The handful of microwave and satellite transmitters atop the huge, windowless, square brick building that sits at the 537 entrance to the Freehold Raceway Mall nearly always prompts questions from my children.

It is the Freehold POP and, until recently, had a barren brick signpost that used to bear the AT&T logo.

A number of years ago, a Verizon logo was set up, I guess when the AT&T logo came down.

Last week, I noticed a man putting up the new at&t logo (lower-case letters, blue & white sphere, no longer the 2-D "death star") on the empty brick signpost. I was a little thrilled about it, in a nostalgic way. I don't see the RBOC's sign coming down, 'though.

One of my favorite scenes in Redford's Three Days of the Condor is when he enters a telco switching substation and taps into a phone line with a butt set. The sound of those mechanical switches! Those were the days.