Having had a little bit of constipation after his recent operation my hubby said this week "I just wasted a penny", a reference to the old days when there were penny slot machines on the cubicle doors of public toilets. I can only vaguely recall seeing these, I think at Central Station.
This got us reminiscing about other coin machines.
Postage Stamps: The photo above is of an old postage stamp machine at our local post office. (Amazingly we still have a stand alone post office in our little town). Of course, back in the day we all wrote letters. I exchanged letters with my parents every week and rarely telephoned.
Public Phones: Do you remember those old push button A, press button B phones? Trunk calls were really expensive and the telephonist interjected during the call "three minutes are you extending?". Who could have envisaged a day when public phone calls were free as they are today.
Coin operated petrol pumps: Petrol stations weren't open 24/7 so at night or on the weekend we found a coin operated petrol pump. At the current price of petrol you would need to be a weight lifter to have enough 20 cent coins to fill the car!
Are there other long gone coin operated machines you remember?
Lolly dispensers were coin operated. Now lollies only come in bags. And no more pick and mix.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to get a bubble gum from one of those machines. I never did until I left home and by then the allure had gone.
DeleteNot so ancient, but coins were needed for parking meters. I never had the right ones!
ReplyDeleteI rarely parked where there were meters so didn't think of those. I didn't have a car until I lived in Canberra and they didn't have meters.
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