Thought for the Day

On a bus from Cheltenham to Cricklade, passing through the small village of Stratton, near Cirencester.

Just as the village comes to an end and the bus turns a corner, we pass an old red phone box and through its window I can see a rather battered old phone directory left on the metal shelf. Is is my imagination or was there a time maybe twenty years ago, or longer, when all phone boxes had directories in them?

I guess that the one here isn't a long-lived remnant of those times (if they existed), but was left more recently by a good hearted local citizen. It's nice to imagine that perhaps at least one person has approached that phone box, resigned to parting with a handful of coins just to obtain the number they want to call, and then seen the book there and looked upon it with the same delight as if the money had been left in neat pile for them.

So anyway, here's my big idea. If, like me, you get at least one free phone book per year, but can't remember the last time you used any of them, then why not go out one quiet evening and deposit them in the nearest phone box?

Even if you live in a particularly challenging area, where things that aren't worth stealing get stolen anyway, at least they won't be cluttering up your home anymore, and there is always the chance that, before they vanish, they might just make somebody's day.