我們那些難忘的暑假打工經歷

THERE I was, at the height of the great Disco Summer, selling hot dogs in the shadow of a six-story, elephant-shaped building on the shores of Margate, N.J. Most nights, my shift started at midnight. It was June 1977, just after my freshman year at Wesleyan, and I was hard at work at Lenny’s Hot Dogs.

那是迪斯科音樂正值流行的夏天，在新澤西州馬蓋特市的海灘邊，我在一座大象形狀的六層建築的陰影下賣熱狗。很多時候，我的班次都是從午夜開始。那是1977年6月，我在衛斯理大學(Wesleyan)剛剛結束了大一的課程，正努力在雷尼熱狗店(Lenny’s Hot Dogs)工作。

The big rush came just after 3 a.m., when the disco across the street, The Music Box, unplugged its rotating mirror ball and its denizens spilled out in search of hot dogs, frozen yogurt cones and Lenny’s pepper hash. At that Late hour the lines stretched from Lenny’s across the parking lot, past Lucy the Elephant, and toward the rumbling Atlantic beyond.

洶涌的客流在剛過凌晨3點時涌來，那時街對面的迪斯科舞廳“音樂盒”(The Music Box)關掉了旋轉的水晶球，舞廳裏的人羣涌出來尋找熱狗、凍酸奶蛋卷和雷尼辣椒碎。在深夜裏的那個時刻，顧客的隊伍從雷尼熱狗店一直向後排，穿過停車場、經過大象露西(Lucy the Elephant)，一直向洶涌的大西洋的方向延伸。

Lucy the Elephant is now a National Historic Landmark, but Lenny’s, sadly, has been gone for decades. Still, plenty of freshmen will spend this summer selling hot dogs, waiting tables, tending bar or supervising the archery range at clam shacks, taverns and summer camps from Maine to California.

大象露西現在是一處國家歷史名勝，但是很遺憾雷尼熱狗店已經關門幾十年了。不過，還是有很多大一的學生在暑假賣熱狗、在餐廳當服務員、在酒吧當酒保，或者看管靶場，從緬因州到加州各個地方的海鮮餐館、旅店和度假營地都有他們的工作。

One question, of course, is what kind of work is best for college students?

當然，有一個問題是，什麼樣的工作對大學生是最有益的？

For many, summer employment means taking whatever job can best reduce the burden of debt, which was more than $30,000, on average, for members of the class of 2015.

對很多人來說，夏季的工作經歷意味着接受一份最能減輕債務負擔的隨便什麼工作。對2015級新生來說，平均債務負擔超過3萬美元。

Other students, both with and without the burden of debt, feel the pressure to take on internships. The fields of politics, media and entertainment, to name three, now virtually demand a period of unpaid work.

其他學生，無論有沒有債務負擔，也都感受到了從事實習工作的緊迫性。試舉三例，政治、媒體、娛樂領域，現在實際上必須經歷一段無薪工作的時間。

But there are times, I suspect, when a mind is a terrible thing not to waste.

但我猜想，有些時候不讓頭腦浪費一下，就太糟了。

One example of a mind well wasted is that of my friend Richard Russo. Richard, who is now a novelist, worked on a construction crew, not as the guy who worked the jackhammer, but as that guy’s assistant. One day they had to break up a concrete wall, and it was Richard’s job to hold the business end of the jackhammer steady — and horizontal — while the other guy operated it, leaving Richard feeling, for the rest of the summer, as if his brains had actually bounced around the inside of his skull. I had another friend, Billy Warden, who dug graves one summer and learned, on the occasion of some not very deeply buried 19th-century caskets collapsing just beneath the place where he was standing, what it was like to be hip deep in dead guys.

完全浪費頭腦的一個例子就是我的朋友理查德·羅索(Richard Russo)。現在已經成爲小說家的羅索曾經在建築工地工作，不是操作風鑽的那個傢伙，而是他的助手。有一天，他們要拆掉一堵混凝土牆，理查德的工作是抓穩風鑽鑽頭的一邊，保持穩定，而另一個人操作風鑽。這導致理查德一整個夏天都覺得自己的腦子真的在頭顱裏面彈來彈去。我還有另外一個朋友，比利·沃登(Billy Warden)，他有一年夏天挖掘墳墓。有一次在某個埋着19世紀棺槨的墳地，墓穴比較淺，就在他站的地方塌陷了。他由此知道了站在齊腰深的死人堆裏是什麼感覺。

I had a lot of so-called stupid jobs between high school and the time I turned 30. I sold hot dogs. I worked as an office temp. I was a messenger. I sold T-shirts at Grateful Dead concerts. (They sold faster when I hawked them with a British accent.) I cleared brush. I cleaned swimming pools.

我在高中畢業到30歲之前，做過很多所謂愚蠢的工作。我賣過熱狗、當過辦公室臨時工、當過收發員。我在“感恩而死”(Grateful Dead)的演唱會上賣過T恤衫。（我用英國口音兜售的時候，賣得還更快一些。）我清洗過刷子，也清洗過游泳池。

And for years and years and years, I mowed lawns.

