[speaker001:] My name's Mary Dell, and I live in the Dallas, Texas area where there's a lot of pollution [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Okay, and I'm up in Wisconsin
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] uh, my name is Terry
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, uh, in the small town we don't, but, uh, we're not that far from the city where there's tons of pollution.
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] Okay, I'll go ahead and start recording that,
[speaker001:] Okay.
[speaker002:] [Beep] Okay, um, just in particular here in the Twin Cities we have a lot of big corporations and, um
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] I'm sure there's a lot of pollution. We, uh, before moving to Wisconsin lived across from where they were, um, gravel pits
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and also where they were making tar, and so we would occasionally if the wind was blowing the right direction would get the smell of tar and
[speaker001:] Ooh.
[speaker002:] it would, uh, smell the continuous, you knew that you were also breathing that into your lungs, so
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and it was like miles away, but just the idea of having that come across the way it did in the wind
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] kind of made you know that there was a lot of pollution, and that was just one small corporation that was doing the pollution of that, but
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] also, um, where we also lived, too, it was very close to a highway, so got a lot of fumes from, uh, trucks
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and cars and you would literally see the pollution on your furniture, I mean, it was
[speaker001:] Oh, gosh,
[speaker002:] on your tables, you would dust every day, and it was dirty, um, type of dust, I mean, it wasn't the typical dust that you get way out in the country
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] for, I live in a small, um, town now quite a ways from the Twin Cities, about an hour away, and I may dust once a week, and that's all it needs versus every day when I lived in the city
[speaker001:] Huh
[speaker002:] so.
[speaker001:] I'd never thought about that being a cause, I have to dust a lot as well.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, it, it comes right on through
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] through the screens, the only way that you could actually live in the, in the city is to close your windows and have an air cleaner system right in your home
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] that would take the air from the outside and clean the air before it would get into the house
[speaker001:] My goodness.
[speaker002:] and so it was quite a dirty city. Um, if you were well protected by trees, which catch a lot of the pollution
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] then you're fine, but most of the time in the city you have lots of high rises, you have lots of other things that are not catching the pollution and it's just going
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] for miles and miles and miles, and it's landing somewhere with the wind, but,
[speaker001:] That's kind of the way Dallas is. We're so flat and open, and I live in a suburb that doesn't have much vegetation, trees
[speaker002:] Sure.
[speaker001:] it was all cotton fields, so
[speaker002:] Sure.
[speaker001:] we don't have that advantage, and ours I think is primarily cars, where we don't carpool like we should
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] an airport. I work in a building, I'm nineteen floors up
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and I look out toward D F W International, and there's just an awful brown haze all the time
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and I can imagine it's even worse for people living over near the airport.
[speaker002:] Oh, sure, sure, yeah. It's, I mean, our air quality, um, in the Twin Cities is a lot better than what we've heard about California and
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] maybe in the other areas, but, um, they were always talking about the air quality of today is this, you know, the ozone or whatever, and it's kind of scary because the air is something we take for granted
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] and many people are too busy getting to work, not thinking about, Okay, I could have carpooled with a friend, even
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] my husband was, uh, talking to some of the guys at work, now he's, uh, fifteen miles away from work, but he was talking, wouldn't it be nice to carpool, and the guy says, Well, it's too close, it wouldn't pay
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, so.
[speaker001:] Want to meet my own schedule
[speaker002:] Yeah, and,
[speaker001:] those are the arguments we hear,
[speaker002:] ex-, exactly, and so, my husband says, Well, that's fine, you know, it would save quite a bit on the wear and tear on cars
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, you know, the gas, and, no, everybody has their preference to drive by themselves or, if they do, they, they drive with one little buddy, uh, at least it's with one person
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] but most of the time people are saying forget it. I don't want to carpool, it's too much of a hassle, it's too much involvement
[speaker001:] But we're
[speaker002:] but yet,
[speaker001:] paying for it.
[speaker002:] Yes, we are, and I think of my daughter and I'm sure you think of your children, and you kind of say to yourself, what kind of future will they have when they think back and say, well, my parents did have the choice to kind of make a difference
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and maybe people are trying, but they have to change attitudes,
[speaker001:] And it seems to me that it's already so evident with our children having a lot more respiratory infections
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] than we had growing up
[speaker002:] Sure.
[speaker001:] you can really see it. I, I had a chance to go to Bolivia a couple years ago, and of course there's no industry, very little trash, they
[speaker002:] Sure.
[speaker001:] they don't even have that much that they burn, because
[speaker002:] Sure.
[speaker001:] they consume everything down
[speaker002:] Well, they,
[speaker001:] to the thread, and it amazed me, I, I just had totally forgotten how...