In Monday’s column in the Tribune, the last item asked the eternal question: Why do those motorists with the $1,500 boom box car stereos—the really loud ones—feel compelled to share all that joy with the public at large? Well, a few people offered answers. Here are two of them, from different generations:

Ben Spitolnick, 21, called to say he installed two or three different versions of the booming stereos when he was younger _ and installed them for others, “sort of lilke a hobby.’’ And he wants folks to know young people don’t really install them just to annoy everyone they pass.

“It’s more to get attention,’’ he said. “When we were in high school, the girls would hear them and come around, you know—it’s to get people’s attention, see who can put in the loudest equipment…’‘

And if you close the windows, “there’s nowhere for all the air pressure from the bass to go, and it’ll reallly hurt the sound quality ... And if you keep them closed, the speakers will cause all sorts of things inside to rattle—the trim, everything. So you need to keep the windows open.’‘

Reader Mike Conway, a retired police detective sergeant from Clare County, Michigan, has another theory. He wrote:

“Throughout my many years in law enforcement prior to retirement, I had occasion to observe many trends in people’s behavior ... In your closing comments Feb. 27 you asked why the operators of vehicles with boom-box radios feel the need to share their noise with everyone for half a mile.

“Simple. I have labeled our new generation the ‘See Me Society.’ In an era of single-parent homes and dysfunctional families, we have brought up children who have the need for attention no matter what the cost: multiple piercings, tattoos covering both exposed and unexposed skin, and of course the dreaded boom-boxes.

“In Michigan, law enforcement officers’ rule of thumb is: ‘The louder the music coming out of the vehicle, the lower the IQs of the occupants within.’ ‘’

    ... There you go.