• Catoblepas
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    6 months ago

    Did anyone else grow up being told that people would put used needles in there? AIDS panic was wild.

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    When I was like 10, I put a dime into a payphone to call a friend but it was busy or something, and when I hung up a quarter fell into the coin return. So of course I did it again and it worked again. I did it once more time, and it worked, but I was afraid I was breaking a law so I didn’t try it anymore. Instead I went to the liquor store down the street and bought candy with my ill-gotten wealth.

    • Unlikelyvillain@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      Omg something similar happened to me once. I kept pressing the hang up thing and quarters kept common out. I was also scared of getting in trouble so I stopped but I’ll always wonder how much more i could’ve gotten.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It’s so funny. My net was 75 cents, and I was so afraid I was going to get in big trouble. It went from “Neat! I got a quarter!” to “Oh shit! I’m stealing!”

  • s_s@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    When did payphones take quarters?

    Calls were a dime, like, forever.

    Same with a cup of coffee.

    Payphones were a quarter for only a very brief period of time before they disappeared.

    This is like having nostalgia about a car phone–extremely specific.

    • Unlikelyvillain@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      I’m 42 and it was a dime for a very short time for me. Then it was a quarter. Actually I think there was a very brief time it was 15 cents.

    • thirteene@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Born in the late 80s I mostly remember $.25 and eventually $.35. although I saw a few pushing $.50. I loved going to the airport between the payphone carousels and the cart return I generally made $10 3 packs of pokemon cards a visit,