TIL the payphone at my old mall still works, and it costs a quarter like it's 1998
I was killing time at the Lexington mall last Saturday waiting on my wife and walked past the bank of payphones near the food court. Figured they were dead relics, but I dropped in a quarter just to see, and the dial tone hummed like nothing changed in 25 years. Called my own cell from it and the connection was clearer than my actual phone, which felt like a small insult. The booth still has a taped up card listing long distance rates at 35 cents a minute, and someone scratched "out of order since March" right under it in pen. I stood there a while thinking about how I used to feed these things dimes in high school to call my mom for a ride home. Is there a map or list somewhere of payphones that still actually work, because now I want to go find more of them?
I found a few working ones by just checking older parts of town, like bus stations and small diners that never bothered ripping them out. The payphone project website has a map, but it's hit or miss since people stop updating it. Try calling the number from your cell before you drive out, if it rings you know it's live.