Banal Series Banal Series # 15, Eulogizing the Pay Phone
Pay phones – what used to be a destined mode of useful communication has devolved into lonesome effigies of some forgotten point on this exponential curve of electronic media. They stand, those sad pay phones, in stoic silence. Outside run down convenience stores. On a rusted steel post near a gas station. Ensconced, somewhat permanently, into a wall of cement and sedimentary rock laden with prehistoric fossils. The pay phone seems at home in such context.
The jingle of their ringer and the dull clatter of their handsets upon the solid thud of the chromed cradle are but memories. They were once the central feature of mobile communication. A presumed amenity in any area of automobile use, or perambulation, or travel; they could be found on nearly every city block. Of certain importance, they once upon a time often had booths erected for their containment and ease of use. Superhero mythology was fashioned to include their seeming ubiquity. The Everyman of Clark Kent transformed into Superman in such a booth – as this Everyman ducked into its confines under duress of urgency, and emerged superhuman. Pay phones were once the go to device for 20th Century man’s urgent matters. A call home. A loved one. An arrival in a strange town. A taxi. An array of goods and services listed in the often companioned phone book; bound in plastic sheaves, and tethered to the base of the pay phone stand by way of steel cable. Sometimes pages were torn out. Sometimes the entire steel cable was ripped from the base, leaving only a bundle of sharp frays.
The pay phone still sits, rusting, gleaming the chromed lock plate framed into the cast metal housing. Waiting to be used. Or at least referred to as a viable device. Or to even be noticed. Perhaps by a motorist sitting at a red light, talking on his cell phone.
Reader Comments (1)
Some Colin Farrell movie taking place in Times Square came out several years ago. I commented that I didnt know which appeared faker and more ridiculous: that the movie had "streetwalkers" lined up on the sidewalk or that they had an actual phone booth, complete with working light and a phone book.