Who's That Girl

You know that one sibling who grew up in the same house but somehow got a completely different childhood? Heather’s sister Jessica joins us as our late Gen X, 1979-born “cusp” kid, and we get honest about what changed between our eras and what stayed exactly the same. We talk feral independence, family weirdness, and the kind of small-town freedom that meant you were either outside all day or getting yelled “in or out” from the doorway. 

Jessica takes us through her version of growing up: being the social one, shutting down bullies, living for 90s nostalgia, and loving the classic staples like Barbie gear, Popples, Pound Puppies, and Delia’s catalog style. We also hit the oddly practical side of life before always-on internet, including mail-order patience, rural logistics, and even a surprisingly useful USPS tip about getting stamps from your mail carrier. If you miss the pre-streaming, pre-smartphone world, this conversation will feel like a time capsule with sharp edges. 

Then we fast-forward to adulthood: how Gen X parenting values show up when your kids are older, why trust matters more than hovering, and what it feels like watching milestones like turning 21 or graduating hit your own sense of time. We close with family movie memories, aging-parent reality, and the big takeaway that growing up feral taught us more than we realized. Subscribe, share with a fellow Gen Xer or Xennial, and leave a review, then tell us what’s your most “feral kid” story?

Transcript

Cold Open And Fast Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Two best friends, we're talking fast. We're missing two arcades, we're having a blast. Seeing these dreams, me on screens, it was all bad on me. Like you know, it's like whatever. Never never never stopping, sharing our story forever. We'll take you back whatever.

Meet Jessica The Gen X Cusp

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and about Gen X. I'm Heather, and this is my sister, Jessica. Hello. She does not want to be here. I'm forcing it. Um, Nicole is in St. Louis, so she could not be here. So I have bribed with Starbucks. Mocha Frappuccino. Yeah, my my sibling into being here. So I didn't we didn't do a topic this week because we're just gonna pick her little brain. Make her I'm not allowed to make fun of her, also, which, you know, we'll see how that goes. Um, so first, she is at the tail end of Gen X. You were born in 79. 79. 79. And so she did not live in a van. I did not. Down by the river. She lived in a house. I did. Um, she's also the favorite. I am not. She is. We're equally loved. Not. Um, she's the breeder, as I have mentioned before. I am. So we decided that this week what we would do is just give a little insight on how the because she's the last year of Gen X, so she's like more of a millennial mix, a cusper, whatever. I don't know what they call it, but whatever. But she was feral. Um she got to do whatever she wanted. I didn't get to do whatever I wanted. When I got a phone, she had to get a phone. And that yes, that that is true. And she threw but I also wanted she is very we are very different even even though we grew up in the same from the same gene pool.

Skulls True Crime And Weird Interests

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Um, the things we are similar. She likes skulls. I do. What's your favorite serial killer? You forgot his name. Yes. Give me a sec. It was the nineties. She said she was gonna forget it. It's Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer, that's right. Wow, I forgot that quickly. Yeah. Jeffrey Dahmer, yes. Yes. Um, because that was in her. Yeah. I remember that. But you don't remember like John Wayne Gacy or any of that. But I think Well, uh Ted Bundy, I think, was killed in the 90s. I think they put him to death. I remember when Ted Bundy was um put to death. I don't remember Ted Bundy. I don't remember John Wayne Gacy. I remember when um Jeffrey Dahmer died. Yes. Um, we also share a love for um the skeletons of things. She has way more skeletons of things. I do than I do. But I have a decapitated pig baby and she doesn't. I do not. But her daughter, as I have mentioned before, is a little weirdo. Yes. And takes after shh. Yes. She likes dead things as well. So we you know, apples don't fall apart. Which is weird because our mom does not like dead things. No, she doesn't. Dad doesn't like dead things either. I don't know. Um, so I was five when this one was born, and I know I've told the story about how I was traumatized. It was the worst day of her life. I didn't say it was the worst, I said it was traumatizing. Yes. Very traumatizing. Which also led her to not let her oldest child come to the hospital when her youngest was born. Oh, we don't need to traumatize another generation. And her son has also just turned 21 and her daughter will be 18. We'll talk about that later. But really, we're gonna start at the beginning, and this is Jessica's life. Do do do do do do do do do do. Just kidding. She just gave me a look.

