Pathmark Pay Phone

I’m on a payphone and wanted to axe you if you wanted oatmeal for Breafest. I am at the Pafmark and brought farina.

 

Now, before you accuse me of some sort of ethnic bias for that phonetic re-creation of a typical conversation from this phone, I’m here to say regardless of race, creed or color, if you were raised in Jersey City you pronounce the TH in Pathmark as an F or PH, which for whatever reason is the same as the pronunciation for the K in Breakfast. Just Axe (not ask) anybody. It’s some kind of inner city thing – just like saying brought for bought – it’s a rather obstinate bit of accent – technically might be a dialect– but it is quite common round these parts and really cuts across the board. I grew up in the suburbs, I do not have it and it has long ceased to grate my nerves but it still surprises me that you hear it from white, black and Spanish– regardless of background, all you need to possess this verbal tick is to be Jersey City born & bred.

I can’t believe I have never taken this phone before since I go to Pathmark just about weekly. It is there unused and not working (no dial tone so I assume it is no longer connected). One of the benefits of a mobile phone is that you can multitask, walk the aisles looking for provisions is good time to gab, even use the APP that shows you if something is cheaper at C-Town, I mean, a-hem, Key Food (very local humor here).

No Loitering. Let’s just make this clear. No loiter. Course, if youse are going to loiter the pay phone is primo spot.

 

There’s something end of the world about the Pathmark, separated by a fence and patch of lawn from the residential land on one side, then on the other Grand Street, which is anything but, just a grimy four laner. Old Colony Pathmark they call it, a strip mall nestled at the edge of Downtown.

 

There’s a pay phone. I keep remember those times, before our new common era, where we all have mobile communication, are rarely out of touch, when sometimes a pay phone was needed, your life dependent on it, and you knew where they were, the pay phones. There’s one at the Pathmark. There’s one at all supermarkets, more than one likely. Now this is the one that is left, the only one.

 

This puddle has nothing to with the pay phone; it’s in the lot on the other side of the building. Grackles were fluttering their wings, bathing in this misquote larva laden pond. It rained four days ago, the first rain in a week and Jersey City’s antediluvian drainage system means the puddles don’t go away, they just create bathes for birds and of course, the litter. This puddle was here when the pay phone was working and the only way to call from the supermarket