How often do you have to go to a phone booth these days? Probably not too often. Well, I found myself needing to make a phone call while on the road and guess what? The unthinkable!....I left my cell phone home!

First of all, it took a while for it to hit me that phone booths still exist! Well they probably don't really, not the type that you could go into as one person and come out somone else possibley with super powers and tight lycra clothes.

Anyway, when it did come to me, I drove around trying to spot one somewhere, I looked on the outside wall of a strip mall, not there! I looked on several street corners, not there! Heaven forbid you need one for an emergency!

Finally, I thought, how about a gas station! So I turned the corner and passed a gas station. At first I did not see a phone but after I pulled in and drove around a bit...wa la!

There, low to the ground (I could only think of two reasons why they were so low, either it's because you could roll down your car window and make the call while seated or because they are little people friendly) was a phone atop a pole. I concluded they were low because they are little people friendly because you could never get your car close enough to reach out, pick up the phone, then drop one coin in at a time to pay for the call.

To continue my saga...since it costs fifty cents to make a call, two quarters would have been the most convenient, but I had no quarters. I had 3 dimes and a ton of nickelsl so I counted out fifty cents worth of change.

I picked up the handle and dialed the number, an automated robotic voice came on before the call was placed and said "fifty cents for ten minutes please" so I start dropping my coins. Some of them went in okay and others dropped through and back into the return slot. As I continued putting the coins into the phone the voice kept coming on, "20 cents please", "10 cents please" and by the time I got to the last coin, the voice said "please hang up and dial again" and dropped all the coins into the return slot.

Ok, let's start over, now I am thinking - dial and put the coins in really fast! So now I am fumbling with the coins trying to get them in fast enough, listening to the automated voice, "30 cents please", "25 cents please", "20 cents please", and I am workin it a fast as I can until I dropped one of the coins on the ground and heard two more of them fall into the return slot. Damn!

Then, the voice "please hang up and dial again" and the sound of the other coins dropping into the return slot. S#*t!

Take a deap breath Nan, start over and remain calm! Here goes again, dial the call, drop the coins, oops - still no success! F*#k! No wonder the phone piece was so banged up! Oh how I wanted to contribute and add a few bang marks myself!

The fourth try, unsuccessful (I actually turned around to see if someone was taping me for a reality show).

Fifth try, success at last!

I think the person that invented the cell phone must have experienced something like this, what a motivator!

Tips to my successful fifth try, re-compose, drop the coins slowly and make sure they each register before putting in another.

Better yet have a spare cell phone in your car!