The Disappearing Phone Booth

Inspiration comes from the strangest places. This morning -- staring at a blank screen -- I wondered, "What am I going to ramble on about this week?" And then a Facebook "memory" popped up from years ago. It was me, pretending I was making a phone call in a pretend English accent, in a real red phone booth on the tiny Isle of Man, where my Susie is currently in hiding. "Hello?, Hallo?..."

That phone booth, or call box as they call them on the other side of the pond, where we recorded that video is no longer there. In fact, iconic red Call Boxes are vanishing at a rapid rate with only 40,000 call boxes left in the British Isles. That number is expected to be cut in half by 2020 and they are selling them off to the public. Interested? You can buy your British call box here.

In 1999, there were more than 2 million public phones in America. Today, less than 50,000 remain in service (and half of these are in New York.) I found one article that said there are only 4 public phone booths left in the Big Apple. I can only recall seeing one phone booth in the past 10 years -- it was last week as I drove through beautiful, downtown Kilmarnock, Virginia. The phone booth didn't have a phone in it anymore and it was filled with trash.

The proliferation of cell phones is the obvious reason for the decline in number of pay phones. I get it. Technology marches forward and some things remain relics of the past. But not everyone has a cell phone, do they? Almost. Currently 95.36% of Americans have phones.

Still I wonder, if we need Superman to come and save us, where will Clark Kent go to change his clothes?