From Van Life To A Stable House

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Um so when we grew up, I grew up in the van, and we got had gotten rid of the van when she was born, and we had moved here because we were nomads prior to that, and uh, we moved here. So she had more of a stable environment to grow up in. She didn't have to live in the attic. No, I had a bedroom with a floor, and she didn't have to be in a cage for trips to Florida. No, even though that shouldn't have been because she was terrible. I got to sit in a seat. Um I have poker straight hair. She does not. I do not. I have curly wild hair. Wild curly hair. Um so really we're not like at all. I We don't even look alike. Not even a little bit. Oh, I think we sound alike, and you all have I know because I edit and we laugh alike, and when I hear our laugh, your laugh, I'm like, that's my sister's laugh. That's not my laugh, that's her laugh, but we sound exactly the same. Do we? Yeah. Which helped her out in high school because I sound we both sound like our mom. Oh, yes. You've got me out of some trouble. She was a bad kid, and I was a bad I was a bad teenager, and it's not that she wasn't a bad teenager, it's that she didn't get caught. That's the difference between being a bad teenager and just a teenager. It's getting caught. I see. And I never did. No, she didn't, because she's lucky because I was older. By a lot. She she yeah. She had to do a lot of chores. I did. I had to clean a lot of her room, bathroom. Yep. Yep. That was my and mom and dad were never suspicious. I think they just probably were like, What would you do? I don't know. If just suddenly the girl was doing the boys' chores. I would be awfully suspicious, but probably just leave it because they're getting done. What's needs to be done is getting done. So I'd probably just be quiet. That's another thing that we're gonna talk about later after we get through her her younger self, uh, is the way she's raised her her children. It all very much in the she is not a helicopter parent. No, which a lot of Gen Xers have done because they kind of went the opposite way of the way they were raised, where no one gave a shit about us. I am not a helicopter mom. I love my kids, don't get me wrong. They're fine and all that. They're they're yeah, but no, I didn't hover. Yeah. So um when she was born, I was five, traumatizing, and then we moved here. And our parent parents worked a lot. Yes. And she would go with them to work, yes, and she had the that's we both ended up being cooks, although she has the most amazing job of anybody ever. I do. She works at a go ahead and tell them. I work at a dog kennel, bed and biscuit kennels in Frankfurt, Delaware. You can say that. I was wearing the shirt. I wear my your shirt to work all the time. That's in the area that needs kenneling. It would be bed and biscuit kennels. It's the greatest job ever. It is a pretty great job. I have uh amazing workers. I have I everybody's really great. I have a great boss and gets to play with dogs all day. All day. Like how great is that? Although it's been really fucking hot. It has been very hot, and that hasn't been as fun for the dogs, but still, I get to play with dogs. I get paid to play with dogs. She used to have a pug that would go there. Yes. Edgar Allen Pug. Yes. Stop it right there. I mean. And he was pretty amazing, as you can imagine.

School Social Life And Bully Payback

SPEAKER_02 8:09

So, um, we went to the same school, but we had very different experiences there. Um, I did not fit in, and she was a social butterfly. I was. She had all the friends. I did. I had negative friends. She did. We also had more money when you were when you were when you were growing up. We did have more money, yeah. The restaurant was more successful when I was older. Yeah. So not that that mattered with friends. No. No, because your class was less my I had a good class. You had a class. We were all working on. You didn't have a lot of the your class didn't have as much money as like the people who were higher. Yeah. Who were below us. Right. And your people didn't care as much about brand names and but mine did. Right. Our class did not care about that. That was not a thing for our class. So you didn't care if you had stuff from Sears. No. But I did. Um I had It's not that I cared so much as everyone else cared. Plus the people, the two girls that I went owned the house that we lived in. And so they were before we moved into the so they would make fun of that a lot. Right. Okay. I do remember. I don't remember it, but I do remember yes, that. Yeah. They were not allowed to come over. Yes. They were not. They were bullies. Yes, they were. I got bullied. Yes. But you did not. You I did not get bullied. I do not tolerate a bully. She does not. She broke. She breaks noses. I do. I don't tolerate bullying. That's if you get bullied around me, you're gonna get punched. She she took out a very prominent member of the uh ocean city um elite, as it were. Because he bullied my best friend. And my poor mom was like, of all the people to punch. Why? Because they had a lot of money. Well, he didn't do it again. No, and he didn't ride the bus anymore. No, he came to school in a limo. I know he showed me. Um she was also Sporty Spice. Yes. I did play sports. And very girly. Which is weird because she's not anymore. Really? Barbie. Oh, well, Barbie. Okay. Yeah. Did you say there's Barbie stamps? I have not seen the Barbie stamps. Do you want some? You have Barbie stamps. I don't have them on me, but I can get them. Got the hookup. Yeah. Okay. Um actually the only reason I remembered is because the lady at the bank today asked me. I do love Barbie. I know. She had Barbie. The camper. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, I love that camper. I saw it the other day on something. I had the camper. I never had the house. No. Nobody ever got me the house, but I don't think I really wanted the house. No, because she had my own house. Yeah, you had your own thing. She had like a multi-level, like it was a bookshelf. And she turned it into like a plus your best friend at the time is an artist. Yes. She still is an artist. Yes. And um she would design a lot of the stuff. Yes. She made most of the bedding and the furniture. The furniture and the artwork that we would hang up in our Barbie house. She created it. Which I don't have you seen, I don't know if you've noticed some of her art now, but she does those tiny Yes. That is so funny. Really cool. I don't know how she does it. I don't know either, but yeah. Well, she's got little hands.

