Sent along by Sponge-headed Scienceman, who says "Stop the car, I need to call home. Can I borrow a dime?" I don't know how old it is - tank top and Crocs cover a wide span of years, and the haircut is the sort of thing that goes in and out according to family and local cultures, especially in the Southwestern Bell area. The company still exists.
It took a long time for me to get over my nervousness about the cost of long-distance calls, and my mother never did. In the late 90s when I would call she would say "Well, it's your nickel, so I had better get off now," after just a few minutes.
Reminiscent of another nickel, for Pepsi-Cola - though I believe many candy bars, doughnuts, and other small pleasure items sold at that price as well. Those had all gone up to a dime by my childhood. I advocate doing away with all coins at this point. Quarters are still useful, but none of the rest and it's not worth keeping the system alive for just one. Just pointless. Of course, pennies have been pointless since the 60s. nickels since the 80s, and dimes since the 90s and nothing has changed, so I'm figuring it's a loser as a political move and it will still be there.
1 comment:
I've had some form of car phone/cell phone since the early 1970s - the brick, the bag phone, the car installation with the pigtail antenna, etc. Calls were expensive by the minute and roaming charges were outrageous, especially when near a coastline where marine charges could apply. Back in those days, the pigtail antenna triggered law enforcement and I was stopped several times as suspicious because they thought I was transporting drugs.
Pay phones were very useful in those days, because cell towers were not numerous, and their signals were weaker. The last time I had no cell signal was in W Texas and N New Mexico and that was 10 years ago.
Coins - I filled a prescription in May this year for which my copay was $0.49. I'm glad I had enough coins to pay for it, as it would have been awful to use a credit card with a swipe fee of 6X the cost. I also still use rolled pennies as a Halloween treat. I may have to go to nickels due to inflation.
Post a Comment