Before cell phones the only way you could call your mom was to find a payphone.

I used to be allowed to go downtown by myself when I was around 10 years old. Pay phones were such a big thing that when they raised the price from a dime to a quarter people freaked out. The last payphone I remember was outside Grossman’s Tavern on Spadina. It was there till a few years ago when Grossman had it removed because its only purpose was making drug deals. There used to be a dealer that would sit there and call all his clients for a meet up. It was extremely funny, the idea that he was somehow incognito on a payphone, given that it was the only one left and if you were going to investigate you literally only had to check the one phone. The other weird and exciting thing about pay phones besides waiting For one, was the fact that they came with phone numbers and you could call them. More than once in my childhood I answered a pay phone that was ringing.