Barbie Memories And 90s Toys

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Um she so Barbies was a big thing. She had the horse. Yes, I did have the horse. And I had the trailer. You did have the trailer. You did. And I had a bathroom. But did you have the Jeep? I don't know. Because the Corvette wouldn't pull the trailer. Maybe she had the uh the Jeep. Maybe. Maybe she had a Jeep. I don't rem. But I do remember the trailer. So maybe or a pickup truck, was there a pickup truck? I don't remember if it was a pickup truck. I don't know, because I had the Corvette. I know you had the Corvette. I thought you had the Jeep. One of you must have had the yeah, because I wanted to stay in the Jeep. Yeah, one of us had a Jeep to pull the horses. Obviously. She had the horse trailer. She had a the camper. Um I had a bathroom that you could actually put water in at the shower, which was very high tech at the time. And you had to like push this little thing and it bubbled, and yeah, that was pretty, pretty amazing. That was cool. Barbie got a lot of baths because that was cool. I just cut all her Barbie's hair off. Yes. She had a lot of male weight. Yes, and they had to all turn into grandmas for some reason. I'd have to do that. Because mom why. Let's just talk about that for a second. We're gonna talk about our parents too, but mom has always said what? Grandma's hair. Grandma should not have long hair. And how is her hair? She's got long hair, and she's a grandmother. And I don't understand what the problem is with long hair on grandma's. I don't know, but she refuses to cut. She's eating her words. She is. She refuses to cut it. But Jessica also played with like um My Little Ponies. You had My Little Ponies? Yeah, I did have My Little Ponies. And you know what I remember the most of you having is the munchy cheese. Do you remember the little munchie cheese? The little monkeys with plastic faces, and they had like thumbs that would go in their mouths. Vaguely remember those. I vaguely remember those. And she had the um popples. Remember they would pop into a ball and then you pop them out. It was like a little bear. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Pound puppies. I had a couple pound puppies. I wasn't into the cabbage patch thing. I had cabbage patches. You had cabbage patch. That was my that's where the love of gambling started for me. Yes. But no, I yeah. I guess I did Yeah, play with more girly toys. Yeah. I had stompers. I had boy I had like toys, and I used to get in trouble for putting fish in my pockets. And mom would do laundry and there would be minutes in the laundry. Yeah. Um, I don't touch fish now. It's just funny. It's gross. Um but yeah, neither one of us turned out to be very girly in the end. Yeah. But we So it's hard to say what your daughter will do because she was pretty girly there for a while. Yeah. I mean she still is pretty girly. Yeah, she does her she straightens her hair and puts on makeup and neither one of us do that. No. Neither one of us ever really did that. No, I never really mean I did when I was doing the gothing, but it was just red lipstick and black eyeliner, really. I never got into makeup. I could never do it. I think it's because mom never did it. I mean, she always wore her mascara. That's true. And her like what was it eyeliner or eyeshadow or something? Something. Something like that. But no, I never never learned really how to do the makeup. Yeah, me either. So we weren't very good at that. We don't have any fun eighties hair or no. Although she does make me get my hair cut. She used to make me get my hair cut in certain ways because she can't have it. Yes. Like a bob. Right. Basically the reason why I always have a bob is because Yes. Because I can't. I mean I could, but it would be terrible. She would look like a cotton ball. Like a q-tip. Yes. Let me pull it. Like the first time I got my hair cut. Remember that? Oh, that was a mistake. I suppose you like hit puberty at the same time. It was a bad idea. My mom told me too. She said, don't do it. It's a bad idea. I did not listen. No. And it was a bad idea. Oh my goodness, it was. That was the last time? That was six. I was 16 and I still haven't learned how to do it. Still haven't grew back. Just crazy. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy when you were. It was, but not as bad. Like she had like Shirley Temple ringlets, and then she cut all her hair up, and then it just went like it got mad. That's how you can tell how humid it is, is how many cues she's got in the back of her head. Yes. Did you tell your boss that that's how you can tell how humid you have to count the cues to see the humidity level? I haven't told her that. I will. Because she can count. Um so you played sports and I I played softball for like 14 minutes. I played field hockey, cheer I was a cheerleader and lacrosse. Yes. Up until 12th grade. Yeah. Our school was I I don't know if you remember, but uh preschool to twelfth grade. We were all in the same same building, same teachers. Yep. We had uh yeah, but uh so I was not Sporty Spice, I was book spice, I guess. Smarty, smarty smarty spice. Smarty spice. And it's always been funny because when she has ever had a word that she didn't know, she will ask me, like, what does sardonic was the word I mostly remember. No, because that was somebody else's vernacular. Oh, vernacular is her face and she will still use any chance that she gets, she will use vernacular. Uh-huh. And anytime I hear it out in the wild, I make sure that I text you and then you know that somebody else has used that word. As people do. Um but not around these parts.

