambling Report 15 Jun 2013 20:59

Don't know who she was John lol, she was just a girl who was upset because her phone was out of charge and she couldn't let her boyfriend know she would be late meeting him.

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 15 Jun 2013 20:59

Not only prodded, Kay. It would have been forced up my delicate parts so many times that I would be singing contralto. All gone quiet on Western front. Mind, the one who was attacking the good Romish denizens of one of our major cities has been constantly posting for over 40 hours now.

And no, I have not been checking. Just can't help noticing ;-)

If you had a biggish garden, wouldn't it be fun to put these defunct pieces of street architecture in your garden. How about a bandstand in the middle, a red phone box, a pillar box and a couple of those old street lights we used to shimmy up to the "cross bar"? Now to check prices on Gwyn's site. And get a bigger garden :-) :-)

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 15 Jun 2013 21:24

Just looked at those prices. £3,500 for a pillar box,same for a red phone box etc.

Ummmm. I think a nice fountain from Haddonstone might look nicer in my garden :-)

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 16 Jun 2013 05:42

we used to know it as the Rocket Launching site when I was a student in Liverpool :-D


'course that was the 1960s :-D

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 16 Jun 2013 05:48

neither OH nor I have a cell phone

not much use here 'cos we would want it for safety when on a driving trip, and there is little cell coverage over large areas of where we drive.


So, public telephones can be a necessity for us.

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 16 Jun 2013 06:22

Sylvia. You make a good point about phone boxes in isolated places with no mobile reception.

Think reception is pretty good in Wales, but 20 years ago I worked for a College that did a lot of work in North and Mid Wales. And my good signal from the Shropshire Plain suddenly disappeared altogether as I disappeared into the lovely scenery of N Wales. And I would be out of communication for whole day and wondering how I used to cope. Cos I never used any public phone boxes as far as I can remember.

I would phone into my office from each place I visited to pick up messages. And, in event of very occasional emergency, would walk to nearest house and ask to use their phone. It has always been my experience that, the more remote the terrain, the more helpful and friendly and trusting are the local people. Mind, the Rockies must be a very different situation to rugged N Wales hills and mountains. :-)

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 16 Jun 2013 07:35

John .................

we drive about 700 km to a cottage that we own ............

.......... of that distance, we can get cell reception for most of the first 200 km, then it is spotty around the 4 or 5 larger villages that we pass through. There is none at all anywhere close to the cottage

I estimate that we would get reception for about 200-250 km TOTAL during the distance

We go through or past 3 or 4 mountain ranges, and the population is sparse to say the least!

Much of Canada is like that.

I would love to have a cell phone for safety on that drive .................... but where we need the contact is precisely where there is no reception

The only way would be to buy a Satellite phone, which cost thousands of dollars, plus mucho money for each call.

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 16 Jun 2013 08:48

What a contrast to India, Sylvia. Think that is one of countries where you have travelled, so you will know what it is like.

Huge poverty, yet every young person seems to have a motorbike and a mobile phone. And using them all day long. And probably in most of Canada (one of richest countries in world), you still cannot get any signal.

Wales seem very good. Wonder how good Scotland is?

I think we could do away completely with the red phone boxes now, despite tradition. Vandalism gets worse it seems. Any public facility needs to be moved inside buildings like shops or garages where they can be properly secure.

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 16 Jun 2013 08:54

John ...........

India is one of the countries I have never been to .................... nor to Japan, China, or any other Asian country.

I've let OH and my daughter travel to those countries :-D

AnnCardiff

AnnCardiff Report 16 Jun 2013 09:35

Tom Jones has a red telephone kiosk at his home in USA - it's the kiosk from which he used to phone his girl-friend, now wife - there's one in the garden opposite me

Can't recall when I last used a public telephone, have an idiot proof basic mobile just in case of emergencies when in my car - a fiver will last me a year or more on that

As for Paddy's Wigwam, I wouldn't know it by any other name and I certainly don't consider it to be offensive - neither do I consider Paddy to be offensive to Irish men - if someone calls me Taffy I think it's nice I can be identified by my accent which by the way is not too Welsh

And if phone booths are removed, what will vandals have to smash up - they'll have to concentrate on bus shelters alone

Persephone

Persephone Report 16 Jun 2013 09:37

John must be getting us confused Sylvs, I have been to India and Japan..

Never looked for a phone box whilst there.

We have less phone boxes than we used to over here... they probably only take credit cards now. They went from cash to phone card but I don't think we can still use phone cards.

I remember that enterprising NZers had rigged a phone box in Shepherds Bush so as they could phone home (NZ) for free it would have been in the late sixties early seventies. People would be queuing up to use it.

Persie

JustJohn

JustJohn Report 16 Jun 2013 09:44

:-D :-D @ Ann. The red phone box in Trebanog is hidden in undergrowth and in a very poor state. Just think - with a bit of loving care it would be worth £3,500.

Dermot

Dermot Report 16 Jun 2013 09:49

Carrying pocketful of sixpences (6d) caused havoc. That's why many people walked lopsided. Anyone remember ‘Press Button A’?

AnnCardiff - you are probably right - begorrah! Talk tidy Wenglish!