This is Rumble's trip by Marika Heilman, and it's time again for What Class Are You,

which is a periodic series that I make for Vermont Public, and it explores everyday lives

inside the American class system, which is all of us, or most many of us. I'm going to play

an episode every day this week, and the first episode is Ralph Rockwell.

Ralph is somebody I actually met during COVID.

I interviewed him during the pandemic, sitting very far away from him with a mic taped up to

a Swiffer.

That was how I met Ralph and we've been meeting and interviewing on and off again.

Ralph lives in Wolcott with his wife Carol and about 28 tractors. He runs a towing service and he sells some of the

tractors that he restores, but he's 72 and mostly he is retired from a long career as a mechanic.

We sat down in his shop next to the tractor that he's working on and talked about class.

Here's Ralph.

I just consider myself a working man's class, you know, not highly educated.

I quit school when I was 15 and worked every day

so far in my life. And I just feel if you got enough money to get by and support your church,

things are fine, you know.

I believe money can be the root of all evil.

It corrupts people.

People that are super wealthy, you know,

they don't have any respect for the lower class people, the working people, you know.

I do believe that people with a lot of money, I think they sin a lot more.

You know, like you take some of the actors or football players, and you hear all kinds of them are into drugs and alcoholism

...