Blast from the past

Recently when out on journalistic business, Private Bin had reason to visit the Lister Building in Auckland’s Victoria St East.

A swanky office location in the 1960’s, the building is still home to several businesses and has lots of rather lovely (though petite) character apartments.

The building is full of the faded charm of styles past like black and white tiled flooring and wood paneling.

Though it could do with a change of dress, it’s well kept enough to be classed as quaint. Rather lovely, even. Like being in an episode of Mad Men.

However, Private Bin felt panic set in upon entering the lift.

Was this an elevator, she feared, or some kind of tardis?

The multi-tone brown carpet on the walls of the (very slow) elevator was left over from the 1970’s and seriously struggling to fit in with the rest of the building.

Most elevators these days have an emergency button which one simply pushes and is connected to appropriate fixers-of-emergencies.

But the emergency phone in this antiquated establishment took Private Bin’s breath away.

Not only was it an actual telephone, it was a telephone so old that it had a dial that you turn to enter each number.

So dinky it was, that photographic evidence had to be taken. Luckily Private Bin never strays far from NBR HQ without a camera.

Private Bin would never admit her age (how unladylike) but some NBR staffers in the Gen-Y age bracket confirmed to not only having never used a turn-dial phone in their lives but in some cases never having actually seen one.