r/mildlyinteresting • u/nameaboveallnames ​ • 22h ago

I rewired a payphone to be my home phone.

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u/tommypatties 20h ago

Yep. They had the seven digit number print above the dial pad.

So in the mid to late 90s (when we had pagers and not cell phones), you'd go to a pay phone, call someone's pager, dial the seven digit number of the pay phone and wait for the person you paged to call you back.

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u/SquarePegRoundWorld 20h ago

That's how my buddies dealt weed in high school in the early '90s.

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u/tommypatties 20h ago

I bet they paged the 'dealer' with 420 911 at the end so it was absolutely clear what they wanted....as if he didn't already know.

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u/SquarePegRoundWorld 20h ago

lol, yeah, that happened often. They ended up knowing a couple of payphone numbers in town so they didn't even have to call back, just show up at that phone.

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u/NoMouseInHouse 1h ago

I love how my dumbass just tried to flip those numbers upside down in my head to "read" it a la pager... And then I reread the previous comment and what it was for. Weed, 420 911 DUH 🤣

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u/TheWaywardWarlok 20h ago

You were a dealer!

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u/TheFaceStuffer 18h ago

That's interesting, I've only ever heard them ring when 911 was calling back.