The Silverbloggers Chronicles - Prompt # 47 Telephone booth memories [ESP/ENG]

What wonderful memories of my youth this week's #SilverBlogger topic brings back! Phone booths were everywhere in my day, both in the city and the country. Just like the original post says, back then there was no more effective way to communicate. They were there, readily available 24/7, so they were incredibly useful. However, I remember there were many urban legends surrounding them that, whether true or not, scared people. For example, it was said that you had to be careful when using the receiver because sometimes they left syringes or razor blades infected with the dreaded HIV virus. No cases were ever reported, but people were still cautious.

¡Que bellos recuerdos de juventud me trae el tema de esta semana de #SilverBlogger, las cabinas telefónicas abundaban por toda la ciudad y el país en mis tiempos de juventud, tal como dice la publicación original, antes no había una forma más efectiva de comunicarse que esa, estaban allí, a la orden del día, disponibles las 24 horas, así que eran muy útiles. Sin embargo en mis tiempos yo me acuerdo que había muchas leyendas urbanas entorno a ellas que, fuesen verdad o no, asustaban a la población, por ejemplo se decía que había que tener cuidado al tomar el auricular porque algunas veces dejaban jeringas o hojillas infectadas con el temido virus VIH. Nunca se supo de algún caso, pero de todos modos la gente tenía cuidado.

There were some communal phone booths where, despite the phones being spaced apart, you could still hear someone arguing (when they were arguing 😄). I used the public phones for specific things, but as far as I remember, they were only for local calls. When I wanted to make a call out of state or even internationally, I went to the CANTV (the national telephone company) office. There was a room there where you could request international calls, and many times my friends and I made calls to contact our friend who was now living in London with her husband. I remember feeling nostalgic when I heard her voice, imagining her so far away from us and her own culture.

These public phones could save your life and shorten distances, so they were an indispensable tool back then. Some people even knew how to rig them to make free calls 😄, although I was never interested in doing that. Anyway, it was truly a pleasure for me to join this initiative and share my experience. Here's the link to the original post, in case you'd like to join in.