all right
well like i told you before
and you're talking about credit cards
um-hum
we put ours up
i mean i had a delightful evening one night cutting a bunch of those suckers up
um i wish i had
well you should try it
well i it was done for me after a while i had a uh i had a business going
and this was back in the eighties i don't know if you remember the gold and silver prices and all that
but uh i had a coin shop
and everything was going great while gold and silver was up and it started falling
yeah
so i started paying expenses and stuff on my credit cards and things got worse and worse and finally boom
you lost your business oh God what a nightmare
yep
yeah yeah it was i ended up going into bankruptcy you know it was one of those things uh oh it'll get better next week you know things will pick up
and so there i was in old bankruptcy court
well you weren't charging gold and silver were you you can't do that can you
oh yeah yeah
oh you can
oh yeah yeah i was buying from other dealers and uh
you know they take payment any way they can get it
oh that's a nightmare
yeah course on on stuff that i was on merchandise that i was buying on cards it was i was getting the money back because i was selling it i wasn't buying you know just to hold onto it
um
but it was things like you know rent and phone bills and advertising and
all that other good stuff that ate them all up
um
so
well i remember before i got married you know when you graduate from college they'll send you all those credit card applications you know of course you fill them all out because you're honored right and uh
um-hum
um-hum
sure
i had stuff for like Sanger Harris and you know it got up like to couple of hundred dollars and i thought well that's okay cause all they wanted was ten dollars a month right i wasn't thinking a thing about it
um-hum yes
that's the way they suck you in
yeah i was just stupid and every time they had a sale there i was because you know got get such good bargains
um-hum
um-hum
and i don't know
well just today in the mail i got uh
i got got my
guaranteed acceptance by uh American Express
oh yeah we've been getting those
yeah
i went back to school and got my Master's and they started sending those things to me again
yeah as soon as your a graduate student they get your name
yeah they did
and uh
course i guess i guess i've been purged from their records i used to have an American Express
uh back when i had my business i got one
uh-huh
and
they they goofed up bad on my first on my very first bill because i was using the American Express strictly for the travel expenses
yeah
and the bill would come in and i'd pay it and the very first bill i paid it and then i got this nasty letter from them saying you're overdue pay
so i i said well it just crossed in the mail so i didn't do anything about it Two weeks later i get another letter even nastier
and said we're going to turn this over to our attorneys if you don't pay
and i looked at that and i said uh-huh
so by this time my checks had come back from the bank so i made a copy of the check that they had cashed
hum
attached it to their letter and sent them a nasty letter with the card cut in little bitty pieces saying thanks but no thanks
and now they weren't check in
yeah they were i tell you they don't talk about they're charging that enormous fee every year
now what is it now
it's up to fifty five on the gold card it's eighty five for the Optima
oh i'm sorry fifty fifty
what do you mean fifty five you mean fifty five dollars
yeah for the green card
and it
but then what's the interest
well now that's the card see
and interest is like eighteen or something
oh yeah yeah it's um
well of course on the green card you have to pay it when the bill comes in so there isn't any but on the Optima card it's um
let's see right now it's running at about it's not too bad it's actually it's about sixteen and a half percent which is pretty good
as far as credit cards go
yeah
well
credit cards
well they're dangerous
you know my parents don't hardly use them
hum-um mine don't either
mine don't either they have um my mom has a uh has a MasterCard and a Visa card and that's it
i've got all my gas cards because i don't want to carry money around i'll do that
yeah yeah now i i do use gas cards
now Impact is kind of bad too though
yeah yeah yeah
you know especially if you get forget to record those little suckers
oh yeah exactly
uh plastic is just too easy i mean that's the that's the whole problem with it um have
uh-huh
well and you're tempted if you've got cash a little bit of cash and you don't have enough for the purchase right
yeah
of course you got to charge it and keep your cash
sure
naturally that's i got in all kinds of trouble doing that
what what are you saying
oh uh my husband says i might buy it but i i don't really usually consider that an option
well
maybe that's how we got in trouble
having having having been out of the credit game for some years now i've i've gotten used to either paying in cash or not getting it
and uh
yeah but it's hard isn't it
well it is but i i i'm kind of uh grateful for the experience because it's taught me a lot of restraint
uh
well it makes you feel good when you whip out the cash instead of your plastic
yeah exactly i i um i just went out and got a new VCR yesterday
with cash
with cash
and it it's
do you work with TI
no no i wish i did
no
yeah you could have got a discount couldn't you
yeah i could use a discount i have to wait for the things to go on sale
but there's always a sell
yeah especially on electronic goods
yeah
especially now
what is that thing i saw Circuit
Circuit world or something
oh Circuit City
Circuit City have you been in that
yeah they they're not their prices aren't that terrific
they they used to be but they've gotten they've got to pay for all that national advertising now
oh it's national
um-hum
i think i've seen two around Dallas
yeah they're they're all over the country now
they uh they they used to be good i remember when they first opened up they did have good bargains
well what else
i don't know if you have a place there called uh or you probably have something similar we call it Service Merchandise
yeah in Garland
you you got Service Merchandise yeah it used to be Service Merchandise was the place to go
uh-huh
and uh Circuit City came along and that was the place to go to get your TVs and washer and dryers and refrigerators and all that
and then after the years went by they just sort of kept creeping up on price and actually Service Merchandise is cheaper than them now so
so so much for Circuit City
sure
okay what else can we talk about who do you work for
i don't i'm a graduate student i'm a professional student
we were talking about that just today
it is
it's it's great
we could be just lifelong students
it is great i love it
where are you going to school
NC State
what's that
uh North Carolina State
so you're on Spring Break
not yet
ours don't ours doesn't start until uh next week
so where are you
where am i
yeah
what do you mean where oh in Raleigh
oh okay
yeah good ole
the burgeoning metropolis of Raleigh
yeah
what what a dead place yeah
is it
i've got a nice little business at home and i sit around and tinker with that most of the time
so what are you getting your degree in
um uh human factors
and what do you do with it
not a thing
well what is it
uh its
it's it's really looking at systems and design systems and seeing how people interact with them
huh
so it's sociology
it's well it's more psychology and engineering uh my my master's is in industrial engineering
so you're working on your doctorate
yeah
oh lord
yeah PhD in human factors
oh that'll that'll sound wonderful won't it
well
get you a little name plaque
oh yeah
IBM uh
i mean uh a lot of people use human factors folks but IBM is what i'm looking at right now
aren't aren't they laying off several thousand people
they might be but not at not at the human factors level
well i heard it on the news today i could swear it was IBM
there there
um no as a matter of fact the IBM right here or in Carey which is a little suburb of Raleigh just just hired one more human factors person
doggone it if they'd just waited a little bit longer it could have been me
hum
how much longer do you have
um i'm i'm i'm going into thesis or going into the uh dissertation this summer
and get that done this summer
uh i'm going to start this summer i probably won't finish it until the end of the year
but uh i'm i'm trying to get a uh
ooh
a uh intern position with IBM right now so that i can find an area to do my dissertation in
it's hard finding an area to do a dissertation in this field
because you
but
why there been so much work done already
yeah that's that and and it's it's limited application in some respects um consider in the area that we're in here there's a lot of places that use human factors people most
