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- [00:00]
Emily Couch
Hey Moth listeners, have you always wanted to tell your own story but you don't know where to start? My name is Emily Couch and I'm the producer of special projects and radio at the Moth and one of the authors of the Moth's new guided journal called My Life and Stories. One thing I've learned through listening to thousands of true personal stories over the years is that stories are everywhere. Even seemingly small events in your life can shape you in unexpected ways, but it's not always easy to identify those moments. My Life in Stories is filled with prompts that will help you mine your memories and find those experiences, big or small, that have made you who you are. We believe everyone has a story worth telling. You can order My Life and stories@themost.org mylifeandstories that's themoth.org mylifeandstories do you remember
- [00:41]
Podcast Sponsor/Advertiser
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- [02:58]
Jodie Powell
Fade In a recording studio in New York. It's small but cozy, with sound dampening mats on the wall and two mics on either side of the table. One of the mics is unused, but in front of the other mic sits our protagonist. Close up the face of Jodie Powell, younger, 30s. Her expression is one of excitement. She's ready to share stories, ready to welcome listeners to the Moth Podcast. Welcome to the Moth. I'm Jodie Powell. There are moments in our lives that feel especially cinematic. Maybe it's not when you're recording a podcast, but maybe it's your first kiss with a long time crush your belly in knots and you can almost hear the music swell. Or at a trap meet when you're in second place and you're right about to catch up to the front runner and you feel just like Rocky Balboa. Or maybe it's just a golden hour view of the Montana countryside that looks exactly like a moment from a Terrence Malick film or summer in Harlem painted by Spike Lee. Dominoes, fire hydrants and Al Green's Love and happiness on the score. On this episode, to celebrate the Oscars, we've got two stories that feel especially cinematic, one that's more independent, coming of age, the other a bit Judd Apatow. First up is Jitesh Jaggi, who told this story at a Chicago Grand Slam where the theme was Deal Breakers. Here's Jitesh live at the mall.
- [04:25]
Jitesh Jaggi
I had made it to the last round of the interview when I almost got rejected. Do you have a driver's license? They asked. We can't give you the job without one. They didn't mention if they were also offering to buy me a car. But I didn't say that. Instead, I said, I'm on it. And that is how I found myself among teenagers also taking the driving test. Learning driving as an adult was harder than I thought. Especially as an immigrant, I was used to seeing cars drive on the other side of the road. That's like learning how to write for the first time, but you can Only grab the pen with your feet. So I get an instructor and we practice in the parking lot of a Jules. On more than one occasion, he had to use the passenger side brake to stop me from going inside the store. Somehow he convinced me that I was ready to take the test. So I go to the dmv. Now, the DMV is a unique place in that neither the people receiving the service nor the people providing the service want to be there. The person who was going to test me acted like I had dragged him out against his will and bound him to the passenger seat. He was pissed at me already. And I'm like, I haven't even started the car. The result? Fail, fail, fail. No, literally thrice. At that point, I had to accept that maybe it's not just the DMV. Maybe I'm a bad driver. How come you're 30 and still don't know how to drive? My instructor asks me, and I give him every excuse. Oh, where I come from in India, there's so much traffic and we have cheap rickshaws. And then he asked, your dad never taught you how to drive? That gave me pause as he steered me away from the store entrance again. I had still not gotten over the hurt from 10 years ago when I asked my dad if he would please teach me how to drive. And he said, no, you don't need to learn how to drive. I was too stunned in that moment to say anything. And then I never brought it up again. What I didn't tell the instructor was my father's profession. He was a taxi driver for 20 years, then a car mechanic for 20. His job was to make sure people can drive. And I can barely tell the gas pedal from the brakes. So that night I called him my father, and I never confront him. And I told him how hurt I was. And look how laughable it is to be a cab driver's son and not know how to drive. But it wasn't about the driving. I told him, you infantilized me, dad. You made me feel like a child. And part of me still feels that way. Like I can't have a grown up job and drive to it myself like a grown man. He listened. And then he said, what did your uncle do? I said, he was a car mechanic. So what did your other uncle do? I said, he was a car mechanic. So what did your grandpa do? I said, he was a cab driver. He said, you see, generations of our people have worked menial manual jobs for cash tips. It felt like we were under a curse to work with our hands under the sun. And we just wanted somebody, an eldest son at least to work in one of those air conditioned offices. I did not teach you because I was so afraid if you would start to consider driving for your work. I simply couldn't bring myself to teach you what was following us like a curse for generations. I wanted a better life for you than men before you. A week later I go back to the DMV and this time to my car. They send Fred, this loving embodiment of the Midwest. He's so sweet. He's giving me tips on how to find parking when I will have my license. And I haven't even started the car yet. We take a lap and I drive us back to the DMV and he steps outside and he comes back with my first ever driver's license. And I look at it and I say, thank you, dad, Fred. Now, eventually I did get that job and I did work in a lot of air conditioned offices. But these hands, they love labor. It's in my jeans. And I drove myself here tonight and I drove wonderfully.
