The Moth Podcast: Cruise Control

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Welcome to the Moth Podcast.

I'm your host for this week, Chloe Salmon.

Today, we're talking about a true cultural icon, an object of obsession for many, immortalized in countless movies and songs, and the ultimate symbol of freedom.

Any guesses?

This episode is all about cars.

Whether it's your pride and joy or a hunk of junk that gets you where you need to go, or, you know, maybe it's both, the cars we spend our time in are filled with stories of close calls, sing-alongs, and road trip realizations.

My first car was a used green old Smobile that I got when I was a teenager.

I was really grateful for the freedom it offered me, but it definitely wasn't winning any awards for like the coolest car on the road.

It was a tank.

I'd grip my teeth every Kansas summer when the AC blew out only hot air and roll my eyes every time I pulled up to a drive-thru only for the driver's side window to not budge down an inch.

One stormy night, driving home from my job at the grocery store, I found myself in the middle of a flash flood on a pitch-black backroad.

My car stuttered to a halt and died, and I was just completely filled with panic.

I called my dad for help and sat and watched the water inch further and further up, hoping that my car would stay on the road.

Not only did it stay firmly put until my dad arrived in his truck so I could jump to safety, the next day, to all all of our amazement, it started right back up again when I put the key in the ignition.

My tank of an Oldsmobile had kept me safe, and we cruised together for many more years with much more respect on my end.

Our first story this week is from Oscar Sedra.

He told it at a DC Story Slam where the theme of the night was intentions.

Here's Oscar live at the moth.

How's everybody doing today?

All right, I'm here because of you.

You convinced me to do this.

This is my first time here, so I'm a little nervous.

So, make some noise.

All right, so as everybody knows, and as he mentioned, my name is Oscar.

I am 100% Mexican, born and raised there.

So, you know, as a teenager growing up we all did things of which we remember hiding from our parents you know we all have those times where we slip up so I'm 15 years old of course I'm a 90s baby any 90s babies in here

yes so I'm like watching the fast and the furious and I'm like I cannot

I cannot wait to get my learner's permit and

I'm gonna do my thing.

So the day comes and I get my learner's permit and I'm like, I cannot wait.

My dad taught me how to drive and I was like 14 years old.

So I'm like, I'm gonna wait for my mom to go to sleep

and I'm gonna just slip out for a little bit.

So

I go and I have my best friend and I'm like, listen, tonight we're going out.

I'm gonna take, I'm gonna borrow my mom's car.

And, you know, we're just gonna go out and cruise.

So he's like, all right, I'm down.

And we didn't have cell phones.

So we kind of had a set time where it's like, I'm gonna pick you up at this time.

I'm gonna flash the lights just come out

so

my mom goes to sleep and of course me being me i go out i take her keys and she had like a van it wasn't even like a sports car like

yo i look like a soccer mom in this van

so i'm like whatever i just want to drive and so I pick him up.

I'm like, I'm flashing my lights.

He comes out.

And of course, I'm excited.

It's like two in the morning and this is like in Howard County in Columbia.

I'm like, we good?

Like, we good.

You know, this is a soccer mom van.

No one's going to pull us over.

We don't look suspect at all.

So I'm like, all right, let's go.

We just cruising.

I'm like, and she had the ox core.

So I'm like, you know, me being this, I'm like, yo, put some daddy Yankee on.

Like, yo, we just going to cruise.

So I'm like, all right, so we're like jamming.

We got the volume all the way up.

We're cruising.

We're not even going.

We have no destination in mind

We're just driving so I'm like all right we're cruising we're cruising.

We thinking we cool and next thing you know I run a stop sign and of course

Boom

we get hit from the side

so I'm like

so I'm looking at him.

He's looking at me.

I'm like, yo, I'm Mexican.

You African American man, like, young dude, like, we, if the cops pull up, we, they not playing with us So I'm like nah, we can't like my mama's gonna if you're Mexican I don't know about everybody else, but if you're more scared of your mom than you are of the police

Like that's just a fact So I'm like, yo, I'm thinking of my mom.

I'm like, yo, I'm sorry, but we got to leave it.

I mean, it felt like a mego song.

We're like, skirt, skirt.

And we leave, yo.

Bail.

He was like, what are you doing?

I'm like, nah, like,

you don't understand.

Like, no

so we get back my intention was to bring the car back in one piece with no scratches and we living in an apartment there's no reserve parking there's no garages so when I came back the parking spot somebody took it and I'm like my mama's gonna kill me like nah this this not gonna work so I park it somewhere else I didn't sleep all night And I'm like, my mom wakes up.

She starts taking a shower because she used to drop me off at school.

So I'm like, I didn't sleep all night.

I'm like, hey, mom, I know you're taking a shower, but I'm going to go get the car, you know, so that we can leave because I don't want to be late.

I got an exam.

So she's like, yeah, yeah, go get it.

