When 21-year-old Ryan Marcantonio walked by a bright yellow payphone on Boston University’s campus, he nearly stopped in his tracks.
The junior economics major said he’s compiling a list of all the payphones in Boston, but hadn’t seen this one before. This phone, located outside a Pavement Coffeehouse, isn’t a normal payphone. Blue letters emblazoned on the side read, “call a boomer,” and that’s exactly what it does.
Matter Neuroscience installed it as part of a social experiment aiming to bridge the gap between members of Generation Z in their teens and 20s and baby boomers in their 60s to age 80.
“ I think in a way it’s a provocation to say, ‘Hey, this is something to think about,’” said Ben Goldhirsh, a co-founder of Matter Neuroscience. “Like, are you finding yourself in a situation where you are connecting with other people? Are you finding yourself in an environment where you’re being nurtured?”
When Marcantonio picked up the phone on BU’s campus, it rang a few times, then 73-year-old Maria Jaynes answered. Jaynes lives in Reno, Nevada, at a Volunteers of America senior affordable housing community. The payphone inside the senior center looks similar to the one in Boston, but instead, it reads “call a zoomer.”
Marcantonio and Jaynes talk about the weather, comparing the 20-degree chill in Boston to the 80-degree-and-sunny forecast in Reno. Marcantonio asks Jaynes what activities the senior center has planned for the week, and Jaynes tells him she likes playing bingo, doing puzzles and watching movies.
Jaynes said she likes cowboy-Western movies — she grew up in Texas, so these stories feel familiar to her. Marcantonio is from rural Connecticut, and he said he grew up around horses and cattle, too. He recommends a movie to her: “The Heat,” a comedy set in Boston.
They talk about Marcantonio’s exams and how he spent his spring break visiting his grandmother, playing bingo and going bowling. He’s close with his grandparents and tells Jaynes that his grandfather likes to stay busy working around the house. She says she feels the same.
“I’m 73, but I still work,” she tells him. “I enjoy working. I enjoy staying busy, active, moving and doing things.”
Before they hang up, Jaynes tells Marcantonio, “It’s so wonderful talking to you.”
After their call, Marcantonio said that when he initially picked up the phone, he thought of his grandmother.
“ I know, especially older people, like my grandmother, they don’t have many people around,” Marcantonio said. “And talking to someone just makes their day.”
Heather Bolen, who works at the senior center in Reno, said she’s seen that in action.
“Sometimes just that acknowledgement, that few minutes of just interacting with somebody can make their day,” Bolen said. “It does not take much at all.”
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Wilder Fleming produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Grace Griffin produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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