Welcome to the search for America. Here you'll find an increasing set of interviews and thoughts as we collect clues to the American Identity. Hope it helps make you feel closer to people.
Exploring the country to find what it means to be American, if there is such a thing. Profiles from every state, from small towns and big cities, from the old and the young. Hopefully we see can a bit of ourselves in their stories.
Here’s a collection of writings from years on the road in America. The newest 2019 Series is sourced from stories are from a 6500 mile trip in August. This trip changed the interview format, slimming the discussion down to 4 questions. The main questions were:
What is respect
What is dignity
What is a good life
What do you want that you don’t have.
So much of our politics today are wrapped up in these performances. If you’re going to get anything done, you’ve got to have a bigger tent. I’m here to get things done.
I was one of those angry drivers! In my life I was racing so hard, pushing so much, and I was creating so much turmoil for myself and others.
To be honest I felt dumb, especially compared to them. When I eventually went to college at 32 it was a little bit of proving to myself that I could do it too. My first class that I got an A just astounded me.
It’s really important to have sense of purpose in life generally. For example, I work in finance right now and it’s easy to get jaded there. The way I can feel good still is by trying to help as many people as I can not have to worry about money
Even if you suck, if you’re trying hard and people can see that, they’ll help you. They’ll give you work, give you supplies, even give you a horse.
“I used to live in a nice ranch before my parents got divorced and my dad went back down to Mexico. Now I’m with my mom in a trailer home.”
“I said son who cares bout your wages, what you need is benefits. You look at your $20 an hour and think its all that but it’s not gon’ do you a lick of good when you get sick. You see real quick that it goes like that. And then what’s all that doll’n’hour got you?”
“Not much you can do now. We’re too far gone. So we have to do it on our own. The only way we get by is by helping each other. Like look that guy across the street. He doesn’t own that building but there he is cutting the grass.”
“I got lucky last month and got a check from a settlement with Hearst Magazines. I got a check for $98. I needed that. That really made a difference for me. Not enough but it helped.”
“You don’t want a life with so much hurrying. Because then you wake up one day and realize it’s all gone. But you don’t want to be turtle-ish either.”
This is a bit of a mecca for antiques in the area but it’s been a bit slower recently. Customers are getting older. This generation of kids don’t appreciate good wood, they don’t appreciate fine china, they don’t set a table. Not all of them, but very few. We’ve got people coming into town but it’s mostly older people. Or people that don’t want this type of history.
"Oh hey there Bob! Good to see you man, you remember my wife Amanda right?
Oh sure, sure. Since you were gone, I was married too! Got divorced though on account of religious reasons… She thought she was god and that turned me atheist!"
Of course, the audience had no idea, they thought it was just the script for the pageant. But that was how we got married.
We were a town of 1000 people, counting kids, and we were impacted by 1.2 million people in the summer. So we went to the legislature and said, “You can fund our town, fund our police, fund everything, or you can let us do it.”
As a kid, we didn’t have too much time for fun. We had lots of chores, there were no child labor laws
We've got that asbestosis and all that. When that became public, everyone thought we were a dying town. But actually we’re not a dying town from that.