This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Phones
Earlier this week I visited Rensselaer Iron & Metal to recycle some cans and other bits of scrap metal. I noticed this old phone booth in the dumpster near their north door.
There are not many of the left. The cell phone has rendered them obsolete, an example of Schumpeter's "perennial gale of creative destruction", the process by which new innovations undercut and destroy old industries and ways of doing things. There is at least one pay phone left in Rensselaer, one by the Shell station on College. You can see it below with the SJC field house and Hanson Recreation Center in the background.
Where else in Rensselaer can you find pay phones?
RCHS used to have one by the gym. Don't know if it is still there or not.
ReplyDeleteSince I am merely a 'former' Rensselaer resident, I know nothing about pay phones in Rensselaer, but I'd like to offer this unrelated comment:
ReplyDeleteYesterday I was informed that I would no longer be able to read the online e-edition of the Rensselaer Republican (as I have done for the last couple of years) unless I pay a subscription rate of $95 a year. An email from the editor confirmed this.
Darn...I'm going to miss reading that paper.
RCHS no longer has any pay phones, but I did spot one just outside of Family Express.
ReplyDelete