Is This The Last Pay Phone In GR?
Ever since I began a quest to find any remaining pay phones in town a few months, we've been finding more of them.
It's Not Been Confirmed That This Pay Phone Works
It sits quietly, well protected by steel and concrete pipes, at the corner of Lane and Bridge, not far west of one of the city's busiest entertainment districts. A pay phone. But does it work? Not at this time, but repair crews have been summoned. Not that anyone under the age of 65 knows how to repair a pay phone.
The quest I began a few months back, is continuing, with this post from the Grand Rapids subreddit at Reddit.com.
An Ode To Long Standing Pay Phone, A Soldier Of Communication
There, the ancient artifact is given its due as a stoic soldier of an age long ago abandoned, where teen agers would call their parents collect, only to say their name as "I need a ride, I'm at the corner of Bridge and Lane!" That is how the ancients functioned to save extra coins on a call that would have cost a mere 25 cents. But back then, that was a lot of money. Just ask your dad.
Or perhaps it was the last corner occupied by a man who dispensed unto the youth of Grand Rapids some tasty buds long before cannabis became legal. There, on that semi-lonely corner he would patiently sit, awaiting word from his "connection", a sketchy man named Ziggy, whose sole form of punishment to those who owed him money would be to break in and steal the toilet out of your apartment.
Those days are long gone.
But commenters like Rozella understand:
Archeo-anthropologist believe it was used for an ancient ritual. Worshippers would sacrifice precious metals to it in order to speak with their god, which they referred to as my dealer.
Satch6 also "gets it":
I knew a shaman with a magic flute that could whistle into the phone and get free phone calls without the sacrifice of metal.
billbuckner07 even offered an old school ad that fully illustrated how to properly scam the phone company out of 25 cents:
Eastisup31 even knows that the younger generations is finding new interest in ancient forms of communication, thanks to the popular TV series "Stranger Things":
Your friend is stuck. You give me money, I get him unstuck.
And finally there's brianary-at-work, who demonstrates how convenient this phone was to him in a past life:
I remember using this specific phone one time in perhaps 2004 when I was delivering pizza to some idiot on Lane that put their address in wrong. I was very happy it was there and working.
Another pay phone sits alone behind the McDonald's on Michigan, asking people to place a call on it. "Come say hello", it beckons, alone in the wild, hoping for one last drug deal.
So I ask you, where will seek refuge when the birds attack?
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