I have to comment on the story we ran this week about AT&T getting out of the pay phone business.

I had a hard time remembering the last time I used a pay phone! 

When I heard about it, I switched off the VCR and went right over to my electric typewriter to bang out a story about it...

But seriously, nothing makes you feel old more than thinking about the stuff you grew up using that is now antiquated and outdated.

Not that I'm sorry to see pay phones go.

Remember how irritating it was to have to wait in line behind someone because there was only one pay phone?  No matter how heavy you exhaled in impatience and tapped your foot, the long-winded person ahead of you would take their time, ignoring you, and shooting the breeze for what seemed like forever.

And it always seemed like when you REALLY needed to make a call, the pay phone was broken, or it wouldn't take your change.

When I was still a teenager, I got my first shot at being a real, radio reporter.  I was so excited.  A small radio station had asked me to go to an out of town football game and call them afterward to give them a live "phoner" report on the outcome of the game.

Just take some change and use the pay phone, I was told.  This was the 1980's.

After the game I wrote up the most beautiful re-cap of the game you've ever seen, and anxiously dialed the number to the station.

But they kept me on hold for a long time, and I used up all my change.  Finally, the news anchor introduced me and I began reading my first-rate sports copy into the receiver.

Midway through my report, the recorded voice of the telephone company interrupted me with a loud, "Please deposit 25 cents for the next 5 minutes..."

There was nothing I could do, I'd used up all my change!  With panic in my voice, I kept reading, hoping the recorded voice from hell would stop, and mercifully let me finish my radio debut.

But she kept cutting in, "Please deposit 25 cents for the next 5 minutes..."

Needless to say, the radio station never asked me to file a sports report again.

So I will shed no tears for the pay phone.

But then again, if you got a working pay phone, you never had to worry about losing your cell at a critical moment.

And if you decided to switch to the other pay phone on the wall, because it looked better, no one could force you to pay a $150 transfer fee.