So Gail has been telling me how lucky I am to be able to share with you all my wonderful walks in the magnificent landscape of the Torridon mountains.
She says I should not take it for granted that I can compose a blog post, press a button on the iPhone or laptop or whatever digital gadget, and communicate with the whole world.
It wasn't always thus.
I have often wondered about this tall and narrow red shelter with windows, located at the bottom of the road in the village of Inveralligin.
Apparently it is a 'phone box', dating back to the olden days when a telephone was not a little computer, and was the only available method for communicating directly with other people at a distance. Imagine that!
The piece of apparatus attached to the back wall, out of paw reach, is in fact a genuine working telephone. Gail wonders for how long it will still be kept operational.
Of course I was more interested in sniffing the floor to check who else might have used the phone box recently...
oooh we remember that places... it was the best thing to outfox parents, can I sleep at a friend tonight? and before they could say no! we hung up and said we had not enough money for longer talk.....
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, what a strange thing to find Nobby! A real antique, and is it the baby sister (or brother) of The Tardis on that TV programme that's always in the news?
ReplyDeleteLove,
Paca xx
A working 'phone box is a rarity and to be celebrated.
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWell, Nobby, I doubt it's days are numbered. It's a relic of a time that is not so very distant, and yet seems a galaxy away... hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx (from sunny Portsoy harbour...)
Enjoy Portsoy. If you've time, do visit the nearby Boyndie Visitor Centre, where you can find a nice cafe and display boards telling about the exploits of the Banff Strike Wing in WW2, of which Gail's Dad was a part.
Delete...every time I pass the roadside monument it catches me by surprise and am past it before can think to stop. Must make it destination instead! Yxx
DeleteMom says their phone booths were never that pretty and yours sure does have a wonderful view!
ReplyDeleteI have not seen a phone box here in USA in many years. there are very few pay phones, but there are some on walls in some places. also there are no clocks in public places now. I am wondering what we will do if power/cell towers/internet goes away. we will be back to writing letters if we can remember how
ReplyDeleteThe box itself is extraordinary—in that it still exists; its location is magnificent. I could barely read the sign in front, "Sheep grazing. Please....[,]" although I can imagine the remainder.
ReplyDeleteYES indeed Nobby you are lucky and your fans are even luckier...I cannot imagine a no WFT's in my interweb world.
ReplyDeleteBack in the olden days we had to always be certain we had change in case we needed to make a call from the red box.
Now we just have to remember to take our phone with us
Hugs Cecili
How amazing to find a working phone box out in the wild, Nobby. Our mom can't remember when she saw one around here last.
ReplyDeleteWow...what an amazing gadget. Mama has told us of such ancient artifacts, but we have only seen them on TV.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure it doesn't belong to that "Doctor" guy?
xoxo,
Rosy & Sunny
Nobby, our Mom remembers very well those odd boxes with machines and dials or push buttons from waaaayyyyy back too. They even had those odd contraptions in the house. At least then pups didn't have to worry about the omnipresence of the flashy beast:). BTW, Mom has a miniature version of that red box as part of her Dept 56 Dickens Christmas Village collection.
ReplyDeleteWoos - Misty and Timber
was this your first adventure inside a TARDIS?
ReplyDeleteWhoa that is a sign of earlier days for sure! Petcretary remembers when just about every street corner had a telephone box, though ours were not as pretty as that big red one! Yup, a tardis as Ruby pointed out...
ReplyDeletePut in your coin(s) and dial the intended number...hear a ring or a few of them, and hope the other party picks it up to have a chat with you...a short one, mind you! If you needed to make a long distance call, the operator would butt in and tell you the amount of coinage extra you needed to make that kind of call. or call collect and the charge would go on *their* bill, LOL!
A working phone booth! That is very cool! And sitting where it is with the scenery behind it, we wonder how much it gets used, or maybe the cell phone signal is not great there?
ReplyDelete