There was a time when everyone used pay phones. Late for a meeting? Drop in a quarter. Need to check in with mom? Find the nearest phone booth. Stuck with no change at the mall? Call home collect for a ride.
Today, the once ubiquitous pay phone has become a relic of the pre-cell phone era. Fewer and fewer public pay phones can be found.
There were once 14 on Mercer Island, located throughout the Town Center, at schools and community centers. Now there are less than 10. Can you name their locations?
The Reporter, on a quest to find the Island’s remaining pay phones, set off on a scavenger hunt for the classic old haunts. What we discovered — and what we didn’t — may surprise.
According to Cindy Berquist, representative of FSH Communications, which opperates the Island’s pay phones, there are 14 public phones listed in the company database. This is down from 38 in 2003.
Berquist said that the majority of Island phones are located throughout the Town Center: the Shell gas station, Tabit Square, Walgreens, the South-end RiteAid. Others can be found in public venues: City Hall, Youth Theatre Northwest, the Community Center, the library, Mercer Island High School, Islander Middle School and St. Monica Catholic School. There is also a phone at Farmers New World Insurance and Mercer Island Care and Rehabilitation.
However, the Reporter discovered that FSH’s data is outdated. In fact, there are only nine pay phones remaining on Mercer Island. The phone that used to be in the library foyer, for instance, was removed a few years ago.
“Everybody has cell phones these days, so it wasn’t needed,” said librarian Anne Clarke. “If kids need to make a call, we offer our land lines.”
The pay phone in the gym at Islander Middle School, once busy with teenagers calling home for rides after school or gossiping girls at Friday night dances, is nothing more today than an empty space on the wall.
According to an IMS secretary, who wished to remain anonymous, the phone was removed a few years ago because “kids were using it to prank dial 911.”
The Community Center at Mercer View pulled its pay phone out when they rebuilt the building in 2005 and never replaced it.
St. Monica Catholic School also got rid of its campus pay phone — just three months ago, in fact.
Mercer Island High School, however, still has a public phone, although the service it provides is questionable.
“The last thing I heard, the pay phone outside the gym was messed up. I’m not sure if the phone company fixed it or not,” said MIHS secretary Jean Field. “Most kids just come into the office and use our phone.”
Walk through the Town Center, and you’ll be hard pressed to find the once iconic blue booths. Yet there are a few.
The pay phone in Tabit Square, however, has apparently evolved into a public ashtray. While watching and waiting (and waiting, and waiting) near the phone on March 11, not one person stopped by to make a call. But two Tabit Square employees used the graffiti-covered pay phone’s ash tray during their smoking break.
And the busiest pay phone on the Island? The ivy-overgrown booth — the only actual phone booth on the Island — in the back parking lot of the Shell service station on S.E. 28th Street.
According to Shell employee A.J. Aljabii, the phone gets used two or three times a day; enough to keep it around for another few years or so.
Although abandoned throughout the year, pay phones are extremely helpful during a natural disaster. The December wind storm of 2006, which knocked out Island power and cell phone service for days, left many Islanders with no other choice but to find the nearest pay phone.
Despite the slow extinction of Mercer Island’s pay phones, Berquist believes they will not disappear from society completely.
“We hope they’ll always be around,” she said. “Believe it or not, there are people without cell phones. For people of some economic levels, the pay phone is their only source. They can talk four minutes for a dollar.”
But whether this demand — on affluent Mercer Island — keeps our remaining pay phones alive, only time will tell.
