The last phone booth

While we are on the subject of phones, here's a relic.  It's not as much of a relic as the answering service, but almost.


Do you know what it is?  Of course you do, but come to think of it, you really haven't seen one in quite some time.  That's because there are hardly any left any more.  But we still have one.  It's in the parking lot of the Pink House.  


These used to be as common as the corner mail box - another relic - but now you rarely see one.  Especially a "full body" one like this one.  You can actually go inside this one although it doesn't have a door to close. 


It's no secret why we rarely see phone booths anymore.  They come from the days when we had to go to the phone, rather than the phone coming with us.  Nowadays of course nearly everyone's phone comes with them everywhere all the time, and even those whose phones don't come with them everywhere can at least take their phone with them around the house now that phones are cordless.


Still, the fact that there is even one full sized phone booth left and that it is here in GroveAtopia, is comforting.  Even though the world has forced us to modernize by using 10 digits to dial a phone number, we still have a few throwbacks to the time before that and this phone booth is certainly one of them.

Number please...

In our last post we discussed the new complication to dialing phone numbers here in GroveAtopia.  The modern age has forced us to have to use an area code no matter where we are calling, whether it be across the street or across the country.

Now we will turn our attention to the opposite.  While GroveAtopia has many devices from the modern era - cell phones, cordless phones, answering machines, DSL and a new WiFi service - to name a few, we also still have things from the olden days.   One of those things is a good old fashioned answering service.

The Cottage Grove Answering Service has been around for 30 years, but the switchboard is from the 1930s.  Yep, to answer calls, Kitty Slack, who is the sole operator and on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, uses is an old fashioned switchboard  - the kind where you pull the plug out of one mysterious hole, and put it into another.  Miraculously the call is answered.

Why on earth would anyone still use such a service?  Well it turns out in this day and age, people are getting tired of leaving impersonal messages and talking to machines.  So if you use Kitty's answering service, your customers or patients or whoever calls you will, no matter what time of day or night, no matter what day of the week, always talk to a real person.  Kitty.

Some of Kitty's customers have been with her from the very beginning.  Others joined later.  Still later she added to her service.  She is GroveAtopia's only FedEx drop off point.  She also collects payments for people's phone bills, water bills, electric bills, cell phone bills and insurance bills.  And she sells some of her crafts in the store.  And she has a pretty garden in her parking strip out front.

Kitty never leaves the place.  She even sleeps in a sleeping bag on the floor near the switchboard so she is always available to answer a  call.  But really she doesn't need to leave, because at one time or another, if you live in GroveAtopia, you will find yourself visiting Kitty for one reason or another.  And when you do, you'll know you've just visited a place from the past.  But it won't seem that way.  It will seem just as natural as can be.

Next time you are here, be sure stop by.  If you listen very closely you'll hear the fairies.  They gather each day to watch over the place because they, like us are charmed by it.  I think they even help her late at night when she may not feel like answering the phone.  I think they it answer for her.  After all, who would know?

Three little numbers. One big pain.

541. We all know this as our area code here in GroveAtopia. In fact it is the area code for most of Oregon south of Salem. If you want to know exactly where, you can look it up.

Not too long ago all of Oregon only had one area code: 503. Then because of something having to do with cell phones and people moving here, the 541 area code was created. We got used to it.

Here in GroveAtopia, we are small enough that until quite recently we only had one prefix: 942. Gosh that makes remembering people's phone numbers easy. Not as easy as it was when we had the simple exchange where we could simply dial two digits and ring someone up, but simple enough. The other prefix is 767, but it seems so few people have it that it is not too difficult to remember it when we must. It usually, though not always, belongs to people who have moved here somewhat recently.

As it works out, 942 is the default prefix. You don't even have to say it when someone asks you your phone number. You simply say the last four digits. The 942 is assumed. If you have a 767 prefix, well then you must say the whole phone number.

So here we were, merrily dialing each other, in most cases needing only to remember 4 digits. Then one day the phone company said no more. There are no more telephone numbers to give out in the 541 area code. Again, cell phones and new comers were to blame.

And the fix? Now we must all dial the 541 area code to talk to anyone in our area code. That means if we want to call anyone with a 942 or 767 prefix - which means anyone here in GroveAtopia - we must all dial 541 first. Now instead of dialing 7 digits and remembering 4, we must remember 4 but dial 10 and sometimes 11. That's because sometimes we need the 1 before the 541.

Dialing 541 applies no matter how far away the person lives. They could live clear out past London School or right next door, you still need to dial the 541 area code.

Once upon a time, an area code meant something. It was reserved for dialing long distance, to places far away. Now it just means, well, that there are lots of phones and people and not enough phone numbers to go around.

So it's going to take some time. Time to get used to. Time to get over being aggravated every time we forget to dial it. Time to make it as automatic as 942. Time to not think it's silly to dial an area code in a town as small as this when we just want to call the lady next door.