- [10:19]
Jodie Powell
That was Jutesh Jagi. Jitesh is an immigrant writer and poet from India currently living in Chicago. As an educator, Jitesh loves teaching the joys of storytelling and giving keynotes on the power of the personal story. We'll have links to where to find him on our website, themoth.org he tells us that his dad is now retired and only drives for leisure. There's a few moments of my life that feel like a movie. It's the summer holidays in Jamaica and I'm making my way from my grandmother's house. Goodies tied up in a bag and a cool drink to keep my company. I stopped by my aunt's house and my aunt announces that she and her family are going to the big fair. We have never been at this point and my family, we don't really have the extra money, but I perk up and I ask my aunt, hey, do you think we could go? And she says yes. And I sprint uphill to my house. I go through tiny pathways and I don't stop to take a very necessary breath. And I burst into my house and I announced it to my mother and my sister and my sister and I, we squeal and we run laps around the house and we are just giddy in delight and we're like, oh, we finally get to go and we quickly start to get dressed and we put on our clothes, humble clothes, our matching jeans, short and T shirt with like cartoon characters. On it and my mother sits us down to make her hair and she combs it and plaits the end and put beads all over the best way we can put on our Sunday best. And we sit on the veranda and we are just jittery with anxiety and we hear our aunt's car approaching. But instead of stopping, my aunt rolls right by. She doesn't stop, she doesn't pick us up. And my sister and I, I honestly think we maybe cried for days. All our lives all we wanted to do as kids was go to this fair. And I have to tell you that I'm sure my aunt doesn't even remember this story. Honestly, I think she probably forgot. She even told me that we could join. But every time I tell it, I cry a little. Even now, years later, because I go right back there. The wound is gone, but the taste of it still feels so real. That moment became a scene in the movie of my life, one of the quiet ones, the kind that stood sad, tender, a little humiliating and somehow full of love. At the moth, we believe we all have those moments, the ones that mark us even if no one else remembers them happening. After the break, another story of a moment that feels like a movie. Back in a bit.
- [12:59]
Podcast Sponsor/Advertiser
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- [14:57]
Jodie Powell
Welcome back. Our next story is from Nick Vega, who told this at a Seattle Story slam where the theme was business. Here's Nick Live at the Mall.
