Tomorrow here at AnthoCon, my story “Unknown Caller” will be published in the anthology Inner Demons Out: Anthology Year Two (Four Horsemen). It features a phone booth graveyard.
Why?
Because phone booth graveyards are cool. Like bow ties. And fezzes.
Ok, really it started with this picture.
I had been looking at photos of abandoned buildings and this shot of a phone booth graveyard in Newark-on-Trent, UK popped up in the middle. Beautiful and lonely and strange. And I thought…a phone booth graveyard? How cool! Are there more photos of it?
Yes. Lots. Because there are many phone booth graveyards in the world. Phone booths of course, as people in my generation and older know, used to be everywhere. Because there was a time not all that long ago when we didn’t all carry phones. And use them incessantly. And take pictures of our food with them. And make videos of our cats that go viral on YouTube.
You see, waaaay back then, when you were out and about and needed a phone you went and found a phone booth. You put coins in them to use them. Or maybe you had a calling card. But phone booths are rapidly going extinct. They are being hauled away except for a few being turned into aquariums or art installations. (No, I’m not kidding.) Voila! The rise of the phone booth graveyards. Here are a few.
Carlton Miniott UK – Reuters
Phuket Thailand
Kenya – Tom Barkin
New York City – Dave Bledsoe
And I thought…what a great setting for a scene. But indoors someplace. Urban explorers. And they break into a warehouse filled with these things. And some of them are very old and very beautiful, because phone booths used to be works of art, not simply functional slabs of mass production. But then there’s this one phone booth….
Well, I’ll let you read the story.
While learning about phone booths, I also learned about the Mojave Phone Booth, which is mentioned in “Unknown Caller.” In the middle of what is now the Mojave National Preserve in California there used to be a lone phone booth. It was miles and miles from anything. It had been put there in 1948 for use by miners working in the area but long after the mines closed the phone booth remained. Looked like this.
A whole subculture developed around the phone booth. People called the number, hoping someone would pick up. People drove out to the phone booth and waited, hoping someone would call. A movie was made. Eventually, the Mojave Phone Booth became too much of a popular attraction and the National Park Service asked for it to be removed in 2000.
But it’s back…. Well, the phone number is back. But now if you call it, you are connected to a conference call. Anyone can access by calling the number. So anyone might be there at any given time.
No, I haven’t tried it. But if you want to, here’s the number: 760-733-9969.
Flawed Creations 