Telephone | Gloria McBreen

Day 97 #100DaysOfOldDays

For years there was only one phone box in Bailieborough; on the Main Street outside the Post Office. I have many memories of standing outside it with Mam waiting to make a phone call. She would sigh when the person inside would load more coins into the slot.

Mam’s calls were short and to the point. They were seldom calls of long conversations with friends. They were calls of necessity!

This photo was taken in Westport.

I remember back to the days when she had to ask the operator to put her through. There was no dial on the telephone. There was a winder and a slot for the money. Similar to this one in the picture.

It was maybe in the early 70’s that the telephones changed from having to deal with an operator, to the ‘dial-it-yourself’ method. The telephone now had a dial and all you had to was dial the phone number, when Bridie answered on the other side, you put your money in and you were through. The longer you wanted to chat with Bridie, the more money you had to feed into the slot!

In every phone box there was a phone book. Bridie’s number was in it along with everyone else’s in the country – except those who kept their number private.

If it was a thing that the local hooligans had vandalised the phone book, you’d call the operator and give her Bridie’s name and address and and she’d put you through – or give you Bridie’s number so you could self-dial.

To meet the growing need for a public phone, a new telefón box was installed in town; on the Cavan road beside the Model School. It was bit more private than the one in town. Not so many people around to earwig on private conversations.

Using the public phone box wasn’t always straightforward. Sometimes you might be told by some bossy biddy blocking the door, that you can’t make a call because she was waiting for a call. She wouldn’t let anyone into the phone box until she got her ‘important’ call. Mmm…