Phone Booths and the Nobel Peace Prize

I saw an old re-run movie the other night that made me think about the invention of the ordinary phone booth. In the movie, the actor needed to make a private call, so what did he do? He stepped into another world, inside the quiet offered by the phone booth. But, why the need for the phone booth. I mean, all you need to make a call is the telephone, right. The early telephones could have been hung from wooden posts, making it possible to make the call regardless, right? Was there a need for a booth?

But, a thinking person invented the phone booth. Back when, it was not enough to just to be able to talk on the telephone, some thinking person thought it would be best to be able to have an environment for talking; a quiet place that was yours and not everyone's; a place that shielded you from everyone else, and everyone else from you. Think of all the lives that have been changed, ever so slightly, by not feeling the strain of others' private conversations that just so happened to be held inside of phone booths.

Today, we have no phone booths. My conversation is your conversation and your conversation is my conversation. We know of no bounds for talking to anyone; anywhere; in any tone; and at any volume. We have lost the phone booth and the feeling that went with it. We have lost our peace. Lives have changed because of it. 

Willaim Gray, my hat is off too you. I recommend you receive the Nobel Peace prize for the countless lives that have been left un-tainted by conversations not meant to be overheard.

Thoughts from the 1950's

I ran into a fellow from Texas the other day. We were waiting for a Starbucks Coffee Shop to open around 10 til 7 in the morning. He told me a couple of things hid dad taught him, as he was growing up in Texas in the 1950s. His dad owned a gas station.

About having Customers wait:

1. Nothing is better than having people lined up to get into your store, and there is nothing worse than making them wait. (his dad opened 10 minutes earlier than the posted time, to avoid the wait to get gas at his station)

This gentleman pumped gas for his dad, which always included a top off of air in the tires, plus a windshield washing for free. His dad always was on him about leaving some streaking and a few spots on the windshields. This he could not understand, so he asked his dad what was wrong with a few spots left on the windshield.

2. His dad said, "The customer cannot see the gas I put in their tank, or the air I put in their tires, but they can see the windshild, and will judge my station by the way it looks."

Nice thoughts. If he had written a book, I would hope to have been lucky enought to buy it.