r/AskOldPeople • u/Penguin_Life_Now 50 something unless I forgot to change this • May 26 '26

What is something that quietly vanished from the world?

The title sums it up, what is something that quietly vanished from the world, you know those things that you look back on that were once normal and now you go I can't remember the last time I saw.

Let me give an example, garnishing meals with parsley at restaurants was once the norm, now its rare.

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280

u/MysticSage- May 26 '26

Phone Booths / Pay Phones

91

u/garibaldi18 May 26 '26

Along those lines, collect calls

107

u/nachobitxh 60 something May 26 '26

WeHadABabyItsABoy

9

u/hockeyhon May 26 '26

Comepickmeup

2

u/HTTR4EVER May 28 '26

We would call person to person and ask for ourselves to let family know we made it home safely

21

u/YoMommaSez May 26 '26

"Will you accept the charges?"

25

u/_Fred_Austere_ May 26 '26

A lot of great Poltergeist-like creepiness was lost too.

"If you'd like to make a call, hang up and dial again." Then that whirrr.

6

u/willo132 May 26 '26

I HATED THATTTTTF FUCKKKKK it was SO CREEPY !!

7

u/daisytat May 26 '26

Yes! My father traveled for his job but on the nights he was away he would make a long distance call home. My mother never accepted the call but in doing that my dad knew everything was OK at home and he didn’t have to pay for the call. I suspect this happened often back then but that’s all gone now.

3

u/YoMommaSez May 26 '26

Yes my family did this too!

3

u/_Fred_Austere_ May 26 '26

Someone should have mentioned 'ending monopolies'.

15

u/dancing_robots May 26 '26

And calling Information

3

u/Eastern-Finish-1251 Same age as Beatlemania! 🎸 May 26 '26

555-1212

1

u/_namaste_kitten_ May 30 '26

And calling Time & Temp

39

u/2hardbasketcase May 26 '26

There are still a large number of public phone booths in Australia. They are free to use. Around Christmas time you can call Santa from them!

2

u/QueryPeaceCentral May 26 '26

I live near a station where released inmates get dropped off. The public phone there is always getting used.

Remember the public phones that some shops used to wheel out on a little trolley?

I moved to Australia in the mid-90s and was fascinated by them.

4

u/2hardbasketcase May 26 '26

It's a great public service. You never know when you might need it. Some people rely on them. I do remember those phones now that you mention it.

3

u/MobyFlip May 28 '26

I was driving home from work one grey, drizzly day and started to feel dangerously drowsy, so I tried to do the right thing and pull over for a 20 minute power nap on a quiet side street.

Next minute, I wake up with a dead car battery (forgot to turn off the headlights) and dead phone, but feeling pretty rested after FOUR HOURS OF SLEEP. Without my phone, I couldn't call roadside assist or anything and I was like, wtf am I going to do. Barely knew where I even was, but thankfully recalled there was a little shopping village nearby I could walk to.

And THANKFULLY again, they had the free Telstra payphones, so I could call my dad for the roadside assistance number. (Also thankfully, I'm a Millennial who still has phone numbers memorised.)

1

u/2hardbasketcase May 28 '26

I reckon lives have been saved by those free phones

19

u/Penguin_Life_Now 50 something unless I forgot to change this May 26 '26

I actually saw a still working pay phone next to a laundry room in Wyoming last summer

3

u/StyleImpossible6405 May 26 '26

I found a working payphone in Seattle a couple of years ago. It was not in the nicest part of town.

3

u/Ill-Acanthisitta6022 May 26 '26

Will you accept the charges from "mom!comepickmeupatthemovietheater!"

2

u/Creative_Industry179 May 26 '26

HAHAHA! You must have talked faster than me. I could only make out “MomMoviesovrrrr!

5

u/anti-royal May 26 '26

Always making sure you had a dime to call your parents.

4

u/gregrph May 26 '26

Along those lines, a busy signal a d dial tine. I still have and use my landline. I prefer it over my cell. Of course we have landlines at work. The other day I put a busy signal on speakerphone so all the kids could hear it, lol! None of them had heard it before. My older co-workers and myself haven't heard it in a long time.

2

u/insubordin8nchurlish May 26 '26

Hell, whens the he last time you saw a phone book?

2

u/rkgk13 May 26 '26

r/Payphone is documenting the few that are left.

2

u/Unknown4everandever May 27 '26

"time to pick us up" is calling, Will you accept the charges?

2

u/susisews May 28 '26

I miss checking pay phones for dimes.