RIP Rosa

It has been an emotional week. My beloved car Rosa's little body couldn't take it any longer and was put out to pasture. On her final journey along the Ausable this morning, we shared one last song on the radio together, Bust A Move.



I don't think there could ever be a better farewell song for a car like Rosa. She moved all the way to her final resting place.

I leave you with the last picture from our final photo shoot today next to a phone booth in Keeseville.

R.I.P. Rosa, Honda Civic LX, 1997 - 2011

Phone Booth Saved

When I had Drew turn the car around in the A&W driveway this afternoon, I wanted to inspect a wooden kiosk structure that I thought I had seen a phone inside at the North Pole Campground. I was thinking maybe I should be easier on other structures that could be defined as a booth for using a phone. I shouldn't be so strict about my idea of a phone booth, I mean it could include other kiosks, stalls, or cubicles.

Right when I was about to adjust my expectations, there 50 feet away of the questionable phone kiosk, I spotted an actual phone booth! Do you see it? It's right next to the garage in the background. I felt like I was having an out of body experience seeing it. It was hiding from me all this time.

How could it be that I've driven this road a couple thousand times and have never seen this phone booth just off the road? I know for a fact that even on one occasion I ran by it while exploring the campground.

It is a very well maintained phone booth and has been painted a nice shade of green to match the trim of the buildings in the resort. To top it off, it works. I heard a dial tone. Did I call anyone from it? No, I was caught up in the excitement of finding a phone booth I never even knew about and didn't even think about making a call at the time. As any modern lady would do, I used my cell phone to take a picture of it and then sent it to my email address.

I talked to the owner of the campground and told him to never let anyone take it away from him. He said, "Don't worry, I own it. The company that installed the phones let me buy it from them and now they're bankrupt. No one will take it from me." That is wonderful news, one more phone booth saved from extinction.

Phone Booth Saga Continues...

I am very excited to share with all of you an article written by Seven Days in Vermont about my phone booth adventures. You can read the article by clicking on this link.

photo provided by the fabulous Lauren Ober, aka, LO. I should mention that unlike me, she was not wearing a fabulous J. LO inspired track suit when I met her for the interview.

Phone Booth Found!

Do you remember when I was upset about the Jay phone booth being taken away and how I tried to track it down? To refresh your memory you can read about it here.

Well, the other night we were driving along Rt. 9N and I spotted it! There standing in all its glory was the phone booth hiding behind someone's garage. It all happened so quickly, I didn't know if it was a mirage. I just knew I needed to go back during daylight to see if it was really there.

My husband wanted to go up the driveway to see it, but I thought that was a little intrusive and I didn't want to get in trouble for trespassing. I had to settle for staying 100 yards back.

I know what you're thinking, "Where is it? How did she see it?" Well, I see everything. Please don't think I'm a stalker or anything, but when your beloved phone booth has gone missing and it is whispering your name in the night, you most certainly are going to see it shining under the light of the garage up on the hill.

Standing on 9N, the phone booth seemed a little sad. This is where you tell me objects don't have feelings and that I was being unrealistic to say in a recent article in Adirondack Life, "I felt like I had a relationship with it."

I guess my expectations for the phone booth's new life was too high. I can only hope that the phone booth is treated with respect and the new person in its life, treats it well.

Missing Phone Booth Adventure

I received an email this morning, "Where is the Jay phone booth? Gone!"

I thought for sure this was some kind of practical joke since I was just preaching about my love of the phone booth the night before. I immediately hopped in my car with my pajamas still on and drove to find the truth.

It was true. The phone booth was missing.

I drove home immediately, gobbled up some peanut butter toast as fast as I could because I feared if I didn't find out the phone booth's fate, it would be too late. I was worried it would end up crushed at some scrap metal factory.

The Town of Jay informed me that it was the property of Frontier and they were the ones that removed it. Next, I knocked on the work building's door for Frontier in Ausable Forks and a nice employee told me his coworker took it home with him. He was reluctant to give out his information to a crazy woman demanding to know where the phone booth went, probably because he thought I might consider stealing it. I gave him my contact information and went along my way in hopes of some day being able to say good bye to the charming structure and take a picture of it at its new home.

This is a bittersweet ending to my morning's missing phone booth adventure. I am sad that this historical artifact is now missing for the public to see at our Village Green, but am happy that it is still intact and will be taken care of by a fellow phone booth fan.

The Endangered Phone Booth

Fellow readers, I have some very sad news to report. The phone booth along the Ausable is on the endangered list and may soon become extinct. Yes, that's right the phone booth, a four walled little building meant for you to have private phone conversations in. Or maybe if you are a teenager, to make prank phone calls from.

There are still a few cellular holdouts left in this world and what would they do without the phone booth that shelters them from the Adirondack weather? I have to admit that I am one of those people that only has a cell phone, no land line. What would happen if my cell phone went dead or we were without electricity for several days and couldn't charge my phone? I fear that some day soon I will be without having the option to use the phone booth and will have to buy a phone charger for my car. I realize that this is not just a regional phenomenon, but something that threatens many areas. For instance, Manhattan has just four phone booths left.

For this to also happen in our neck of the woods saddens me to no extent. Yes, there are pay phones to use, but the phone booth is a symbol of simpler times and I would hate for this to disappear.

Jay still has a phone booth on the Village Green. This is a beautiful telephone booth that still has the accordion door and I think that back in the day, when you closed it, the light above would turn on. Surprisingly, it lacks graffiti and the only noticeable wear was a rusty hole on the outside.

It was here that I tried using the phone inside and discovered that it was completely dead.

My phone booth quest continued in Keene Valley where there is a phone booth next to their grocery store and public parking lot. This one is lacking a door to close and I wonder if it may have been broken from a car backing into it because I noticed that there are yellow cement posts protecting it.

Keene Valley is one of the towns in our area where there is little to no cell service and many hikers rely on this phone booth at the end of their journey. I thought I'd give the phone a try inside and it looked more promising than the one in Jay. Definitely more modern with calling card instructions and how to charge a call to your credit card.

Unfortunately, there was no dial tone. I could tell that the phone wasn't dead, because there was a little bit of static on the other end, but I was unable to reach an operator. I reported this inside to the Keene Valley Grocery so it could get fixed before hiking season kicks in.

I cruised through Lake Placid and saw a few pay phones, but no phone booths. I remembered seeing a phone booth in Ausable Forks, but couldn't find it. Of course, I used my cell phone and called my friend to help me locate it and were informed that it had recently been removed! Our friend that had lived a few houses away from the phone booth had no answers, just that it was gone. She knew that my heart sank and the next day sent me a text message to my cell phone of a phone booth in Keeseville.

After spending the afternoon tracking down phone booths and becoming disheartened with the results, I have decided not to restrict my search to just our area. There is a gem of a phone booth in Ray Brook between the Ford dealership and the campground. That one is a must see!

As a graduate student in England, the phone booth became my second home to call family and friends when I needed privacy from flat mates and I don't know what I would have done without it. So, it is here readers that I am professing my love for the phone booth and will now attempt to save one phone booth at a time!