[speaker001:] Well, how do you feel about it?
[speaker002:] Well, uh, I don't have any strong convictions about it, that's for sure. Um, I know I haven't done any Peace Corps service, and I don't know anybody in my immediate family that has, or, you know, has ever even thought about it. Do you know, uh, do you know anybody that's been it?
[speaker001:] No, the, the only people I know that have done anything remotely like that are people that have gone to be missionaries, and that's only because I went to Baylor, and a lot of students from Baylor go and, and serve as missionaries during the summer. But I think, I think that's a terrible idea. That's like forcing someone to donate to a charity.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] I mean, and it's nice to, to try to teach young people some, some, uh, uh, civil, uh, consciousness, but forcing them to, to donate basically their time and efforts,
[speaker002:] Yeah, it's definitely up to the person, uh, so, I'd have to say that, uh, it, you know, the people who do it, well, some feel it's rewarding. I don't know, you know, but, uh
[speaker001:] You have to,
[speaker002:] I don't know how we got the subject, [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I don't either.
[speaker002:] I have nothing to say about this.
[speaker001:] I don't either. I was, I almost hung up, because I thought, well, gosh, I don't, I don't really have an opinion except for no, I think that's dumb.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But, uh,
[speaker002:] Well, how long you been in San Antonio?
[speaker001:] I've been here for, um, just almost, fiv-, well, no, almost four years.
[speaker002:] Um, okay.
[speaker001:] And I lived with Dana in school.
[speaker002:] Oh, okay.
[speaker001:] That's how we know each other.
[speaker002:] [Pause] And, uh, you, you were just up there then, huh.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, last weekend. We went to Six Flags Saturday.
[speaker002:] Oh, okay.
[speaker001:] Had a good old time.
[speaker002:] Well, that's good.
[speaker001:] Well, back to the topic at hand. [LAUGHTER] What other types of community service would they be talking about. I mean, the, the recording mentioned the Peace Corps.
[speaker002:] Well, it sounded like, I mean, this is like major long term commitment, like a year
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] or six months, or, so you're looking at the Peace Corps or sabbatical maybe, or, you know, I don't know, I mean, but, uh,
[speaker001:] I mean, I'm all for donating my time to worthy causes, like I do some volunteer work here and there, and every once in a while I'll do, uh, a, uh, local Big Brother Big Sister thing.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Or I'll go, you know, do a.
[speaker002:] But that, that time is minuscule compared to what, what,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] they were referring to.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I couldn't possibly commit a year or two of my life to, to go do something.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah, they couldn't cover my hourly rate [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I couldn't afford it.
[speaker001:] No kidding.
[speaker002:] But, uh,
[speaker001:] I have this thing against bugs, too. And seems to me like the Peace Corps, they send you someplace that there's a lot of bugs.
[speaker002:] Yeah, Africa.
[speaker001:] Yeah, [LAUGHTER] have to live in a shack with no air conditioning and no medicine and no anything. I'd probably catch a terrible disease and die.
[speaker002:] Yeah, well. I doubt that, but,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] you know how it is. W-, I, I mean, it would, it would have to be tough going somewhere you don't know the culture, usually, I guess.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I think that maybe that's why some people do it is, uh, to see the other cultures or, you know and some of that.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] But, uh, to do that, I don't know, I'd have to be, I don't know.
[speaker001:] Oh, I don't know either. Growing up, all I knew was you go to high school, you, you know, you work, you go to college, you get out of college, and you get a good job and you work. And, and none of this, you go spend two years in the Peace Corps to ex-, to broaden your horizons.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Well, you know, uh, I know American Express, I'm n-, I'm working at American Express now, and they, after a certain amount of years of service, these employees can take off like six months or something, for some type of sabbatical or some, you know, some, something like that.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And they're allowed to take that time off and then come back where they left off.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] So, it is something that I think, uh, you know, even the larger organizations will support. Uh, it's, it's really for the community to give, you know, to, to give back to the community type of thing.
[speaker001:] .
[speaker002:] I don't know, it's for, I think, at the same it's for some people to, you know, help them grow in other areas,
[speaker001:] Kind of like joining the military.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Well, I mean, in that respect a lot of people join the military to, to grow up
[speaker002:] Yeah, m-,
[speaker001:] and to decide what they want to do, and the Peace Corps or something like that is probably useful as, as that kind of a time.