So I go there and it's like a big scratch.

The headlight is all bent in.

And I pull up.

So I'm like, I go in the house and I have to like fake.

Like, I don't know what happened.

I'm like,

Ma, somebody hit the car.

I'm like,

call the police.

I'm like,

I'm like, my, like, and she's like, what happened?

And she comes out and she's just like mad.

And to this day, like, she does not know.

She does not know what happened.

But

the funny part is, like, when I signed up for this, they were like, you can either have this on record or you can keep it.

I was like, Let me put it on record.

And then in a few days, I'm going to tell my mom, hey, you ever heard of the moth?

I got a story there I want you to hear.

That was Oscar Sedra.

Oscar, if you're listening and you haven't gotten around to telling your mom about the car, now's your chance.

Let us know how it goes.

Up next is Nina Slowinski.

Nina told this story at a Story Slam produced by the Moth Education Program at Skidmore College.

The theme of the night was transformations.

Here's Nina live at the Moth.

Great, thank you all.

Okay.

My parents have been divorced since I was like a little kid, which is fine.

But with that came like a lot of associations.

My dad kept the house, my mom moved out, my dad got a new new car, which was like so cool at the time because it was a red Honda CR-V.

And he was very particular on that choice.

He was like, you'll always know it's me when I come to pick you up at school.

That way he wouldn't fit in with all, or he would stand out of like the silver cars and the black cars and the white cars and the mundane cars, he thought.

But he he was really into his car and himself and my mom moved on pretty quickly and she is great.

And my dad is great too, but it took him a long time.

I mean, he grew out his hair really long.

He went through a lot of different like glasses styles.

He had his car like littered with like CDs on like the folding mirror of like Mary Gaucher and Lucinda Williams and Greg Brown.

And I didn't know that the radio existed until I would drive with my mom because my dad would just play CDs all the time.

And I mean, his car had like a snack compartment.

It was decked out.

He had like an eyeball and his antenna and he was kind of like this artist growing up.

So it kind of stuck with him I guess.

And

so he grew up with the car a little bit and I grew up with the car a little bit and by the time high school like came I

liked spending nights in with my dad

doing

not weird things.

I think I just dressed weird.

Like it would be winter and and I would wear a sundress and a bandana and converse and none of it matched.

Not that it has to, but it didn't.

And my dad never questioned it once.

He just, we would go grocery shopping at night.

We would take the groceries, put them in the car.

That'd be it.

We'd go home.

We'd go out to Barnes and Nobles.

I'd get a bad teen romance book.

like Sarah Dessen or like from the Pretty Little Liars series.

I feel really guilty admitting that, but it's true.

And then we would go to Five Guys, and he's a vegetarian, so I would get a burger, and he would get the sandwich with like every vegetable on it,

which didn't taste really good, but he would go in, I would see him go in, like through the glass,

get our order, come out, and we would eat it in the car listening to Mary Gaucher or Lucinda Williams

as though we were eating in Five Guys, but the music was slightly better.

And we'd drive home, and

we would turn the car off and sit in the silence in the car, just the two of us, even though we were home.

That was really important that we just spent like a few more minutes there.

We like really lived in the car together at times.

But the car got older, and I got older, and it was my junior year in high school.

And my dad was driving me to my mom's house, as he always did, since I would like switch between their houses really often.

And

he'd gotten a new car and I'd noticed.

And of course I complained.

And we got in the car and he's driving me to mom's house and he pulls in to a gas station where his car is, his like dead car.

And

we look at it and he says, I just wanted you to have the chance to like say goodbye to it.

Which was really sweet.

And it kind of hit me then that we were in a silver Toyota Camry, the car that he'd never wanted, and we were saying goodbye to this red, boxy, oversized car

that he'd really wanted for, I think, since he was like a kid.

And I think in that moment, we kind of both grew up a little bit.

Thank you.

That was Nina Slawinski.

Nina is a storyteller, theater director, and playwright.

She's grateful to have graduated from Skidmore College in 2019, just before COVID hit, with a Bachelor of Science in theater.

To see a photo of Nina, her dad, and the car, head to our website, themoth.org slash extras.

Thank you to both of our storytellers this week for sharing their stories with us, and to you for listening.

Until next time, from all of us here at The Moth, have a storyworthy week.

Chloe Salmon is a producer on the Moth's mainstage and story slam teams, a director on the main stage, and a member of the pitch line team.

Her favorite moth moments come on show days, when the cardio is done, the house lights go down, and the magic settles in.

This episode of the Moth Podcast was produced by me, Julia Purcell, with Sarah Austin-Janess, Sarah Jane Johnson, and Chloe Salmon.

The rest of the Moth's leadership team includes Catherine Burns, Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bowles, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Cluche, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Inga Gladowski, and Aldi Kaza.

Moth's stories are true as remembered and affirmed by storytellers.

For more about our podcast, information on pitching your story, and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.

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