What is Old Truck Good Coffee (aka, "OTGC”) supposed to mean?
Have you ever watched a nice old truck roll by? Real bent-metal fenders, chipped paint, and just enough dents but an engine purring like a cat lapping cream. In back, a sturdy tailgate ready to clunk-drop and host a neighborly chat. For us, few things are more beautiful than an old truck, well kept.
As for coffee, well, few things are more beautiful than a good cup of coffee first thing when you need it. Something thoughtfully roasted from well-selected beans, ground, brewed. Served fresh for an unhurried slice of morning, with a side of friendly chat, or a good essay for company.
America, these days, likes to tell tales about how urban zones and rural towns are divided against each other. Ourselves, we question those narratives. Old trucks and good coffee can both be found along all the routes and interchanges connecting rural and urban America, if you take time enough to find them.
Joel B. Barker and Leo M. Schuman have both traveled forth and back and forth again over what is sadly known as the urban-rural divide. Now, these two are collaborating on snapshots challenging easy assumptions of what the so-called “sides” of this divide may even mean.
Our goal is to pull up into the sunrise, flip down the tailgate, and pour you a nice fresh cup of something thoughtful to read and to share.
What are we trying to accomplish?
We want to get good at storytelling and community-building. We expect to say things racy enough to share and thoughtful enough to provoke. We don't need to be right. We just need to be voices in conversation along with everyone else.
These will be tales of places and people we know but also discussions of culture, art, technology, theory, religion, and other subsets of the broad human experience all around us. Humans are beautiful, and that means all of us, even the cranky ones, once we get over ourselves. If you think you're finding some fence inside our writing, expect it to fall soon enough, possibly your way first.
What are the OTGC Volleys?
This project started when Leo and Joel began trading essays. One would write about their experience in the urban-rural interchange, then the other would respond with an essay that -- however loosely it may appear -- was triggered by the previous piece. Like a sprawling, slow-motion conversation.
These essays wander around our lives and our memories. They touch upon our strained loves of places, and people, and things. Not all OTGC work will be part of these volleys.
Why should you subscribe?
Because you believe in union more than division.
Or, just subscribe for us. Joel and Leo need to write themselves out from the darkness of this supposed divide between America and itself. We need your help to find light shining on all of our faces.
Share us with others who need to see that same effort. Share with people who are likewise seeking some light across the divide, and perhaps want to help.
Why no paywall, yet?
Old Truck Good Coffee is not afraid of money, but our focus is on audience and conversation. We want as much readership as we can get, and as much conversation as you are willing to provide.
