This, my young friends, is a (West German) coin-operated payphone. Like cigarette and bubble gum vending machines, they were ubiquitous during my youth. Now, this is literally a museum piece, which I spotted in Frankfurt a couple of days ago.
Very rarely, people forgot to collect the coins that remained when they ended their call. Out of a decade-old habit, I had to check the solid metal flap. There was nothing behind it, of course, but I was rewarded with a very familiar and satisfying clunk when I let it go.
Payphones were typically installed in bright yellow boxes that stood at street corners. I can still remember the old-paper smell the phone books gave off during the summer months. Occasionally, there would be worse smells.
