Brunch (1896); Dime (1995)---(Question)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated  Fri, 27 Feb 2004 16:32:14 -0500,  George Thompson
<george.thompson at NYU.EDU> writes

>  Since the newspaper passage quoted refers to the dimes as "dropping",
> perhaps the phrase was influenced by the expression "to drop a dime" -- in
> NYC, this means to inform on someone, or report someone's misdeeds; the
image
> is dropping a dime into a payphone.
>
>  I was about to call this expression obsolete, since in NYC at least the
cost
> of a pay-phone call has gone up to a quarter; but then, kid-talk for a
train
> is still "choo-choo".  So maybe "to drop a dime" will live on when the
> payphone altogether has joined the steam locomotive and the oil lamp in
> oblivion.

or perhaps the reference is to putting a dime into not a payphone but a pay
toilet.

I don't know if pay toilets in the US always cost a dime, but a man born ca.
1920 told me that as a child he and his buddies would offer, for a nickel, to
slip under the door of a pay booth and unlock it from the inside.

About 1980 an Englishwoman told me that in England pay toilets (whatever they
are called) cost a shilling, and therefore "I have to spend a shillng" meant
"I have to go to the bathroom".

       - James A. Landau