i ran some errands during lunch today and in doing so i got to walk by this place that used to be a good spot for finding chick tracts. i've been collecting the comic book tracts for more than a decade. the religious zealots who leave them to be found like to leave them on top of pay phones. the spot i walked past today used to have this bank of pay phones and there always seemed to be at least one tract on at least one phone.
i'm not sure why chick tracts are often left on top of pay phones. they're not that big, they could be left almost anywhere. but pay phones seem to be the main place they're left. it's not just philly either. i've found them on phones in new york, D.C. and chicago.
of course, i don't just need to find one to get one. these days i can order tracts online, either through ebay or from mr. chick himself (though chick only does bulk orders because he wants you to give most of them away, spreading the word of god, or whatever). but ordering specific tracts just doesn't produce the same thrill as finding one by accident.
that thrill is mostly gone. pay phones are disappearing from public spaces. the ones that used to be in the spot i walked by today were gone. there were no chick tracts to be found there. i don't remember the last time i found a tract by accident. with their natural habitat vanishing, free-range tracts are vanishing as well. maybe the zealots who distribute them have started leaving them somewhere else. but if so, i haven't found where that place is yet.
