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Back before cellphones

jkwilson
Explorer II
Explorer II
Remember the rows of pay phones campgrounds had near the office? Phone calls when you changed campgrounds and periodically so people back home could get in touch if they had to. It was nothing to be out of touch for days if you were out west.

This came up last night as some neighbors complained about the lack of cell coverage in the campground and how โ€œdangerousโ€ it was to be unreachable.
John & Kathy
2014 Grand Design Reflection 303RLS
2014 F250 SBCC 6.2L 3.73
90 REPLIES 90

Pbutler97
Explorer
Explorer
I remember walking past those pay phones while walking 12 miles to school in 4' of snow, with no shoes. Uphill both ways.


jkwilson wrote:

This came up last night as some neighbors complained about the lack of cell coverage in the campground and how โ€œdangerousโ€ it was to be unreachable.


They should of stayed home if they were that scared.

valhalla360
Nomad
Nomad
In Malta currently and they have lots of the old British style phone boxes.

Lots of folks taking pictures with them. So far as I have seen, no one is using them to make calls.
Tammy & Mike
Ford F250 V10
2021 Gray Wolf
Gemini Catamaran 34'
Full Time spliting time between boat and RV

liamricci
Explorer
Explorer
I guess for some people it is just important to be reachable 24/7. Not all of us have a lot of savings or passive income every single months. People like me, continue working while we are on the way. With the microsoft teams sms it became much be easier to be in touch with the clients and workers but still the good internet connection is always a must for the effective working day.

monkey44
Nomad
Nomad
HAHAHAha ... It probably records the number you call so it can call it with telemarketing. The next step up in capturing phone numbers .... ๐Ÿ™‚ Fake street phones.

Where is the sarcasm emoji when we need it?
Monkey44
Cape Cod Ma & Central Fla
Chevy 2500HD 4x4 DC-SB
2008 Lance 845
Back-country camping fanatic

2112
Explorer II
Explorer II
I found this little gem in downtown Georgetown Tx last week. No dial tone

2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost SuperCab Max Tow, 2084# Payload, 11,300# Tow,
Timbrens
2013 KZ Durango 2857

Matt_Colie
Explorer
Explorer
"But I texted you!!"
You texted me on my home phone? Good, that is a land line, did you see the note that said DO NOT TEXT! ???
My cell phone is for my business only client calls actually make it ring and even it have the text feature substantially disabled. (I couldn't remove it, but it is on a back screen and notification is turned off.
The business died in the last recession and I only carry the phone in case I break down on the road and it is not usually even turned on.
Matt
Matt & Mary Colie
A sailor, his bride and their black dogs (one dear dog is waiting for us at the bridge) going to see some dry places that have Geocaches in a coach made the year we married.

Microlite_Mike
Explorer
Explorer
jkwilson wrote:
Remember the rows of pay phones campgrounds had near the office? Phone calls when you changed campgrounds and periodically so people back home could get in touch if they had to. It was nothing to be out of touch for days if you were out west.

This came up last night as some neighbors complained about the lack of cell coverage in the campground and how โ€œdangerousโ€ it was to be unreachable.


Before cell phones I had to carry a pager and then find a phone booth when it went off. Campground booths and those near retail stores weren't bad but most of them on City Streets became too foul to use. Seems like too many thought they were also Urinals.

The campgrounds I prefer don't have either pay phones OR cell phone coverage. If any family emergency arises I can be reached through my Garmin InReach Mini. Takes some training on how to send the message but it's really nice as I get absolutely no Spam or Telemarketer calls. Any emergency on my end is handled by pushing the SOS button.
"Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway."


~ Albert Einstein

liamricci
Explorer
Explorer
For some people it is necessary to be reachable during the day.
Lets not forget all of us who have online businesses and still work while traveling. We often use slack sms to get in touch with the clients or workers but for video calls we need a very good internet connection.

Cassy0110
Explorer
Explorer
It's okay. We are used to conviniences. Nothing strange

mdcamping
Explorer
Explorer
jkwilson wrote:
Remember the rows of pay phones campgrounds had near the office? Phone calls when you changed campgrounds and periodically so people back home could get in touch if they had to. It was nothing to be out of touch for days if you were out west.

This came up last night as some neighbors complained about the lack of cell coverage in the campground and how โ€œdangerousโ€ it was to be unreachable.


Was a time about 20 years ago where we had some drunk out of control camping neighbors where I thought it could turn into a dangerous situation. Lucky for us they we not directing it at us but I had wished I had a cellphone in case the situation had changed for the worse. By the next year we had our first cells. Yeah sometimes I can find all the technology tiresome but that's not why we go camping. :C

Mike
2022 F-150 3.5 EcoBoost 4X4 Supercrew GCWR 19,500 157WB
Payload 2476 Maxtow 13,800 3.73 Equalizer 4 Pt Sway Hitch
2017 Jayco Jay Flight 24RBS
Old TV, 07 Toyota Tacoma, Double Cab, Factory Tow Pkg, retired towing at 229K. (Son now owns truck)

monkey44
Nomad
Nomad
We particularly enjoy camping where the electronics are not available and only the birds make noise. Or the wind sings in the trees... or a coyote greets the moon.
Monkey44
Cape Cod Ma & Central Fla
Chevy 2500HD 4x4 DC-SB
2008 Lance 845
Back-country camping fanatic

Veebyes
Explorer II
Explorer II
The last three nights we were at a VT CG where there is no cellphone signal, Verizon or T Mobile, no WIFI, not in the CG, no OTA TV reception.

