Is Nothing Sacred??

Lately there has been an accelerated discussion about surveillance and privacy, which has a great many people concerned.

Might I suggest that perhaps we begin these talks with an awareness that a considerable number of individuals with cell phones seem almost eager to share personal information to anyone within earshot?

I have never used Gladys Kravitz as a role model.

For anyone too young to know, Gladys and Abner Kravitz were the next door neighbors of Samantha and Darren Stevens on the popular television series, “Bewitched”. Gladys gave new meaning to the expression “nosey neighbor”. She seemed to make it virtually a full-time job to watch the Stevens’ home and report to her husband, who certainly deserved an honorary Sainthood for putting up with her.

More and more, however, I find myself overhearing conversations in public places that would have made Grace Metalious, the author of “Peyton Place”, blush.

Recently while waiting for the car to have an oil change, I sat in the waiting room of a local dealership with half a dozen strangers. An hour later I knew more than I wanted to know about one individual in particular.

I hadn’t brought my glasses so I wasn’t able to peruse or read the same magazines that had sat on the tables for at least the past year – or so it appeared from what I could make out on the cover.  

The television wasn’t working, so there was nothing much to do beyond failed efforts to block out a voice that was like fingers on a chalkboard as it got louder and louder.

I’ve no doubt the woman in question is probably a very nice person, with a loving family, friends and acquaintances. I also know that she had a cookout planned for the next day and was telling her daughter to “go to the store and get me a dozen ears of corn, some cucumbers and a very durable one. Your father hasn’t been much interested in me lately…..”

I heard how much she hates, not dislikes but hates, her mother-in-law, how many moths she killed that morning in her closet, her recipe for Potato Salad, a lotion she purchased from a shopping network to get rid of “those shi__y stretch marks from her last “rug rat” and where she was going to hide a stack of twenty dollar bills for the “kids to pick up and use at Canobie Lake on Monday.”

The woman’s voice would probably have been able to be heard in the nether regions of the Concord City Auditorium if she were giving a performance.

One gentleman, who began a spirited phone call, telling the person he was calling that “My wife is away for a couple of days, so it won’t be a problem with them staying over” before excusing himself, because, “I can’t hear over this din….”

While this experience may not be typical of everyone’s willingness to share private matters with the world at large, it is becoming more and more the norm. Whenever I stand in a line, whether at a pharmacy, grocery store or movie, out come the cell phones and the conversations begin as though the caller is safely ensconced in one of those phone booths that used to be found throughout the city limits.

The cell phone has many advantages but one of them is not the kind of privacy that certain subjects should warrant. I wonder how the person on the other end of the line would feel if they knew how many people are sometimes overhearing one side of the conversation

Whenever possible I make a bee-line for the exit door or find myself wishing I’d not Q-Tipped all of the wax out of my ears as it might muffle some of what I am hearing.

Maybe it’s all a part of the new freedom and the ability to talk about once taboo subjects?

Perhaps I’m just not with the times and might be better suited to sitting in a rocker on the wooden front porch of a General Store, dispensing advice that nobody listens to, like a character on a sitcom.  But not like Gladys Kravitz!!