Travel Stories And Internet Catch-Up

SPEAKER_02 18:09

No, and that's another difference that we did have because the first five years, like I traveled. I mean, we didn't travel like to Biggs, we didn't go to like New York or anything like that, but you grew up here. Yes. Your whole self grew up here. I am Sussex County through and through. Yeah. And that kind of showed I but the thing of it is I you were more well traveled than me. Well, that's because of school. Well, not just that. I mean you went to New York before I did. No, I went to New York first. You went to New York first. But I didn't I hated it. Well, yeah, I didn't love it. But you've gone to Hawaii. I have. And you traveled with mom over to like the West Coast. And I've never been to the West Coast. Oh, you're well, you're missing. No. No, San Francisco. And that was enough. No. You should you need you've been to the wet. Well, I guess Las Vegas is as far as you've been. Well, we went to Didn't you go to Seattle, Washington or something like that? I haven't never been to Washington. Uh well, I went to uh British Columbia. I went to Canada, the West Coast of Canada, Vancouver, uh, and Alaska. Yeah, I've never been to Alaska. Well, you're missing out. You have to go to the west side. No, no, you're not missing anything. The West Coast. I do want to go to California. Beautiful over there. Did you see Redwoods? Yes. I think. They're we did. Yes. We did. Very large. Yes, it was cool. It was very cool. Did you you got the walkthrough one? Yes. They had. Did you go to Yosemite? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

The big geyser.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yes. Old Faithful. Yes, we saw Old Faithful. We went to Yellowstone. Yellowstone. But Yellowstone is in like different states. Yosemite is the one with the redwoods, I think.

unknown 20:03

Oh. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

I don't know. I usually do this and I have no idea what I'm even talking about. It was alone, it was a while ago. Nicole and I tell everybody that listens, if you want the truth, don't listen to this. This is this is not the place for you. We just make shit up most of the time. No, I I don't know. But I do know that Yellowstone is in more than one state. What states? I don't know. And then there's a big volcano under it. A mega volcano, yeah, just a big one. She likes the this is the kind of stuff she loves. Like you think I like this? I know, I don't know what they're doing. They're dying down there. It happens. Yeah, there's a mega volcano under Yellowstone that could erupt at any moment. Yeah. She likes that kind of stuff. And like I said last week or whenever that she was concerned about CERN closing down. Yes. No worries. I'm I'm okay. I'm over it now. We've moved to the case. No black hole. Although some people say that's what happened to the timeline. Like I've heard that, and that's why I wanted to know if we should be worried about it. Yeah. No, you know. I mean, maybe it'll jut us back into a a normal time. Yeah. When things aren't so wack-a-doo. I don't know. I don't know. Um she was also grew up. I don't want to say she grew up religious, but she is more spiritual. Yes. She did think that if she didn't go to church, God did terrible things to the world for a little while. I'm glad we grew out of that. She would not go to church. And it was just like just amazing fucking timing too. Because it would be like she didn't go to church and then we'd have a hurricane. And she'd be like, see I mean that's because I I mean it was common for like a week and a half, but you know. Yes. Her one time I'll go. Anyway. Yes, you're definitely not as as spiritual as as I am. I am not. At all. Oh no. Um You got married in the church. I did get married in a church. St. George's for anybody that's in this area. There might be one. Maybe. If you're here. Oh, I do know one. Say? Yeah. Um We also, she when I moved out, you were still in high school. Yes. High school. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you would come over. Yes. That's when you lived in that apartment in Rehoboth. Rehoboth, yeah. I lived it yeah. And then when I moved in with Christine. Yes. You spent a lot of time with with Christine and I. Yes. Yeah. We talk about her a lot. Yeah. This is because she's the reason Nicole and I are friends, so yeah. Correct. We always remember that. Yes. We do always have to shout out Christine on almost every uh episode. Um good old Christine. Yeah. You had the yeah. Um high school, you were sporty spice. I was. You had all the popular I wouldn't say pop. I wasn't popular. I just was friendly. Like people just liked me. She's so humble bragg. Humble brag. People just like people just liked me, and I didn't tolerate bullying. She's much more she doesn't think she is, but she's way more outgoing than me. Well, yeah. I guess well even though she hates doing this right now. Probably, yeah. But this is just in a room in my mom's house, so like I don't actually have to talk to people. Right. Um, but she has always been more outgoing than me. Um she was the favorite. She's always known she wanted kids. Yes. She always knew she wanted a wedding. Yep. Big princess which is odd. Mm-hmm. Always wanted the Princess Cinderella dress. She wore a crown. I did. Uh it was the coldest day of the year. It was. It was frigid. Yeah. Um, what did we do in the 90s? You know, actually, her 90s look, I have to say, because I don't know if you've noticed, but on TikTok now, she's a TikToker too. So Nicole doesn't do TikTok. What? I know. So frustrating. What kind of cave is she in? Golly. Um, so she doesn't do TikTok, but I've noticed a lot of people have been posting Delias.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Big Delias fan. Yes. I loved Delias. And I remember I went to Florida once on one of our trips down to Florida. I was 17, I guess, and we found a Delius store. I didn't even know. I thought I thought it was only a magazine. And they actually had a store, and it was amazing. Was there internet then, or did you have to like fill out the form and mail it? We had to fill out the form. There was no internet. I internet didn't happen until my I was, I think I had grew to graduated high school, I think. Probably. I think it was like for us, we didn't get internet until like late 90s. Late. You didn't get internet at your house. This is how where she lives is out in the boonies. And she didn't get internet until like this year. Yeah like for real's internet. Like for real. This was like two months ago. We've had internet for two months. She's just now had she's catching up on all the Netflix. Yes, Netflix. We get to stream, which we never could do that. Yeah, she never knew what that was. So that's like spigoting 30 years later. Yeah. But I think it was like late 90s that we got internet at our house because you couldn't be on the phone. Right. It was the late 90s because I was still living there. I don't even know if Google was around. No, it wasn't. I remember the first time Amazon came out. I if you go I don't you probably can't, but if you go back on your just for anybody's listening, you can go back and see how far back you ordered off of Amazon. Oh, really? Yeah, you can go far. If you put the like order history and you put like no ex like ever, it'll take you back. And the first thing I ever bought off of Amazon was what to expect when you're expecting for Nicole's first child. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So that was ninety seven. And did you buy that on the internet? Mm-hmm. On Amazon. That was ninety-seven. I think that's how old that kid is. Yeah, I had to fill out the dailius. The dailius little form. It would take forever to get their stuff. Yeah. You had to mail it and then you had to wait for it to come back.

