7/26/05; by Ruth Zaslow

Field Interviews

A 1986 Toyota pick-up.

It was on sale on the side of the road-you know, a place where there are a line of cars parked where people sell them. This one looked good, low miles, good condition. We called the guy, took it for a drive, bought it that night.

Me and my parents. They paid for it.

To and from work, out on the town, out with friends. Is that what you mean by “kind of driving?” Or, I'd have to say, the main kind of driving I do is where worrying about speed isn't my number one priority, you know not worrying too much about all the rules.

Mostly by myself. That's when I'm driving most naturally, you know, less inhibited, not worrying about tickets, someone getting hurt. If I have someone in the truck with me, I'm more careful.

Driving totally naturally? That would be without any rules.

No, I live just a couple of miles from work. If it's just to work, then I ride my bike. Gas, you know, it's so expensive these days. If I'm going out on errands or going out after work, then I'll take the truck. Yeah, if I'm going out in the truck, I want to get as much out of it as I can. I guess the word is efficiency.

First thing is music. Even if I'm just in the car for, like, three minutes, the music is turned on.

I don't know, all kinds of stuff really. Punk rock to rap.

CD player. My truck has one. Anytime I leave the house for the car, I grab a handful on the way out to play.

I'm not sure. It was already there when I bought it. The guy who had it before me must have put it in.

Like the radio? I don't listen to that. But I've had an I-pod for a while and I bring that in the truck.

Well, I use, you know, I-Trip, this device so I can grab an FM frequency, and play my I-pod music through the truck speakers.

I-pod, I heard about through internet advertising, plus one of my friends had just gotten one. I mean, there's a lot of MP3 players out there, but I-pod is the best in terms of what you get for the money.

I guess it was after I got the I-pod that I was looking around at other stuff to do with it. I was at the Mall of America-I went with my best friend-and we were in the Apple store there. That's where I saw I-Trip. Bought it that day. The only bad thing about it is, 'cause I'm using the FM frequency, there's static-not so much if I'm just around home, but more if I'm near a city. So the sound's not as defined.

On the internet, of course. That's also where I got into podcasting too.

My parents think I should to back to school so I can have some kind of, I don't know, career. But I have no idea what that should be. So after I heard about podcasting, I tried it, by reading some of these stupid sounding college classes. My friends thought it was funny. So now I'm doing those, plus these job descriptions for stupid jobs.

My friends. Also my brother and sister. I'm the youngest. My brother is five years older than me and my sister's three years older. He lives in Boston and she lives in Minneapolis.

Email, text message, my sister always let me know. My friends, usually when I see them. Also, they send email about new stupid jobs and classes. The other week, I got two emails from people I didn't know.

Internet. Colleges tell about their courses on their websites. For jobs, monster.com.

What to podcast-whatever I see that seems funny. Plus, now my friends send me things. I do it whenever I feel like it. Maybe one a week or once every two weeks. But it's getting kind of boring. I don't know. Maybe V-blogging is next , if I can convince my parents to get me a videocamera.

Now they do, back then, they didn't. 'Course I played it for a lot of them after I bought mine.

Some I download, but not much anymore. I did a lot more from Napster. These days, I'm mostly buying CD's, I listen to it two or three times, then I rip it to the computer.

Yeah. It just seems “right.” Like it's less morally objectionable.

Interviewer note: I was wondering here if the subject was being completely honest, about music downloads but decided not to press the point.

If I'm driving, not usually. I mostly let it go to voicemail.

You know, I've really backed off on driving for pleasure. It's the gas prices. So I ride my bike a lot more. But before that, I'd definitely drive at least once a day, more like two or three times a day, sometimes just to drive around. And like if a friend of mine needed to go somewhere I'd take him, just to do it.

Well, we might listen to music or we might not.

More as background than when I'm by myself, but we'd turn it up, way up, for a good song.

Like I said, I usually grab some CD's. I grab my I-Pod if I remember it-like if it's in visual range, I think “Oh, I should grab that.” Depends on my friend's taste in music. If they've got good taste, I'll let them choose. Otherwise, I choose.

If we're on a short ride. Or if we're just talking.

Drove or owned?

The first car I ever drove was a 1992 Honda Accord. The first one I ever owned was a 1987 Honda Civic Wagon.

My mom had been in an accident-not her fault, and while her car was being fixed. My parents needed another car to get around. So they got the wagon. Then, when her car was fixed, they gave me the wagon. It was also Christmas, so it was like a present. I'm hoping my next one will be a present too.

Not much really. I don't really have childhood memories of cars. No, wait, they had mostly white cars, and maybe a green one and a blue one. But mostly white. And they've all been foreign.

My dream car? That would be the Dodge Viper. Beautiful, fun to drive. But what would I probably get? More like a Honda. I have experience with them, They're reliable, good resale valuable. And they'd keep my family safe. If I were going to have a truck, I'd probably buy a Toyota.

It seems like it would be really fun to drive. An awesome experience.

Video games, racing simulations. The Viper looks so sweet, goes so fast. It's funny but cool.

I've seen a couple. The one or two times I have I just stopped in mid-conversation or followed it.

The Mini-Cooper. I wanted to get one the last time around. But my parents said it wasn't safe. Plus, some of my friends thought it looked stupid.

I don't know. It was not their definition of cool.

I like that they're not built like normal cars. Most cars look the same. They're nothing special, nothing unique. But if you see a Viper or a Mini coming down the road, you know exactly what car it is. The other cars, you can't tell.

Y* ou don't trust them? Not the way I trust a Honda or Toyota.

I don't know where that came from. I guess I've just experienced that the higher quality, more reliable vehicles are, you know, foreign. American cars break down more. They may be cheaper to buy but the upkeep is more expensive. Plus the resale is worse. American cars are more about an assembly line existence.

I'd like whatever is the latest media toy to be available in the car. Like a music control media console. Those DVD players I see in some cars-I don't care if they're in. They're just a distraction for people while they're driving. I'd like a truck with a really powerful engine.

Really out there? I'd like a car that flies. Yeah a car that flies over congested streets. We've congested the streets. Now let's congest the air! I'd like to see freeways that have computer regulated speed limits, where cars are connected like a train, so there are no worries about following. You can all go as fast as the cars can. You eliminate people's individual slow downs, so you eliminate the slow downs throughout the system, all those chain reactions. So if we can't make cars that fly, maybe we can make cars that are as efficient as they can be on the highway.

Yeah. My parents are going to help me with it. I need something that gets better gas mileage. It also has to be something I can afford. They'll help pay for it, but I'll still have payments. So, I have to find a job that pays me more than minimum wage. I can't afford the payments on what I make now.

Something I can afford. Maybe a Honda Coupe. I've seen them for $14,000. I could handle payments for that.

A Mini of course, but no way. Also a Jetta.

From my dad and my brother. They have lots of experience with cars.

Online, of course. Plus, yesterday I went to the dealership, the Honda dealership and got a brochure.

I've just started thinking about it in the last two or three weeks. So the soonest I'd get it is at the end of the summer. But first, I have to find a new job, then I have to make sure it's a job I want to keep. If I go back to school this fall, my parents will help me more, but I have to know what I want to study and I have to know what I want to do. I don't know about that. But the car kind of keeps me motivated about getting the job.

I really like them. I hate what they use for fuel. It's the cost. I'm not some environmentalist or something like that. A car just makes life easy.