east village idiot

I rarely ever look up in a subway station. But this morning, perhaps in the bewilderment of seeing a nearly-empty Union Square station at the height of rush hour, I looked up and saw this:

Ah, the days before Verizon. Remember when James Earl Jones was their spokesperson? Sure beats the “Can You Hear Me Now?” Guy.

After seeing this, I peered around the corner from this sign, and found an even older relic:

Ahh, NYNEX. That in-between state after New York Telephone and before Bell Atlantic. That in-between state where, inexplicably, they still advertised their services - in 1994. “Next time, call first!” Really? I had no idea about this new-fangled technology called the landline telephone!

For the record, there were no pay phones - especially not a TTY - to be found anywhere near these signs. They were probably removed years ago. But the signs still remain as a remnant of an era where phone company names changed as often as a baby’s diaper.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Life in NYC. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.