- [15:09]
Nick Vega
If you're gonna produce fake IDs for most of your senior class, you should probably anticipate someone doing something stupid to get you caught. And you shouldn't be all that surprised if that someone ends up being you. You should only hope that the stupid thing that you do isn't Lock the keys to your dad's car inside while you're at a nightclub in Sayreville, New Jersey, called Hunka Bunka. That's what happened to me. But first, the IDs. Up until a couple of years ago, New York State driver's licenses were not like most states are today, which are glossy and smooth. Ours were really flimsy and grainy and matted. So if you had black, white and red colored pencils, a can of hairspray and a steady hand, you could alter your date of birth. I had all three of these things, so I had a small business on my hands. I started out by doing it for me and my friends, and it was really easy for me. We were all born in 1983, so all I had to do was change the 3 into a 0 and 83 became 80. And on our 18th birthdays, we were all 21. Same photo, good to go, go to bars, have fun. I could even change a 81 or an 82 into a 78 or 79, but I charged more for that because it wasn't as easy. And so we called this method chalking. And I called myself the Chalk King. And I really wish I made that part up, but I did. I charged 10 bucks if I had to change one digit and 20 bucks if I had to change two. And as word started spreading throughout the school that These were working and we were going into bars. More and more people started handing me their IDs. Before long, every single day, I was going home with a pocket full of some people's driver's licenses. And it was really fun. I was getting known, and I had no idea whose IDs I was chalking, but I was making more money than I was working at the Wall ymca. So I was happy. My only real rule was, don't take them into New Jersey. It's a whole nother beast. Getting into bars in Staten island and Brooklyn was easy, mostly because it was kind of lenient. As long as you had something that looked like anything, they would really just kind of let you in. But New Jersey, they really like. They were looking for fake IDs. They had black lights, they had sandpaper, they had nail polish remover. And they also had a real disdain for New Yorkers. They hated us coming down to their bars, see Jersey Shore for reasons why. Until, of course, one day I broke my own rule. Because a girl I had a crush on said that her and her friends were going to go check out Hunka Bunka in Sayreville. And I said, oh, the ID will work and I'll come with you. So I grabbed my two friends, Paul and Anthony. I borrowed my dad's Ford Tempo, and we drove to New Jersey. I was really excited to go see this girl. I even went to the store in the Staten island mall called Trends and bought a powder blue club shirt. I had never been to a club before, and I thought this was what you're supposed to wear. Of course, she didn't show up. Her and her friends decided to do something else that day. We tried to make the most of it. So we just went into the club anyway until we realized that Even though our IDs said that we were 21 inside this nightclub, we really did just look and feel like stupid teenagers. And so we decided to just leave. And so it was about midnight when we walked out, and I realized that I had locked the keys to my dad's car inside. This was 2001. We didn't have cell phones. I didn't have enough money to call a tow truck or a roadside assistance. And I certainly couldn't call my dad because I had broken his number one rule of don't drive into New Jersey borrowing his car. So I went inside and I talked to the bouncer and I said, hey, do you have a Slim Jim or a coat hanger or something to help me get my car door open? And so he Said, you're going to have to wait until after the club closes. Now, the club closes at 2. Bouncer would be off work at 3. My dad wakes up for work at 3:30 to go sanitation. This was not going to happen. This was not going to work out. So I did the only thing I thought to do, since this was a nightclub in Sayreville. Every 20 or 30 minutes, a patrol car would roam around the parking lot just making sure no one was up to any dirty business. And so I flagged the cop down, and I asked him, hey, we're locked out of my car. Can you help us in? And he said, sure. And he was eyeing us the whole time. And he opened. He popped the car door open in about 10 seconds. And then he just stood between me and this open door. And he goes, were you just inside there? He goes. And I said, no. And he goes, don't lie to me. I saw that powder blue shirt going in about an hour ago. And so he goes, there's no way you boys are 21. He goes, let me see your license. And I reluctantly handed it to him. And he didn't say anything. He just reared back and hawked a loogie right on my license. And then he used his gloved hand and his uniform, and he rubbed it and rubbed it and rubbed it. And the next words out of his mouth were, oh, there you are. And so he goes, you boys got those, too? Let me see him. So my friend Anthony and Paul hand them to him, and he goes, these are really good. Who makes these? I thought it would be obvious. Don't say anything. But impulsively, I guess when you're asked a question that you know the answer to, my friend Paul just without hesitation said, he does. He makes them. And so he goes, all right. He goes, where do you boys live? And we're like. He looked at the idea. We're like, we live on Staten Island. He goes, where do you go to high school here? I was about to say a different school than where we went to. But impulsively, when asked a question that he knew the answer to, my friend Paul chimed in. We go to Tottenville. And I'm just standing there, you know, in disbelief. So he gives us a huge grilling, and he's threatening to take us to a holding cell and make our parents come pick us up. He's threatening to, you know, charge us with all these things. I beg and I plead, and finally he lets me go. And he says, don't ever come back here. Don't ever Try this again. Go to school on Monday. And we're in our six period math class and my teacher, Mr. Asher, who's a big guy, who's actually a bouncer himself on the side, he tells us all to take out our driver's licenses, which we all do. And he circles the room with his little hole puncher, punching a hole into the corner of all of our licenses that instead of 1983, say 1980. And he gets to me and he puts one right in the middle of my forehead. And he goes, see me after school. The photo of the forehead, not my actual forehead. So after class I go and I talk to him and he goes, I heard you met my brother on Saturday.
