Abandoned Payphone. Greenpoint Avenue, Queens.

This old, abandoned payphone on Greenpoint Avenue is a favorite of mine. Its handset was severed years ago but no one has bothered to remove the remaining graffiti-marred hulk of petrified payphonery. The phone itself is an Elcotel Series 5, which can still be purchased today from payphone.com.

Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone
Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone

A once-popular urban legend claimed that disease-infested hypodermic needles were being stuck inside the coin-return slots of public telephones, infecting people who idly reached into the coin return slot in search of a coin. (Read about it at About.com.) The story has been repeatedly debunked, but I found something interesting to give it some credibility.

Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone
Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone

I gave new credence to the needles-in-payphones myth when I reached into this coin return slot and got stuck by a thumb tack!

Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone
Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone

Someone had obviously deposited this item intentionally, possibly in an effort to keep the HIV-infected needles-in-payphones myth alive. I momentarily imagined that by this pricking of my finger I had been instantly infected with a ghastly disease leading to my immediate demise. My cause of death would be listed as “Infected Payphone Thumb Tack” and would be a source of hilarity across the world for several seconds.

Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone
Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone

I don’t know how many people have memories of seeing their reflection in the navel-pocked metal surface of public telephones, but I do. I once used a payphone in a phone booth which had no seat. I leaned against the wall and sat as close to the floor as I could get, scrunching my knees against the other wall, sitting at such a level that my face was right in front of the reflective metal surface. It felt strange seeing my warped and wobbly-looking face in the payphone. I will share no such photos of my freakish face today, but it is a strangely isolated memory that I carry of watching myself speak throughout the duration of a lengthy call made from a phone booth.

Mel Brooks recognized the unexpected uniqueness of images seen in a payphone’s reflective surface, invoking it to freakishly strange effect in the film “High Anxiety”.

This abandoned payphone on Greenpoint Avenue bears placards for Payphone.com, which is the web site for G-TEL Enterprises, Inc.

Payphone.com
Payphone.com

G-TEL Enterprises has been in business since 1992. The Payphone.com website has been online since 1998. I occasionally consult the Payphone Glossary at that web site. Through Payphone.com G-Tel continues to sell payphones, emergency phones, phone booths, and novelty phones.

Payphone.com Placard
Payphone.com Placard
This phone is operated by:
______________________________
The Operator Service Provider is:
______________________________

I don’t know if G-TEL actually owned and operated this payphone (probably not) or if the web site URL was explicitly placed on this payphone as a form of advertising. If advertising was the intent then G-TEL certainly got their money’s worth out of it. The phone portion of this object has been useless for years. Its only function now is to advertise the Payphone.com web address and terrorize coin return slot hunters with disease-infested thumb tacks.

Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone
Greenpoint Avenue Abandoned Payphone

 

Diseased Thumbtack?
Diseased Thumbtack?

A few more pictures of this abandoned payphone can be seen at my Payphone Pictures web site.



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