让电话亭回来

By Weston Williams

There is a 1930s-vintage2 restaurant in my hometown that has done little to update itself over the past 80 years. This is part of its charm， as is the wooden phone booth that sits neglected in this， the age of the cellphone.

Ah， the phone booth. We need it now more than ever.

For me it symbolizes that phone calls were once private affairs， even if the information being shared was not sensitive in any way. It was simply assumed that a phone conversation was meant for two people， and two people only. In public places this meant resorting to3 the phone booth—a private chamber where one could converse in peace without being overheard.

Even at home， phone calls used to be regarded as proprietary4. Growing up in the 1960s， we had one phone in the house—riveted5 to the kitchen wall.

As a kid， I didnt get， or make， many calls because all my friends lived within earshot6 and I could just yell out the window if I wanted their attention. I do， however， remember answering the phone， asking for the identity of the caller （always a mystery in the days before caller ID）， and then handing the phone to my mom. Shed take it， say “Hello， Mrs._____ ，” and then， “one moment please，” as she placed her hand over the receiver， turned to me， and directed， “This is for me. Why dont you go outside and play？”

Flash-forward to what cellphones have done to this idyll.7 Within the space of very few years， private conversations have become public proclamations8， and being overheard seems to be the point. A large part of the problem， of course， is that we now carry our phones with us， and the reflex to answer the device as soon as it rings is a response Pavlov9 would have appreciated.

But the information thats divulged10！ Not long ago I was sitting in Bostons South Station， waiting for my train. After purchasing a sandwich， I sat down at a table near a man who was on his cellphone.

Let me paraphrase what the man had to say： “Yes， thats right. The red and yellow roses. That will be a Visa.” Then he proceeded to recite his card number and expiration date11 before signing off.

I stared incredulously12 at the fellow. He glanced at me and asked，“What？”

My response was immediate： I recited his card number back to him， along with the expiration date.

There is no more privacy， no longer a sense of personal borders or limits. The cellphone has become a megaphone， and I have been privy to details of peoples lives that I would rather be blissfully ignorant of： the woman shopping next to me in the frozen food aisle of the supermarket who was breaking up with her boyfriend while holding a box of Mrs. Ts pierogies， the man on the bus chastising his child， the woman using language I havent heard since I was in the Navy， the student bragging about cheating on an exam.13

To return to phone booths： Why did they disappear？ They were ubiquitous in my childhood and could readily serve as cellphone havens today.14 A Mr. Riley had one in his small， struggling candy store where I grew up. It was wooden， with a folding door. Even at the age of nine， before I had acquired any life experiences， I would have labeled “private，”I would sometimes detach from my friends， close the door， drop in my dime，15 and call home in peace and quiet.

And should you think a phone booth has no value today， I saw one on eBay going for $4，750.

Mr. Riley would have flipped16.

1. phone booth： 公用電话亭。

2. vintage： 复古的，老式的。

3. resort to： 使用，借助于。

4. proprietary：私人所有的，有隐私的。

5. rivet： 用铆钉固定，铆接。

6. live within earshot： 住得很近，通过喊叫就能相互听见。

7. flash-forward to： 闪前，提前叙述未来事件；idyll： 原指田园牧歌式的生活，这里指没有手机之前人们使用电话的方式。

8. proclamation： 公告，宣言。

9. Pavlov： 伊凡·彼德罗维奇·巴甫洛夫（1849—1936），苏联生理学家和实验心理学家，经典条件反射（conditioned reflex）学说的创立者。

10. divulge： 泄露，暴露。

11. expiration date： 截止日期。

12. incredulously： 难以置信地，怀疑地。

13. 手机成为了一种扩音器，它让我知道了人们生活的细节，尽管我宁愿对此一无所知：超市里，站在我旁边冷冻食品区购物的女人手里拿着一袋Mrs. T的速冻饺子正在和她男朋友谈分手；公交车上，有个男人正在训斥他的孩子；有个女人说着自从我在海军部队以来就没有听说过的语言；有个学生在吹嘘自己考试作弊的事迹。megaphone： 扩音器，大喇叭；privy： 私下知道的，了解内情的；blissfully ignorant：因不知道而无忧无虑的；Mrs. Ts pierogies： 美国知名欧式饺子品牌，pierogies是一种形似饺子的面食，内有馅；chastise： 责骂；brag：吹嘘，自夸。

14. ubiquitous： 随处可见的，无处不在的；haven： 安全的地方，保护区。

15. detach： 分开，分离；dime：（美国、加拿大的）10分硬币。

16. flip： 欣喜若狂。