Amy Hauslohner at Roanoke.
Some people think of their cars simply as transportation.
Other people, who have 1988 Toyota Corollas with at least two prior teen-aged owners, think of them as possible transportation. Don't get me wrong. Where the urban dweller carries a travel mug in the dashboard holder, we carry a thermos behind the front seat because the likelihood of hitting a convenience store open at midnight is slightly less than getting hit by a comet somewhere between Volney and Rugby. Tapes are the mountain dweller's answer to poor radio reception, except on gravel roads when you have to eject the cassette to keep your Panasonic tape deck from hiccuping long entrails of tape into its digestive tract, requiring extensive corrective surgery. You switch to a Walkman that you can put in your lap, which seems to cushion the potholes pretty well.