Mail Carriers Stamps And Small-Town Life

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah. It's funny because we had uh we always talk about we don't always talk about, but I mean I do at work. The difference between roll carriers, uh mail carriers and city carriers. Uh we had a roll carrier. Janet drove a Jeep. Yes, Janet. Yes. She always gave us crackers. Yes. Which is weird because you're supposed to give your male person stuff. Not they're not supposed to bring you stuff. But anyway, I always said until I got this job, I thought Janet just loved us because if you put a quarter on your thing, magically it would go and she would put a stamp on it. Yeah. I thought she was just very nice. Nope. Turns out that's part of the job. I have to carry stamps. And if people put change in there, I have to put a stamp on it. Really? Yeah. That's part of my job. Yeah, I just thought she was being because we were kids and we were like the only kids in Fenwick. So I figured she was. Literally like the only people in Yeah. So I figured she was like, oh, these kids, I'll go ahead and take their money and put a stamp on it. She had to do it. Although I have to say, because a lot a lot of times we had two different addresses because there there was no 911 addresses yet. Right. So if you wanted something to be delivered by like UPS, you had to give one address. Yeah. And then if you wanted to get something via the mail, it had to be another address. But Janet was really good because there was literally like 20 people that lived in the whole town. Like basically you could just be like Heather and it would come to me because I was literally the only Heather in town. So yeah. You know, Janet was good. But that is part of my job. I do have to carry stamps, and people bug me all the time about stamps. And they want to buy a book, and I have to be able to provide it. Really? I have two books. You can ask your mail carrier for a book of stamps. You can put you can find out they're 82 cents. I don't know when they're going up, but they're more now. 82 cents a stamp? Yeah. Holy I know. Iron tracking. I gotta hear it. Holy. But if you put however many that is, I don't have any idea. I don't know. Even how much you'd think I would know this over me. It's math. But it is math. So if you put the amount of a book, or even like put $20 in an envelope and you write on the front like USPS stamps, they will bring you stamps. Huh. I thought that was a myth. No, it's true. It's true. True life. Wow. Real thing. They will bring you stamps. I do it all the time. Did not know that. Or you can ask for like we even have these special envelopes that you can write, like if you want a book or a roll or how do you get the special envelopes? I ask for it. Envelopes. Envelopes or envelopes? I know. Tomato tomato. However you want to say it. Okay, I'll say envelopes. Fancy pants. Um, what was I even talking about? I don't know. Stamps, a Barbie. Oh, Janet. Oh, they do have Barbie. Did I say that already? Yeah. You wanted to get Barbie? I have to bring her some. Um, Janet. And then we so we grew up in the restaurant. Delius. We were talking about Delia's. Yes. And how much I loved Delia's. I loved all of their clothes. I wanted to wear everything in the catalog. You did. At Christmas, we were supposed to circle the things that we wanted. Whole book. I was just giving the book. I was too fat for Delia's, so she had to wear. She could wear Delia's, but I could not. Love. Well, you well, Delia's wasn't your in your real house. In the nineties, a little bit of it. Because they would have like a little bit of a little bit of goth, but it was like it wasn't really your thing. No. You hate you No. Delia's was not your They had the cute skirts though. They did have cute skirts. They did. They did have cute skirts. And then once then Delia's turned more Well, then I I guess I kind of grew out of the Delia's age demographic. Yeah, and didn't really like like the clothes anymore. And then I I don't know where I would buy clothes. There wasn't any special place that I would go. Thrift stores. Oh yeah, we did a lot of Kmart. Thrifting was big in the 90s. It's back. A lot of Kmart. Oh yeah. Kmart's gone. R.I.P. Kmart. And Ames. But that's not a nationwide chain. That was just here. Oh, really? Yeah. Just in this area. I bought my first Christmas tree at Ames. Ames was a great place. Because they were going out of business. Right. So I they I got it on sale. And you know that where it was in Rehoboth. No. Oh. Well, they named that street Ames. Did they? The road is Ames Road or something like that, yeah. Because it's where the shopping center is. It's behind where the Outback was. Is the Ames there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That street back there is called Ames. Really? Huh. Um That's cool. Yeah. We're in the um the food court of the mall, where the food court used to be. But I don't know that you know that too much about the Rehoboth Mall. No. Excuse me. She didn't come to Rehoboth. No, I spent most of my time in Ocean City in Berlin. That's where my stomp stomping grounds were. It's funny because um one of the people I work with grew up here, not here, Georgetown. Went to Sussex Central. And I I guess he just found out, oh, I've been there for, I don't know, six years now. And I guess he just he's not really a big talker. And we load right next to each other. And I don't know what we were talking about, but one of the other guys who's from Rehoboth was talking about because Maryland had two o'clock last call.

