I saw something in Freehold you never see anymore

I felt a little like I had jumped in a Delorean and hit 88 mph this weekend. I saw something that truly made it feel like I had time-traveled back to the 1980s.

I was in Freehold for their Porchfest on Sunday. It was a beautiful day to hear lots of local Jersey bands play at various spots around the borough. The sun was shining, the temps were in the high 80s, and the music was terrific.

At one point I was taking a walk on West Main when I noticed something I hadn’t seen in years. Honestly? I cannot remember when I last saw what I did.

There, on an outer wall of El Meson restaurant, was a relic. A fossil. A throwback.

A pay phone.

I couldn’t tell you when I last saw one. Of course, I had to take a picture.

As I took this pic, it occurred to me I was using the very thing that replaced the need for pay phones. My cell phone. Ah, the irony.

AT&T exited the pay phone business by 2009. Verizon left its interest in pay phones in 2011.

Naturally, being forever curious, I had to have a closer look. Was it intact? Did it have a dial tone?

The handset was fully there, no dangling wires. But when you picked it up, it was perfectly silent. No dial tone. Who knows when it last functioned? Now it just stands like a sentinel of lost technology bolted to a wall.

At least one passerby found use for it.

No, she wasn’t making a call. She was using it as a temporary table to rest her drink.

Add the pay phone to the long list of things gone away. The ice pick, the VCR, cassettes, answering machines, typewriters, VHS tapes, compact discs, the hose you drove over at the gas pumps, which would make a bell ring, the pressure mat you stepped on to make the first electronic doors open.

What are we using today that will be gone in 20 years? The rate of new technology has me guessing damn near everything.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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