Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Thames (NZ): Telephone Box 1970

Remember the days when the red telephone box was vital? For many people the telephone was a luxury and the local box was the only method of communication - a far cry from the land of mobile phones that appears to exist today.
 
You kept change (coins), so you could make emergency calls. When we used to go on holiday, people literally queued each night to use the telephone at the local box. Kindly relatives would gladly accept 'collect calls.'
 
In 1913, The Thames Star newspaper warned people about the dangers of using the telephone box:
It stated that "Many people when using a public telephone actually press their lips into the mouthpiece."

August 1970 Thames got a grand new phone box outside the Chief Post Office at Thames.
Thames Star 25 August 1970
Present day Thames from the Pedestrian crossing outside the old Chief Post Office, Pollen Street.
A telephone box is still in the locality of the 1970 box.