Drinking In Fields And Hands-Off Parenting

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Right. Delaware is one. Right. So they would all leave Rehoboth and fly down to Ocean City to do last call in Ocean City. And so we were all talking about that. And the guy that lives next to me was like, Oh, well, where did you go to school? And I was like, I try not to say it. So I said, you know, there, and he was like, Oh, I know. I was like, Yeah, I'm sure you do. But he grew up in Georgetown. So then we were talking about drinking spots. So I said, We used to go to the pit. And he just turned and looked at me and he was like, I know the pit. And I was like, How do you know the pit? It was in Berlin. But I guess people from Georgetown went, was the pit around? The pit wasn't there when you were. No, we didn't do the pit. We did where Bear Trap is. Oh. And we did where Bayside is. Bear Trap. A Cove. A Cove. And it's actually called the Cove. I know. That's that's annoying. Ironic. So annoying. That makes me so mad. She was very mad when they built that. Anyway, I tried to get it. We tried to get that stopped by saying that it was a horseshoe crab breeding ground. Did you see that TikTok about the horseshoe crabs on 94th Street? No. Oh, apparently they're all backed up in this stinking. They're dead? Yeah. Why are they backed up? I don't know, but there's like piles of them.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

I know.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

We used to flip them, but the houses that built in spots, houses should not be built in when we were there. They killed all the horseshoe crabs. They did. So you can thank them for no horseshoe crabs. You can thank the world for you not having horseshoe crabs. Because isn't horseshoe crab blood blue. And it's like Yeah, they use it for something. Something. And I don't know what it is. I don't either. But it's something. It's something medical. Yes. Yeah. So important. Have you ever seen how they do it? They don't kill them. Oh good. Whatever it is, they they spin it out of their blood. So they hook it up to like a like a kidney processing machine or something like that. You know where they give them dialysis. They do give them dialysis. They hang them up. They got little horseshoe crab dialysis. And they give them tiny little sodas to replenish and cookies. They do. Oh yeah, so Bayside and then Bear Trap. Right. Bear trap was another one. And then there's another there was another spot near uh down by uh on Cedarneck. There was one off of Cederneck. We used to go. But there was a James farm now. Um maybe. Maybe it was it might or the fresh pond. I'm not sure. It might, I don't know. Because one did lead out to Route 1.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Oh, that's a fresh pond then.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

But then So you did drink in fields. Yes. Because that's a big Gen X thing that we all Yeah. Nobody knew where we were, so we were in fields getting drunk and passing out in fields. And I imagine your kids could not around here they might be able to still do that. Right, but that's a thing anymore. No, I don't think it's a thing. I don't think well, Matt and his friends don't drink as much. You can say his name if he's your kid. Okay. Matt, I don't say they're not my kid. He doesn't I mean for his 21st birthday, he didn't drink a whole lot. I mean, by twelve o'clock, him and all of his friends were puking and gone. Were they? I was like, this is the best thing ever. Y'all are lazy. Yeah, they didn't. Yeah. Well, he went wrong. He started to mix. I told him not to mix his liquors, but he did. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear. But he did stay hydrated, like I told him. Oh, that's good. So he didn't have a hangover the next day. No, he felt pretty good, unfortunately, because I kind of wanted him to feel pretty gross. Yeah, but when you're 21, you can just throw up and then you go on about your day. And then he was so excited because he got in, he went in the refrigerator and there was a big thing of Hawaiian punch. He was so excited, so he started to chug it, and that was at like eight Sunday morning. And then he was like, Oh, that's liquor. Hair as a dog. It was Hawaiian punch with like a bunch of juice. Yeah, it was leftover jungle juice. And he was chugging it at eight in the morning. He said he almost puked. I bet. So that's the parent she is, that she's just like, well, I mean smell it, son. I'd rather be drunk at my at home than out public. I don't I I don't know. I feel like they don't get Did your kids drink out of the hose? Yeah. Because that's a big thing too, that kids won't they can't even fathom drinking out of a hose. They drank out of a hose. Not like hot water at first. Because they weren't allowed in the house being filthy like they were. Yeah. So if it was you were thirsty, you it's either the pond or the hose. She could have raised Gen X because she they were outside. Yeah, you were either in or out. Yeah. I uh finally understood what dad meant when he would yell, In or out. I get it. It's obnoxious hearing that door open. It's like one more time. If I hear it open one more time. Yeah. Yeah. That's frustrating. Yes, so they were in or out. Yeah.

