Dead Phone in a Land of the Dead

I caught up with this old phone, an abandoned PTS rig, at St. John Cemetery today. A couple of friends tipped me off to this one, having encountered it last week in their taphophiliac pursuit exploring this yard.

I was surprised to have missed this one, having visited St. John Cemetery a number of times. It seems I never went through the main entrance where this is found. I always entered and exited through the Woodhaven Boulevard gate.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a payphone with a red light on top, nor do I know if that is just a lightbulb or a siren of some sort. This is a PTS rig, formerly owned by Verizon, whose name is spray-painted over on top. The placards are faded and the phone number shown came up as “unavailable” when I tried calling it from Skype.

Other cemetery payphones I know of include the one at St. Mary Cemetery, almost certainly dead and/or gone by now. The phone just outside New Calvary on Queens Boulevard is long gone. That one was a rarity in that it allowed incoming calls. Another phone stood across the street from the Lutheran All Faith Cemetery, and a group of three phones across from Old Calvary.

But this one at St. John and the one at St. Mary are the only ones I know of to have stood on cemetery property.

St. John Cemetery is insanely beautiful, at least in certain sections. Part of it feels like a forest, and I spotted a photographer out there today with pro gear taking it all in. I found a good buzz of activity today in terms of burials and services being held. I did not make it into the Resurrection Mausoleum, which is closed. I made a video of this St. John Cemetery stramble, I’ll work now on putting that together.