我還割草坪，割過很多很多很多年。

There was a lot to like about mowing lawns. For one, the smells: the sharp, green scent of freshly cut grass, the fumes of gasoline, the whiff of exhaust. Then there was the sound: the endless roar that made it impossible to hear anything else, including the voice of the irate homeowner standing less than two feet away, yelling that I’d run right over his tulips. It was dramatic, too: Sometimes I’d plow through a field of fallen apples and applesauce would spew out of the mower in a shocking arc of sweet-smelling goo. Other times, I’d run straight over a rock, and the mower would stop with a tremendous clang, as if the engine itself had just been executed, military-style, by firing squad.

割草坪的工作有許多讓人喜歡的地方。比如，它的味道：剛剛割過的青草的那強烈而清新的香味、汽油的味道、廢氣。還有聲音：那讓你聽不見任何其他聲音的無休止的轟鳴，包括不到兩英尺開外那位憤怒的屋主，大喊着我要踩到他的鬱金香了。它也很有戲劇性：有時我會割過一塊落滿了蘋果的草地，蘋果泥就會從割草機裏噴出來，散發着香甜氣味的粘液呈現出一道驚人的弧線。有時，我還會碰到石頭，割草機就會停止工作，發出一聲巨響，好像發動機自身剛剛被一支軍人行刑隊給處決了。

The summer after I worked at Lenny’s, I was a teller at Continental Bank in Philadelphia. I thought it was clever to give my customers their money in $2 bills, or in Eisenhower dollar coins, or in some strange combination of Kennedy half-dollars and $50 bills. My drawer, at the end of day, was always “under” or “over,” and all the other tellers had to stand around as I counted and re-counted the float. One time, I accidentally left $10,000 by the coffee maker in the lounge. I had no choice except to tell my boss the truth: I’d been on my way to the safe with the cash when I remembered we were out of creamer.

在雷尼熱狗店之後的那個夏天，我在費城的一家大陸銀行(Continental Bank)做櫃員。我以爲把錢以兩美元鈔票、艾森豪威爾硬幣、或以肯尼迪的0.5美元和50美元鈔票等奇怪的面值組合交給顧客是很聰明的。每天下班時，我的抽屜不是“太少”就是“太多”，其他的所有櫃員都得站在周圍，等着我清點、再清點找零備用金。有一次，我不小心把1萬美元落在休息室的咖啡機旁邊。我別無選擇，只能向老闆說明真相：我在拿着錢去保險櫃的路上突然想起來，我們沒有奶精了。

These jobs made me aware of class privilege in a way that my hours in Econ 101 surely did not. I remember getting back to Wesleyan after my summer at the bank and gushing to a teller, “I was a teller this summer, too!” only to realize, as she glowered at me, that what had been a summer lark for me was, for her, the continuing reality of her working life.

這些工作讓我意識到階級特權，這是我在經濟學基礎課程裏學不到的 。我還記得在銀行的暑期工作結束後，我回到衛斯理大學，興沖沖地對一名櫃員說，“我今年暑假也去當櫃員了！”結果我只是在她沉着臉看着我的時候意識到，我的一份暑期工作，對她而言卻是一輩子望不到頭的一份生計。

My own sons are engaged this summer with work that feels more relevant to their college majors — my older boy, the actor, is a production assistant on a television show; my younger, the astronomer, has an internship at an observatory in California, searching for planetoids and brown dwarfs.

我自己的兩個兒子今年夏天參加了一些與他們的大學專業更相關的工作——我的大兒子想當演員，目前在一檔電視節目中擔任製片助理；我的小兒子想成爲天文學家，正在加州的一家觀象臺實習，每天搜尋着小行星和褐矮星。

These are very cool jobs, to be sure, and I am insufferably proud of my sons: How could I not be? But I also wonder whether their summer jobs are as likely to build their characters as their résumés. I am hoping, for their sakes, that these opportunities provide them with both.

當然了，這些都是很酷的工作，我爲我的兒子驕傲得不得了：我怎麼可能不驕傲？不過我也好奇，這些暑假工作在爲簡歷增磚添瓦的同時，是否也能影響他們的性格。我希望，這些機會能帶給兩者兼得的收穫，這是爲了他們好。

One of those mornings after my shift at Lenny’s ended, I walked home along the beach as the constellations of summer — the Scorpion, the Archer — sank in the skies behind the six-story elephant. Later, a flock of sea gulls took wing as I approached, and circled around me as the sun burst over the ocean.

在雷尼工作期間，我在一個夜班之後的清晨，沿着海濱往家走，夏日的星辰——天蠍座、人馬座——深深地嵌在六層的大象建築後的天空裏。然後，我的腳步驚起了一羣海鷗，它們在我周圍盤旋，就在這時，太陽在海面上噴薄而出。

It was several miles back to the house, but I was in no hurry. I had faith that I’d get there in time, if I just kept walking long enough.☐

離家還有幾英里路，但我一點也不着急。我相信我會按時到達，只要我走得足夠久。