E03 003 我的普尔曼列车员生涯

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0:10 My name is Frank Davis, the year is 1926, and I'm a Pullman porter 我叫弗兰克·戴维斯，今年是1926年，我是一名普尔曼列车服务员。
0:16 In 1865 a white man named George Pullman created a company that makes luxury sleeping cars for trains.
0:23 Like a first-class hotel on wheels, each Pullman car has marble sinks, fine carpeting, and crystal lights.
0:31 Many railroad companies include these luxury cars in their trains because people love to be pampered.
0:39 In fact, Pullman porters are called ambassadors of hospitality because we always try to please the passengers in any way we can.
0:48 Being a porter is one of the few good jobs a black man can get 当一名服务员是黑人能得到的为数不多的好工作之一。
0:53 Usually the Pullman Company hires black men aged 25 to 40 years old who have a high-school education, but some of the porters are college graduates.
1:03 In fact, a few porters I work with have graduated from law and medical school.
1:10 My uncle, who got me my job, said that 30 percent of all black doctors were once porters.
1:17 You see, it's against the law in a lot of places for whites and blacks to work or socialize together.
1:24 Because of this segregation, hospitals won't hire black doctors 由于这种种族隔离，医院不会聘用黑人医生，
1:29 so they work as porters to save enough money to open their own medical offices in black neighborhoods.
1:36 If a young man wants to be a Pullman porter 如果一个年轻人想做普尔曼列车服务员，
1:39 he has to be recommended by a respected member of the black community such as a preacher or a businessman.
1:46 The Pullman Company really likes to hire people who have relatives that have been porters,
1:52 because then the company knows the new porter already understands that the company is very strict, almost like the military.
2:00 That's why Pullman porter jobs tend to run in families from generation to generation.
2:06 My uncle has been a porter for forty years, and my father was one too before he died a few years ago.
2:13 New porters are given a rule book that must be followed faithfully; this book contains instructions for everything a porter does.
2:22 In fact, every new porter has to pass a written test that proves he knows the rules.
2:28 For instance, there is only one way to make a bed — the Pullman way 比如说，铺床只有一种方法——普尔曼式铺法。
2:33 The sleeping cars have upper and lower beds, called berths which look a lot like built-in bunk beds.
2:40 The lower berth is a seat during the day, and the upper berth pulls out from the ceiling at night.
2:46 Getting the berths ready for people to sleep in is very difficult; 把铺位准备好让人睡觉非常困难；
2:50 I have to fold down the seats, hang curtains for privacy, put up a headboard, and make up the bed—all in three to five minutes.
2:59 Some older porters can do it in ninety seconds! 有些年长的服务员能在九十秒内完成！
3:03 It's very important to do everything exactly right 把每件事都做得完全到位非常重要，
3:06 and I still carry the fifty-page rule book in my hip pocket to make sure I can always refer to it when I need to.
3:13 When I was first hired, an older porter taught me everything I needed to know.
3:18 He accompanied me at all times on my first train trips to make sure I knew how to properly fold the blankets and towels,
3:25 dispose of dirty laundry, and wear my uniform 处理脏衣物，并穿上我的制服。
3:29 He even taught me how to gently wake the passengers by shaking the privacy curtains instead of knocking on the edge of the berth.
3:38 I learned quickly, and my paycheck was $16 for working 73 hours my first week.
3:44 The average pay for white men is about $19 a week for a lot fewer hours but a black man is still lucky to have a job like this.
3:53 Being a porter can be a demanding job: 做一名列车服务员可能是一份要求很高的工作：
3:56 porters are so famous for keeping everything spotless that a magazine once said that Pullman cars are cleaner than most homes in the United States.
4:05 The job is more than just cleaning up, making beds, and folding laundry though.
4:10 If there aren't enough waiters in the dining room I put on a white jacket and serve food.
4:15 I help with luggage, clean the bathrooms, and teach the passengers about train safety.
4:22 Porters cut hair, deliver drinks, iron clothes, and do almost everything they're asked.
4:28 One day a passenger ripped the seat of his pants and he didn't have another pair,
4:34 so I cut some material from a black umbrella and sewed it over the tear 于是我从一把黑伞上剪下一些布料，缝在了裂口上。
4:39 The man said it was the best sewing job he'd ever seen! 那人说这是他见过的最好的针线活！
4:43 Most of the passengers are nice and friendly, but sometimes a few of them can be a real problem, which makes a porter's job much harder.
4:53 Some men will get into their berths with a cigarette and make a big mess with the ashes.
4:59 Other men — we call them whitewashers — spread shaving cream all over the sink when they shave.
5:05 Then there are the fussy ladies who never stop ringing the bell to complain about something.
5:12 What makes it really difficult is that porters are never allowed to go off duty when they are on the train.
5:18 We try to catch a few hours' sleep at night, but if we're needed for anything, we have to get up right away.
5:25 Believe me, it's very tiring to work around the clock 相信我，没日没夜地工作非常累人。
5:29 Every night all the porters get together to shine shoes in the smoking room after we've collected the shoes from boxes outside the passengers' berths.
5:39 When the people are asleep and no one is listening, we talk about the union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
5:47 It's the first black union in the United States, and some porters think that if we join the union, the company will treat us better.
5:55 The union wants every porter to be paid more money and insists that we get at least three hours of sleep each night,
6:02 but I worry that the company will find out I'm a union member and fire me 但我担心公司会发现我是工会成员而解雇我。
6:07 Being a Pullman porter has made the lives of my wife and son easier, and I am very thankful for that.
6:14 But I hope my little boy will have a chance to study and become whatever he wants in life.
6:19 I didn't have that opportunity, but maybe he will 我没有那样的机会，但也许他会有。