Now I’m wondering if whit courtesy phones still exist at airports. Methinks not. Good call.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
Posts: 19774 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011
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Originally posted by Edmond: I'll be honest and admit I never understood the reference.
May have been before your time. Or perhaps you just never encountered it.
Back in the day (through at least the 80s because I remember it from my childhood), large buildings like hospitals, airports, malls/department stores, big grocery stores, etc. would commonly have white or sometimes red "courtesy phones" hanging in regular intervals throughout.
If someone was needed for something - both for employees and even customers - they'd put a page out over a building wide PA speaker system saying something like "Edmond Smith, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone". Then picking up one of the phones would put you in touch with the switchboard operator, or security control room guy, or whomever, and then they could relay the message to you.
Before cell phones or even pagers, this was a way for important messages to be relayed to someone, by calling whatever location they were at and asking them to relay the message to you as a courtesy. Also used for stuff like reuniting lost kids with their parents.