- [21:13]
Jitesh Jaggi
And
- [21:16]
Nick Vega
I said, yeah. I said he was really nice to let me go. And he said, yeah, don't pull that shit again. And he goes, oh. And he probably would have let you go, but he said that powder blue shirt gave you away. There was no way. There was no way that someone that wore that shirt was in their twenties. Good to know. For all of my friends that had holes punched in their licenses, the fee to get a new license issued in New York was $6. So I did the noble thing. I kept my $4 profit and I paid for their. I paid for all of their licenses to be replaced and I rechocked them all for free. Thank you.
- [21:58]
Jodie Powell
That was Nick Vega. Nick is a Seattle based writer, storyteller and quiz master from New York City. He's the co founder of Bar Stories Live on Stage. His work blends sharp wit, hustle and emotional honesty. Usually learned the hard way. Wow. I can't believe the podcast is almost over. You know, as I stand here in the recording studio, I have so many people I want to thank for this opportunity. I've dreamed about hosting a podcast since I was a little girl and I've got to say thank you to all our Moth listeners, Moth storytellers, our funders, my grandmother, my aunt featured in this story, my sister, my dear, dear, dear mother, my next door neighbor, my pastor, and my English teacher who always with me. You know, it's an Oscars episode. We had to do a little bit of an Oscars speech. Genuinely though, thank you for listening from all of us at the Moth. We hope your life feels cinematic in the warm, beautiful, worth remembering and sharing type of way.
- [23:06]
Mark Solinger
Jodi Powell is a director and educator at the Moth who enjoys listening to and seeking stories from beyond the main corridors. Originally from Jamaica, she currently lives in Harlem. Jitesh Jaggi's story was coached by Larry Rosen this episode of the Moth Podcast was produced by Sarah Austin, Janess, Sarah Jane Johnson and me, Mark Solinger. The rest of the Moth leadership team includes Gina Duncan, Christina Norman, Marina Clouche, Jennifer Hickson, Jordan Cardinale, Caledonia Cairns, Kate Tellers, Suzanne Rust and Patricia Urenia. The Moth Podcast is presented by Odyssey. Special thanks to their Executive producer, Laura Leah Rhys Dennis. All Moth stories are true, as remembered by their storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, go to our website themoth.org.
- [24:02]
Emily Couch
This episode is brought to you in part by Claude from Anthropic the best creative thinkers live in the details, the moment that changes everything, the contradiction that makes someone real. Claude is built for creative thinkers. When you're working through an idea, considering options, thinking outside the box, working through roadblocks, Claude sits with the messy parts and helps you see patterns you might have missed. It's a thinking partner for the kind of work that deserves your full attention, turning scattered notes or incomplete thoughts into something clear. Try Claude for free at Claude AI Themoth and see why the world's best problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner.
- [24:37]
LEGO Sponsor/Advertiser
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