This Pay Phone In Calgary Is Confusing Some People & It's Serious Nostalgia For Others

A photo of a public payphone has sparked a conversation between people in Calgary.

The payphone, pictured outside a convenience store, was captioned by a bewildered passerby: "Does anyone know what this thing is?"

According to a 2013 investigation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, there used to be almost 120,000 payphone sets across Canada in 2008.

That number dropped to around 55,000 in 2016 and, according to CBC News, it dropped to 36,000 in 2018 due to an increasing number of people owning cellphones.

Despite the confusion from the person who posted the picture, many others were reliving memories.

One person wrote: "Ah yeah that's where you'd take your extra packets of Mcdonald ketchup and squeeze onto the upper round part of the two circles attached to the metal wire. Not sure what happened after that."

Others remembered it costing a dime to call someone, and someone added: "Unless you straightened out a paper clip, then you could dial it for free. But I was a good kid and felt guilty about it so I only did it once after a friend showed me how."

Another person said: "Omg if this is a serious question I can’t handle how old I am."

Many others used the thread to make jokes about the picture.

One said: "You put in a quarter, dial the year you want to travel to and off you go!!"

Another Redditer posted: "It's how you get out of the matrix and back to the real world."

Another commented: "It takes you down to the secret tunnels where the mole people live. I will tell you the code for a vial of zyme."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.