Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Greetings 405 listener!
The 405 airs over KMMR Radio Station. At 5 Minutes past 4 PM. Normally each M-F week day of the year. Here on the website we'll get it posted for you within a few hours, normally.
Your neighbor and website maintainer,
D.J. Rasmussen
I wanna again welcome you to the 04:05 coffee break. Get you a cup of coffee, glass of iced tea, bottled water. Guys, let's see what's happening. Spring wheat, $6.08 a bushel. 550 pounds steer calf, $3.95.
OK Solberg:Butcher hog in Omaha, Sixty One Cents a pound. And $2.53 a pound is what a fat lamb in Billings will fetch you. But guys, there's more, much more. Yesterday, I talked about the old days. Yesterday, I talked about the old days.
OK Solberg:Marvin, you talk about the old days every day. Well, not every day, but often. Anyway, was thinking about years gone by and how we used to have to use a pay phone and all that jazz. You know, guys, I have a telephone booth in my front yard. I really do.
OK Solberg:I really do have a telephone booth in my front yard. It reminds me of the days gone by. Drive by and see it. It's like a time machine on my own front lawn. See, it used to be much more difficult to make a phone call.
OK Solberg:And there was something called long distance. You remember that? A long distance call. And buddy, they charged you money for a long distance call. Here's an approximation from 1975, the year I graduated high school, and a full fifty years ago.
OK Solberg:If you dialed direct in 1975, meaning without an operator, a call from Montana to Florida for ten minutes would amount to about 4 to $5. If you needed the operator to connect you, it could be as high as $20. I hope to shout and call the doctor. Twenty dollars for ten minutes? And let me remind you that a candy bar cost a dime in 1975, and minimum wage was $2.10.
OK Solberg:So work that out. If you wanted to make a long distance operator assisted call from Montana to Florida, and you were going to talk only ten minutes, you would have to work hard labor at your job for over four hours just to pay the long distance charge. You've come a long way, baby. But on the topic of telephone booths, how many of you out there in Phillips County, raise your hand, how many of you out there in Phillips County remember the payphone on the south corner of the PCN Building. I'm pausing so you can figure out where it is.
OK Solberg:You guys know the block where Alert Sporting Goods used to be, or Lonnie Link's State Farm office, and Bob Jacobs had a plumbing shop there, and well, so did Buddy Lundstrom. Central Avenue, south corner of that block. So in the late seventies, early eighties, this was a new and improved design. It wasn't a booth per se, it was a pay telephone that was mounted on a pole, and it was out in the open air. Just hang in there, new teenagers will be delighted to hear this.
OK Solberg:With that pay phone on Central And Third Street West, you could drive your car right beside it, roll down the window of your car, reach out, pick up the receiver, place your money in the slot from the comfort of your driver's seat, make your call, and never leave the comfort of your car. Guys, it doesn't get any better than that. When I saw that, I thought to myself, we have advanced as far as we possibly can. It cannot get any better than this. So we all know about a drive in restaurant like Joe's In N Out or Dairy Queen.
OK Solberg:We know about a drive up window at Independence Bank or the Bank of Malta, or even the First State Bank member FDIC. But do you remember the drive up telephone that we had right here in Malta, Montana? I told Thea about it and she didn't remember. Well, I said you lived in town. And if you needed to make a call, you just went to your house or over to your friend's house.
OK Solberg:But us country kids know all about it. Our homes were miles away. If you wanted to make a call, we went to a pay phone, and that one there on the corner of Central And Third Street West was the cat's meow. Yes. Reach out and touch someone.
OK Solberg:I'll close with a bible verse, Deuteronomy thirty two seven. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generation. Ask your father, and he will show you your elders, and they will tell you. So until next time. How's it go?
OK Solberg:As you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.