[speaker002:] Yeah, maybe a little bit in that perspective, but, uh, and a lot of people have gone in the military, I mean, you know, when they're in the college. Sometimes it's to sup-, help support college, you know,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] the money. Uh, others, people don't know what they want to do. But as far as, uh, you know, the Peace Corps. I guess, I suppose there's a few people that have done it at that point in their lives. But I think a lot of it's, you know, when the-, people get older, they'll do something like that.
[speaker001:] I'd probably have a different perspective if I actually knew someone that had gone into the Peace Corps.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] But I don't.
[speaker002:] I, I, I don't.
[speaker001:] and none of my,
[speaker002:] Didn't mean to cut you off there.
[speaker001:] Oh, that's okay. N-, and none of my really close friends in college went off to be missionaries or anything. So I don't really know anyone first hand that's, that's com-, committed a chunk of their life to do service work.
[speaker002:] I,
[speaker001:] Everybody I know has been, well, I'm going to go get a goo-, good job and make some money and buy a nice car. [LAUGHTER] So.
[speaker002:] Yeah, or, or [throat clearing] try to make a living.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] But, uh, yeah, I, I have no, I don't know anybody that's done that either. So, [breathing] I, I, it's interesting we got this topic because I, I, I don't know what I marked off to get this, but.
[speaker001:] I certainly didn't mark off anything to get this one. I, I can't imagine, and the switchboard's been down for several days, and the last time I called it before it went down, I had this topic, and I didn't feel like talking about it, so I hung up, and I guess they, they keep you on the same topic until you actually talk to somebody about it.
[speaker002:] So you had the same one, huh.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Oh, well. Well, you'll, you'll get it over with here [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I know.
[speaker002:] How many times have you talked?
[speaker001:] Oh, probably five or six.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Not a whole lot.
[speaker002:] Oh, I've done maybe four or five.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Did Dana sign you up for this?
[speaker002:] Well, she just sent me the information out. I, I got a hold of it, you know, I just sent it back in, and.
[speaker001:] Yeah, that's, she stuck my name on some list, so they mailed me the information that I filled out.
[speaker002:] What other topics have you had?
[speaker001:] Um, I've talked about camping with someone. I've talked about the weather.
[speaker002:] Great, great.
[speaker001:] That one was interesting because I talked to a man in, in Washington, D C, and it was hot here, and it was snowing there. So that was pretty interesting.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And I talked to someone about the, uh, the, uh, education system. I forget exactly what the focus was on that one. But that was fairly interesting. And I talked to somebody about credit card usage.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And I talked to this person who I gathered from speaking to her, that, that she and her family just didn't have much, and they didn't have much credit available to them.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And so she basically didn't use credit cards and didn't know very much about them and how they work,
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] and, and how you can use them to your advantage, and, and how, you know, you, you can do certain things with them.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I always, I use everything with my Visa, and I pay it all off.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So that's a good deal for me. I get free money for thirty days.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] That's the way I use them, uh
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I try, I try to make sure I don't get in debt. So.
[speaker001:] Yeah, well that's always a good plan. I can't think of anything else that I've talked about. All that th-, most of the ones on the list, I checked off stuff like football and, and stuff that I can, I, I would enjoy talking about and I haven't gotten a one of them yet when I've called.
[speaker002:] I had, uh, let's see, I've had fishing, and, uh, I can't remember, me and, I think me and Dana had football. Yeah, we did.
[speaker001:] Oh, how funny.
[speaker002:] Yeah. So we talked about the Cowboys a little bit. And, I'm out here in Phoenix, so we talked about Phoe-, Cardinals.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, so, so that one was all right. And then what else did I have? I think I had some other, uh, like staying in shape or working out. This other guy, I got this guy from New York, so.
[speaker001:] I had to talk to someone about hobbies, and the switchboard called me, so I was caught a little off guard, and I couldn't think of anything at all. So I started making stuff up. [LAUGHTER] I told this woman that my hobby was gardening, and I can't even
[speaker002:] And you've probably never gardened in your life.
[speaker001:] I can't even grow an ivy. My grandfather gave me a plant once, that told, and he told me when he gave it to me that it was impossible to kill, you could freeze it, you could, you could dry it out, no matter what, you couldn't kill it. Well, I killed it pretty quick.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I don't have too much of a green thumb either. So.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I do have one plant here, it's been hanging out for a while, but I think it's one of the easiest plants. I can't, I don't know the name of it, but I'm not too much into...