What Is a Jukebox?

Over the summer I heard the 1982 song “867–5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone, and it struck me: My kids could never truly understand this.

It has to do with the line, “For the price of a dime I can always turn to you,” referring of course to Tutone’s having appropriate pocket change to use a public payphone to call Jenny of the bathroom wall scrawl. My digital native offspring barely know what a public phone is, and they certainly don’t understand what relationship it has to a dime.

For The Morning News, Nancy Davis Kho explains ’80s songs for future children, like lovers do.