Fond Memories

Earlier today I was on TikTok, and I saw a video that was nostalgic because it was old video games that we had played as kids. As I watched that video, I couldn't help but ask myself what other thing has kind of gone extinct that we didn't really notice at the time, and that was when it hit me.

_{photo by Jon Tyson}

You see, back in the day we used to have something called a call center, which basically was a telephone booth. The only difference with this one was that rather than just having a telephone booth somewhere where you can just go slip your coin in and make your call, this call center was owned by people, and the way it worked was that they would sit under these huge umbrellas with a table in front of them.

And when you walk up to them to try to make a call, they would hand you their phone (the phone they use for the business), and then after you're done with your call, you would then be charged based on the minutes spent on the call. So if one minute costs one dollar and you happen to be on the phone for a minute and two seconds, that automatically means that you will have to pay them two dollars.

If there's a beautiful memory I remember about the call center, it was the story of the day I had passed my exams in primary school. I think I had come out third at the time, and my mom was super excited, so she had taken me to a call center and called one of my aunts, just so that I could share the good news with her.

I could still remember the smile on my mother's face, how proud she was of me back then, as she watched me speak to my aunty on the phone. Like I said, it was a beautiful moment.

Unfortunately, call centers no longer exist, as everyone has a smartphone now, and no one is looking to pay anyone to make a call when they could get the airtime themselves on their phones and just do it themselves without anyone knowing their business.