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Take that cell phone and shove it |
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Written by Al Hollingsworth
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Saturday, 20 September 2008 |
I don’t own a cell phone, I don’t want a cell phone. In fact, I often wish the damned things had never been invented.
Three days a week I ride the Link from Sackville to Halifax .For the most part, the 185 is a pleasant trip….especially the return ride when the traffic has eased. As the price of gas goes up, the ridership on the Link buses increases. In the morning the lineups to board the bus are amazing.
Two things are required right now; more buses and more parking. When the snow flies, an even greater strain will be placed on Metro Transit to move the passengers. And there could be serious problems with the parking. By 8am, all the parking spots are filled and the nearby streets are lined with cars. When the snow piles up, valuable parking spaces will be lost and that is going to spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
I leave that to Metro Transit and Halifax Regional Council to solve …. In the meantime, I’ve got other fish to fry.
In this case the “fish” is the cell phone. There is rudeness and then there is the cell phone user.
What gives the people who use these devices the right to invade the space of others? I can see an individual making an emergency call, calling to check on the kids, or phoning home to connect up with a ride. What I can’t stand is someone sitting beside me, in front or in back of me, carrying on a personal conversation for the entire trip.
One evening last week, a young lady plunked herself down beside me, flipped open her phone and punched in the number. For the entire 25 minutes it took to travel from Scotia Square to the Walker Terminal, she talked (perhaps argued is a more apt term) with her credit card company. It mattered not that she was surrounded by strangers, she acted as if she was in her living room.
As they say today, too much information…
Riding side saddle across the way, another woman discussed her day at the office, her son’s soccer game, and what was being prepared for supper. I assumed it was a conversation with her husband.
This past Monday, a young man got on and sat in front of me. Out comes the cell phone and he makes a call. For the next 15 minutes those seated near the front of the bus had to listen to him describe a poker game he played the night before. He went over every hand dealt, what each player had, what cards were drawn and the money that changed hands.
Try reading your book or a newspaper with that going on around you.
Then there are the working mothers who use the cell phone to get their kids off to school. I hear them every morning calling and being called, discussing what to wear, what to eat, and what time to come home. The top of the list belongs to the guy I sat beside at the very back of the bus who called his friend who was seated up front and they had a great old chin wag.
And the invasion is not limited to buses.
I’ve seen people make calls and take calls while doing business with a bank teller or a store clerk. While this goes, on the line gets longer and longer. Wherever you are, it seems a cell phone user is there invading your space.
Where’s Maxwell Smart and his cone of silence when we need him the most? |
