In episode 426 of “This American Life,” Rosie Schaap recounts how she used to give tarot card readings in exchange for beer. Back in 1986, Rosie was only fifteen years old and she desperately craved the attention of adults. On her weekly commute to Manhattan, she would talk to both strangers and grown-ups, because they made her feel smart, funny, and interesting. Even though hanging out with this group seemed exciting to her at the time, the way she describes the bar car doesn’t sound very inviting at all:

“A dinghy, crowded, badly ventilated chamber where commuters drank enough to get a decent buzz going, told dirty jokes and chain smoked […] in my memory the whole place is covered in a sort of grimy yellow film.”

This description sets the tone for the rest of the story and it conveys a somewhat dark atmosphere. Even though Rosie says it was “[her] kind of place,” those details give the first indication that maybe the bar car isn’t the place for Rosie to be spending her time. It might look fun from the outside (from the drinking to telling jokes), but there’s a darker side to adulthood that the bar car covers up. You have to ask yourself why those commuters felt the need to “get a decent buzz” or escape from reality by talking to a teenager about their tarot card prophecy. Was it their way of truly having fun or were they actually just trying to get away from their problems? In the end, Rosie learned that these adults dealt with issues and fears (such as death and divorce) and that her fifteen-year old self was definitely not ready to hear them yet.