Lagoon Kids Rusty Nails And No Doctors

SPEAKER_02 37:49

You had when we were little, we lived on the water. Yes. Well, some of us lived on the land and others of us did not. I was an amphibian. She was in the water more than she was not. Yes. They would, and you can't see me when I'm doing air quotes, they fell in the lagoon all the time. Yes. It was a great place to grow up though. Fenwick is cool. That was a great place. It it's not so much now. No, it's horrible now. But when we were kids. Well, when we were kids also, we would have they they were building there was not a not a lot of houses. And the houses that were there were all uh beach cottages. So people couldn't live in them all year. Right. So a lot of times they were tearing stuff down and putting new stuff up in the 80s and 90s. And so all around us they were building and they would bring in dirt, fill dirt, and we had good times on the dirt. Yeah. We would loved it when we saw fill dirt coming. We were like, yes. And then you stepped on a nail. I did. And I had to And I got in trouble. With just Dad. Huh? With just Dad. I know. Because he told you not to tell mom. Right. And he never took you to get a tetanus shot. No, I know. I could have been dead. I didn't die, but I could have. Clearly. Spoiler alert, she didn't die. I'm still alive. But yes, no, he no, yeah. I did get in trouble with dad. He told me not to go down there barefoot. Barefoot. Not to go down there. Not to go down there. But not to go down there. Barefoot. I should not be crawling around on a construction site barefoot. I did anyway. Yeah. And a nail in the foot. Yes. A rusty nail. A rusty nail. Like from like the probably from like the 60s. That nail. I should have gone to the doctor. He should have taken me to the doctor. You should have taken it. Yeah, 100%. That shit was. Yeah, my leg got swollen. Yeah. That was not good. You almost lost it. That was that was not a good dad move. You would not have been sporty smokes that we're where was mom working, probably. I know, but or bowling. I know I don't think she well. I don't remember. I remembered stepping on the nail. I don't remember getting yelled at. I don't remember getting I remember carrying you home. How did I get the na did the nail did I could I pulled it out? It went through. Right. Through and through. Well, not through and through. Because I couldn't remember how the board I pulled the board off. Oh, okay. And carried you, and I was like, I don't know, Dad. And then here you go. And then but and then I don't remember anymore. I think he just dumped peroxide on it. It was just like that'll be okay. That'll do, pig. That'll do. Do you know what he did to me the other day? I had I had a spider bite or something on my arm and I was itching. Oh, it was driving me crazy. And he comes out of nowhere with bacteen and it's just spraying me with bacterine. You know what I heard on TikTok, Nicole? That if you use um pimple patches. On bug bites? On bug bites. I haven't tried it. But they say that it works because the pimple patches pull the goo or the goo or whatever, the pus or whatever out of your that it pulls the whatever they put in your skin. Right. I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. I'm going to. I will too. But they s because you know, like when you get like a like real bad. Because right now we're having issues with horse flies at the house. Oh my god. And you know how they they just never stop. Yeah. I have one trapped in a truck with me once in the in the the mail truck. They're so annoying. I know I almost wrecked it. Yeah, they're bad. They come and they don't care. No, they don't hit you in the face. They do. They beat the shit out of you. They don't care. Not even a little bit. But um, yeah, we we he dumped back. I don't even think they still made bacteen, number one. They probably don't. No, it's probably from 1980. Sure. I should have checked it. But you know what? It stopped itching. Well, because it was from 1980. Burn that layer of skin right off. Yeah, we had to go through when they moved, our parents when they moved, I mean, the medication we were pulling out, that was literally no joke from the 80s. Yeah. Like they could have had the Tylenol that was involved in the Tylenol murders. I just heard you didn't know? No, I don't remember that. I don't well it was like 1985, so you were uh young. Well, I don't yeah. Well, anyway, I saw that on now that we have internet, I saw that on Netflix, I guess. And crazy husband and I were Matt. Where he's also Matt. We're like, What? Yeah. And he doesn't remember. Well, he doesn't remember anything. He probably would remember it if he had a memory, but he doesn't. That's gone. He's he's he's lost that one or two years older than you. He's he's Michael's age. 77. So two years. When was Michael born? 77. Yeah. He's Michael's age.

