This rare device was spotted hanging up on a wall in Rockford.

I had some time to kill on the northeast side of town. It was a nice night, so I decided to take a walk around the Rock Valley College campus.

If you haven't been around the local junior college lately, do yourself a favor and go check it out. It's amazing. They have new and updated buildings, nice athletic fields, and a great recreational path.

As I was wandering around, I stumbled upon something rather unusual. Hanging on the wall of building next to the sports fields was a pay phone.

When was the last time you actually saw a pay phone? I can't even remember when, because it's been so long.

I've been to places where they've removed the phone, but the stand is in place. If you go to the original building at McCormick Place in Chicago, they have rows of stands with no phones all over the place.

This is such a random sighting, not just because it's a pay phone, but where I saw it. Even back in the heyday of pay phones, this would be a weird spot for it. Not a lot of need for it unless there was a game going on. The building looked fairly new, so why would it include one. People using the sports facilities probably didn't have any change to use it.

So if you want to have one of those "back in my day" talks with your kids the next time they use too much data on the family cell plan. Take them out to the Rock Valley College Campus and make them use the pay phone. That would be a great learning moment.

Do you know of any other pay phones in Rockford?


 

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