帕克的五金店眼看就要迎來120歲生日，卻在大型倉儲式雜貨店的不斷沖擊下關門大吉。原本生活中簡單的小樂趣——發現之樂、改裝之樂、動手之樂、創意之樂、鄰里閑聊之樂……亦隨之消逝。

By Robert Klose

丁玎 選 毅白 注

The rumor proved all too bitterly true: Park’s Hardware, a downtown institution of Orono, Maine, since 1898, would be closing.

Word spread quickly. Locals cajoled, cross-examined, and pleaded with Lin, the owner of the store, to no avail. Running a small, local, family-owned hardware business was no longer a profit maker. The town’s affection for Park’s Hardware was just not enough to allow it to prevail against the giant warehouse stores that loomed, discount-laden, down the road in Bangor.

I was one member of the milling masses that began to filter through Park’s as, day by day, the wax lettering on the front window changed from “20% OFF EVERYTHING” to “30%,” “40%,” and on and on, like the death of a thousand cuts until the only things left were the light sockets and doorknobs.

It’s a difficult thing to see a hardware store go. A hardware store is special because it sells the things that allow us to indulge our tinkering habits, can-do-it-ness, and creativity, and in the process improve our immediate surroundings to suit our tastes. There are few things more satisfying than a new coat of paint on a weary wall, or a new lock set requiring only the knowledge of how to spin a screwdriver. From such a small investment of cash and time, a hardware store affords one a wholesale return of satisfaction.

The cynic might argue that one can accomplish the same end by shopping at the big-box warehouses whose footprints are measured not in square feet, but acres. Well, maybe sometimes, but certainly not always. And the likelihood of feeling forsaken in such a wasteland is high.

I recall the time I was rummaging in one of the aisles of a Bangor hardware fortress for a wireless door chime that Park’s didn’t carry. I found the thing, but didn’t understand the following gloss on the package: “Red light indicates condition of battery.” I spotted a clerk in a brightly colored apron.

“Excuse me,” I said, holding the item out, “I can’t seem to find the red light.” The man took the package, examined it, and, plopping it back in my hand, said, “Neither can I,” before he walked away. I contrast this experience with one I routinely had at Park’s, in which I would walk into the store holding a pile of arcane-looking metal and plastic pieces in my cupped hands.

“Lin,” I’d plead as I held out the offering before him, “can you ... please ... I don’t know ... do you think...?” And quicker than one could say, “little red light,” Lin would spring into action and together we’d voyage off into one of the eclectic recesses of the store to mix and match and measure until the solution precipitated before my eyes like a genie emerging from a lamp.

Was it more expensive to shop at Park’s as opposed to a warehouse? In one way, yes —if I intended to buy a big-ticket item like a snowblower or chain saw. But otherwise, no: I could buy a single screw at Park’s, and have it lovingly deposited in a little bag, for a nickel—no charge for the accompanying pleasant conversation.

At a warehouse I had no choice but to buy a box of a hundred screws, and, if I were fortunate, receive at the cash register the stock admonition: “Have a nice day.”

But I don’t want to be directed to have a nice day. Nor do I want a box of a hundred screws when all I need is one, nor told to wait because an “associate” would be with me shortly. I just want to know the location of the little red light, and now that Park’s is gone, I realize that I never will.

Vocabulary

1. bitterly: 苦澀地，悲痛地；downtown: 鬧市區的，商業區的。

2. cajole: 用甜言蜜語哄騙；cross-examine: 盤問；plead with: 向……懇求；to no avail: 毫無效果，徒勞。

3. 沿著這條路走不遠就能抵達班戈市的大型倉儲式雜貨店，它們陰森森地聳立在那兒，常常有打折活動，即使是小鎮居民們對帕克五金店的喜愛之情也無法抵御這些強大的對手。affection: 喜愛，感情；prevail against: 戰勝，擊??；loom: （不祥之物）陰森森地逼近，聳現；discount-laden: 常常有打折活動的。

4. 一天一天地，帕克五金店櫥窗上的蠟印字從一開始的“全場八折”變成“七折”、“六折”……很多人都到店里去淘尾貨，我也是其中的一員。就這樣，店里的貨物如慘遭凌遲處死般地一點一點減少，直至有一天，只剩下了電燈插座和門把手。milling: 成群亂轉的；filter through: 過濾，篩選；wax: 蠟制的；light socket: 電燈插座；doorknob: 門把手。

5. indulge: 縱容，放任；tinkering: （不熟練地、拙劣地）修補，擺弄，此處用于形容喜歡自己在家里修補和擺弄器械、設備等東西的人；can-do-it-ness: 自己動手制作的能力。

6. coat of paint: 漆皮，一層漆；weary: 令人厭倦的，使人厭煩的；lock set: （五金）成套門鎖；spin: 使旋轉；screwdriver: 螺絲刀。

7. investment: （時間、精力等的）投入；wholesale: 大規模的。

8. cynic: 好挖苦的人，好嘲笑的人；end: 目的，目標；square feet: 平方英尺，1平方英尺大約等于929平方厘米；acre: 英畝，1英畝大約等于6畝或4047平方米。

9. likelihood: 可能性；forsaken: 被拋棄的，孤獨凄涼的；wasteland: （精神或文化上的）荒原。

10. rummage: 翻找，搜尋；aisle: （商店、倉庫、洞穴、兩排樹間的）狹長通道，過道；fortress: 城堡，堡壘，此處用于形容大型倉儲式商店的巨大空間；wireless door chime: 無線門鈴。

11. gloss: 注釋，說明。

12. spot: 發現，看到；clerk: 售貨員，店員；apron: 圍裙。

13. plop: 把……撲通一下扔進。

14. routinely: 通常地，常常地；arcane-looking: 看起來很神秘的，看起來很難懂的；cupped: （雙手合在一起）像杯形的。

15. 林不假思索，張嘴就說出了“小紅燈”，并會馬上行動起來，帶著我一頭扎進店后頭擺放著各種各樣零件的貨架之間，一陣混搭、匹配、測量，直到解決辦法浮現在我眼前，正如精靈突然從油燈里蹦出來似的。spring into action: 馬上行動起來；eclectic: 從不同來源選擇的；recess: 隱蔽處，幽深處；precipitate: 成形，顯形；genie: （阿拉伯故事中，尤指瓶子或燈里的）精靈。

16. big-ticket: 高價的，昂貴的；snowblower: 吹雪機，除雪機；chain saw: 鏈鋸。

17. deposit: （尤指小心地）放置，擱下；nickel: （美國）五美分硬幣；no charge: 免費。

18. cash register: 收銀臺；stock: 陳腐的，老一套的；admonition: 勸告，警告。

19. associate: （比較資深的）店員，此處作者嘲諷這么一點兒小事也需要資深人士到場才能解決；shortly: 不久，不一會兒。

（來源：英語學習雜志 編輯：丹妮）