New York Shitty Pay Phone Du Jour: The Brownsville Monologue Machine

Today, dear readers, yours truly went on a photo walk with my friend (and frequent photo pool contributor) Carnade. Our peregrinations started in Greenpoint and ended in Floyd Bennett Field. The above item, one of the finest public pay phones/monologue machines I have beheld in a LONG time, hails from somewhere in between. Church Avenue in Brownsville, to be precise.

Note the various accouterments. I for one was particularly fond of the empty case of Budweiser so I took the above photograph to showcase it along with this much beleaguered receiver. Shortly after doing so a chap named “Brother Moses” introduced himself to me, grabbed said receiver and put it up to his ear. He informed me that it had no dial tone. I replied that I figured as much and added:

This is the perfect monologue machine. You make the call and the other person has no choice but to listen.

He mused upon this for a moment and then replied:

Do you want to go have some fun?

I mulled over Moses’s offer and, upon deciding that I was having quite enough fun already, declined. This is not to suggest that he did not have his charm. Moses was in his inimitable way quite the gentleman. Once he ascertained, albeit erroneously, that Carnade was my husband he shook his hand and admonished him to be careful walking across the street because “those things are made of iron” and he wasn’t. This one’s for you, Moses!

Miss Heather