Teach them how to use a pay phone.
Most places don't have pay phones. The pay phones that are still around mostly take cards. And as for asking to use the phone, forget it.
Payphone??? Our local HS and MS don't have payphones outside anymore. The office won't let them use the phone to call home or call parents at work ("If we let one do it..."). I sat in the MS office last year waiting for my son and watched the secretary tell a 12 year old girl she couldn't call her mom at work because it wasn't a local call. She said "You're going to have to have a local number to call." ???? Mom is supposed to give up her job to be at a local number??
The last time I left home without my cell phone I drove around 3 towns looking for a payphone. All the ones I knew of-been there for years-had been removed. I ended up driving all the way back home again. I can teach 'em to use a payphone (and they know-they even used to be able to call home collect on one) but you've got to find one first.
Have you recently tried to find one? From the Miami Herald:
Pay phones have become a dying breed
Nationwide, about one million pay phones have been yanked from street corners, bar bathrooms, airport terminals, hotel lobbies and other spots since 1999. There are fewer than one million still in service, industry experts say, and the number gets smaller every day.Florida has lost about 80,000 pay phones in the past seven years, leaving fewer than 40,000 in service today, Renard said.
Welcome to 2007. There are no more pay phones in my area, except one that is a 4 mile walk from my kids school.
Sure, out here in the boonies there is no such thing as a pay phone.
It is hard to find a pay phone. Have you seen where most pay phones are located?