McGee: Where have all the payphones gone?

Have you noticed payphones are vanishing from the landscape? And of those that are still around ... do they even work?

The Lady of the House and I had no cell phone service when we arrived in Red River up in Taos County; a little phone receiver with a slash through it was all that was on our cell phone screens.

"I like being cut off from the world," said The Lady of the House. "So Walden Pond-ish."

"But what if something goes wrong at the house? What if a giant space rock drops on the bicycle shop?" I asked.

"That's why we have insurance," said The Lady of the House.

Early the next morning I took the dogs out for a walk, keeping my eye out for a payphone along the way.

Midway through town I saw a phone booth! An actual phone booth. I opened the door. No phone. But there was a phone book dangling lonely on some wire.

What good is a phone book in a phone booth with no phone?

Later in the day we drove to Taos, keeping my eyes open for a payphone. I spied one at a convenience store. We pulled in.

There was no dial tone.

"Did it need money first?" asked The Lady of the House.

"I'm not falling for that," I said.

When we returned to Red River I moseyed over to the fire station up the street. There was a guy in the office.

"There are no payphones around here," I said.

"Funny," he said, "We were just talking about that the other day. There's actually only one cell phone company that works up here."

I held up my phone for him to see.

"And it's not that one," he said.

He let me make a credit card call home. All was well at the Stucco Hacienda and no space rocks had fallen on the bicycle shop.

Grant McGee is a long-time broadcaster and former truck driver who rides bicycles and likes to talk about his many adventures on the road of life. Contact him at: [email protected].