We survived. The CG was darned near empty. Suspect that being a communications wasteland has something to do with it.


It is amazing at how many are truly addicted to their cellphones. Look at how many will not travel remote areas, such as going to Alaska without their beloved cellphones & some means of guaranteed connection.

So sad.
Boat: 32' 1996 Albin 32+2, single Cummins 315hp
40+ night per year overnighter

2007 Alpenlite 34RLR
2006 Chevy 3500 LT, CC,LB 6.6L Diesel

Ham Radio: VP9KL, IRLP node 7995

ferndaleflyer
Explorer III
Explorer III
Really, in 1957 I went coast to coast and back. Try that with no phone or map or Interstates! Yes I am OLD.

BackOfThePack
Explorer
Explorer
Veebyes wrote:
I don't know how people enjoyed the RVing lifestyle before cellphones. How did you do the research required for multi month trips involving thousands of miles with all of the complications of weather delays & mechanical issues thrown into the mix?

Today is easy. The basic route is plotted out. CGs are found on the fly, usually making a same day reservation a few hours from the destination.


1). AAA Triptik (Mobil Oil)
โ€” Atlas
โ€” Compass
โ€” Binoculars
โ€” Handheld spotlight
โ€” State road maps
โ€” US Park Svc Directory
โ€” COE Directory

2). Yellow Pages (any phone booth)
โ€” Oil company maps with their locations
โ€” Best Western or other motel chain directories
โ€” KOA Directory
โ€” State travel guides

I today use an Army Messenger Shoulder Bag to carry this stuff (reproduction). My mother would fill the passenger footwell of one of those Chryslers or Cadillacs with her reference library of tote style bags. My grandmother used the backseat footwell. (We traveled weeks, they traveled months. Mexico, Canada and the US).

Learning to travel by car 3-6/weeks at a time is science, and then the art of how you want to do it. Itโ€™s point to point. Not day to day. Clock matters a little, calendar not at all.

The research was the rest of the year (assuming one big yearly trip). Magazine subscriptions. Newspaper articles. Friends and family.

I donโ€™t think anyones going to visit both coasts in one trip. So, arrive at an area and from one or two campgrounds day-tour the region by car. Make a few notes on where to stay on a future trip. (Canโ€™t see or fish all of Colorado on one trip, etc)

Iโ€™d say map reading was hardest (easiest to make mistakes which were stressful). Turn-by-turn even if experienced (notes made) you couldnโ€™t do it without paying attention to compass headings. Thatโ€™s planning from the night before: โ€œx-miles W on US63 past Clarendon; T-L 1/2M past courthouse onto OK 667 for 6-miles . . . โ€œ (you had to deduce actual miles despite distance aids as printed). An outline format, easily read at speed.

Some folks not naturally good at directions. Inner compass plus time/distance sense. My grandmother would direct you in her kitchen by referring you to the SW cabinet on the NE wall.

โ€” You needed โ€” as a man โ€” two wristwatches in the event one failed. Your World War infantry or sailors navigation training was finally applicable (was a joke I heard often as a child, men comparing routes on leaving a campground or National Park. โ€œHold steady at 270-degrees for 18โ€, and then take the . . . โ€œ, how the joke unfolded.)

Phones at camp office, sure. But by mid -1970s you plugged in a land-line at the service pedestal. (My 1990 has this exterior plug). Local almost free if not quite crooks, but youโ€™d pay over and above standard fee for long-distance.). Bought me a Western Electric desk model against that day.

Letter-writing, not just post cards, was an expectation. Mail forwarded to General Delivery was another.

Gasoline credit cards were new enough. But having ones for oil companies not in your home region was another. So, Diners Club, AMEX and some others (not easily approved). The thing was TRAVELERS CHEQUES. Who would cash them? How much? What fee? (Having a floor safe in a premium RV was a regular option check).

The REAL question was that you should ask, is, How did they do it without television? (It was a good long ways into the 1980s that nightly assumption was operable. Sometimes in aerial, sometimes on cable. Sometimes not at all. In the 1960s didnโ€™t expect to have any service (why camp in or near a city; got that when back home).

Reading was its own pleasure. Strongly encouraged as the adults expected to feel rested once parked somewhere for more than a day. I recall the hours after lunch as being enforced quiet (nap, draw circles in sand, chase chipmunks, read).

Campgrounds often had a morning coffee hour, and maybe a camp fire a little ways into dark in the evenings. Local paper for sale at camp office.

Clear channel AM radio at night. FM near big cities days after 1970. Rural AM was owned locally. Could be quite informative.

Having a โ€œcampground CBโ€ in the RV was another โ€œthingโ€ by the mid 1970s. Folks would ask the Qโ€™s youโ€™d expect โ€” laundry, brake job, hair salon, catfish restaurant. (And tires. Always tires back then. Fuel pumps next).

(Put a 70โ€™s CB in my current rig. Gets out a few hundred yards with an on-glass antenna I can unscrew and store. Bigger and fancier ones elsewhere).
2004 555 CTD QC LB NV-5600
1990 35โ€™ Silver Streak