Thoughts in Time

Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Dazzling Artistic Aspects of the Eighties Payphone

We see them (or we see remnants of them) everywhere there are boarded-up shopping malls, closed-down military bases, trailer parks, or even some that are brand-spanking new in some former Soviet eastern block countries like North Korea and Uzbekistan.

Millennials frequently ask--what are they?

They are the Eighties push-button payphone and they are durable. They are able to take multiple direct hits from a Vulcan M61 50 caliber machine gun at point-blank range, they are able to withstand over 957 blows from a 10lb sledgehammer, they can endure blow torch temperatures over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit because you see--these phones were designed for the Cold War and they required state-of-the-art defensive armor to protect the $195 in it's coin box because all that chump change adds up and these statistics are by no means accurate.

The strange thing is despite how well armored these phones are (which is rumored to be depleted uranium hard-shell cover)--these phones were statistically able to be out of order 68.5% of the time--but don't worry--these machines will still take your change if they work or not in fact there is a fail safe device built into these phone which makes it virtually impossible for them not to take change--you just play a little roulette hoping that the phone was in service--it's like a metal push-button mafia member--it will take your money no matter what.

It's difficult at times looking at these machines in a nostalgic sense--it's like meeting up an old college roommate who owes you money and years later has no recollection of the amount.

I'm trying to develop a pitch on how one would sell these type of phones--"The 80s payphone is a great way to spice-up a living room--it's a superb element of Americana--a conversation piece which has endless possibilities of igniting artistic imaginations from all cultures and all countries and art communities from all corners of the world said by no interior designer or woman on the planet EVER!"

Harold Schelling is a freelance writer who lives and works in Houston, Texas and he loves sailing, sunsets, long walks on the beach, he hates people who play games especially Pokémon GO, and he loves world peace. Heart symbol and smile!

Photo taken by Ralph Elliott
Written by Harold Schelling

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Disco-on-Ice and Quality Nachos

Disco-on-Ice and Quality Nachos.

Written by: Harold Schelling
11.59 p.m. CST, July 20, 2016

This is what I wanted to say to her--"...I love your cool awesome dance moves in the skating ring (even though she never skated) to Dancing Queen by ABBA--it was electrifying and breathtaking and I wanted to buy you some Nachos--not the cheep kind of Nachos but the premium, gourmet type that you can only get at the Cheesecake Factory or some other place that is equally semi-decadent and frequented by the neo-hipsters."

There was obviously no turning back now--this course of action would either make me or break me--it was now or never!

Harold Schelling is a freelance writer who works in Houston, Texas and embraces a lifestyle that he hopes Genghis Khan would have envied.

Written by Harold Schelling

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Oh Tuesday--how I love you!

Oh Tuesday how I do love you. You are the one day that is misunderstood--undervalued, under-appreciated, unglamorous--but I am glad that I see the beauty in you and all that you can be.

You are a true diamond in the rough Tuesday, a hopeful ray of sunshine through a rocky crack in a dark cave and for me Tuesday there can be no other-- and I will always love you for being you and to me you will always be MAGIC TUESDAY!

Written by Harold Schelling. Harold Schelling

Monday, December 8, 2014

The Real Deal of the Peace Movement--The 34th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Death.

To people of my generation—John Lennon was an icon of the 60s peace movement. He was an activist against the war in Vietnam—he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were both very much involved in activities promoting peace worldwide.

On 8 December 1980 at 10:50 pm, John was gunned down in front of his New York apartment by a mentally ill former fan of his Mark David Chapman, of whom Lennon had earlier that evening autographed his new double album—“Double Fantasy”. John was shot four times.

It is ironic that the peacemakers of the world often seem to die a violent death at the hands of the very things that they fight against. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and John Lennon were all peacemakers and they all died violent deaths by people who intended to kill them.

I find it troubling that some people are able carry so much hate and rage against peacemakers that they feel it necessary to assassinate them or psychologically develop some sort of twisted delusion that they decide to kill them.

To me--the death of John Lennon marked the end of the 60s peace movement and became a stark, shattering, end of innocence. Shortly after, inadvertently the United States would engage into a desperate arms race with Russia that would extend well into the late 80s. The former Soviet Union was already one year into a 10 year war with Afghanistan—their own Vietnam.

The peace movement lost a colossal voice on December 8, 1980 and much of the world was left standing in disbelief staring in horror at Lennon’s body asking the same question that was asked when King and the Kennedys’ were killed—WHY?

Written by Harold Schelling.