unknown 43:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Because Michael's closer than you, than me. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's our cousin. October. Yeah. Right. Um, yeah, it's

80s 90s Fears And Safety Myths

SPEAKER_02 43:12

crazy. We're gonna do an episode on the uh Tylenol thing. They still don't they never how nuts. They know who it was, but I don't think they had enough to get him. It was a competitor. No. There was that guy. I didn't watch the whole I fell asleep. I don't think I don't know that they say. Oh yes, but I've heard I've listened to another. Who's the competitor of Tylenol? Not the Tylenol guy. Oh. Um the guy that was. Oh, that's right, because it didn't come from the Tylenol factory. Right. It was done. He was bringing them and then putting them back out. How nuts. We also did an episode on um Halloween myths like the candy uh razor blades. It never happened. Right. It's just an urban. The thing that always got me now that I'm older is the drugs. Yeah, nobody's nobody's given drugs. Nobody's given out pre-drugs. Nobody's given them your pot gummies. No, nobody's given you pot gummies. Nobody's given you PCP. Nobody. No. They're not handing out. No. There's no cocaine in pixie sticks. No. I saw a thing on TikTok today about dare and how they lied to us about people in alleys trying to give us free Yeah, free drugs. Free drugs. Never never happened. Not even once. Um we did one on the um safety uh spokespeople, Smokey the Bear, um, McGruff the Crime Dog. We did an episode on that. And that the do you remember the um Crash Death Dummies? I do. I don't remember what their name look did they have names? They did. Oh. And as soon as I edit this podcast, I disregard everything that I have ever listened to on it. Or remember, so I don't remember what the names were, but I didn't know they had names. They did have names. And um Smoky the Bear is still around. Yes. McGruff is still around. Is he? Yeah. He does bullying and cybersecurity now. I did not know he was still around. Maybe ask your daughter about it. Maybe. She might know who McGruff is. She might. Um and then there was a bunch of like crazy weird ones from all of them. There was a bumblebee from somewhere. Oh, and do you remember the owl that did um the give a hoot, don't pollute? No, the only owl I remember is Tootsie Roll Pops.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

He was cool. And then there was the um the green, Mr. Yuck. You probably don't remember Mr. Yuck either. Nicole and I are gonna get that S tattoo. It was green and had a sad face. No, I don't remember. Yeah, and you put it on poison. Our parents never did. Oh. Was it just a smiley face? It was a sticker. Like a smiley face, but it was green and had a frown. Yeah. I've seen it, but I don't remember. It was like neon green. Yeah, yeah. And you were so I brought the stickers home because we got them at school. And mom and dad threw them away. Just don't fucking eat it. Okay? Stay out of there. Don't drink bleach, you dumbass. That's basically what it was. Does it smell good? No. Then why would you do it? Then don't drink it. Although sometimes bleach does smell good sometimes. I mean it does. It smells I still wouldn't drink it. It's not good enough to drink. No. I mean antifreeze, though. But don't drink that either. No, no, that's frowned upon. It is. But I have I don't think I've smelled it in I've never smelled antifreeze. Do you remember also? Because Nicole didn't have this, but you and I did, and I distinctly remember because I was a little older, so you were I don't think you were in school yet. Do you remember going to the McDonald's and having our fingerprints taken and a little passport that had our school photo and we had to have our fingerprints done and it was like a little passport in case we got stolen? I don't remember that. But here's my thing about that like getting stolen. Because it was a big problem. It was a huge issue. But and then no one gave no one paid attention to us. So like I know just don't get in the car. We don't stay out. We don't care. Just just don't. No, I know. It was I do remember it being like a thing of people like worried that you were gonna get kidnapped, but not actually caring. No, they just told you to just not get into a car with strangers. Yeah, get out of the house. Stranger danger. Yeah, just don't get in the car. If somebody offers you puppies, why would you go? Yeah, you shouldn't. You shouldn't do that. That's all it was pretty much said about it. Yeah. I don't remember the McDonald's thing. I asked mom about it and she remembered it, but she doesn't still have the cards, which I thought was crazy. Right. What if we get stolen? What if somebody kidnapped us? How will they know? How will they identify us? She is also covered in tattoos, so still we would be recognizable by our tattoos. Although I did just find out, and if if any of you have tattoos and wanted to know this, there is a place that you can get your tattoos preserved after death, which I've already told her, and she didn't want my tattoos, which I think is fucking ignorant. But if you have surgery, like you know, like um skin surgery, or if you lose a limb and you're like, Man, I really like that tattoo. I saw on one of my morbid Facebook pages that you can send your appendage with your tattoo to those pre preservations and they will preserve it for you. So you can slap your own tattoo right up on the wall. See, she's not into that kind of thing. She likes things without the flesh on them. Bones, because Matt's husband, Matt, always says that I have to put his leg in a jar and all that kind of stuff, too. And no, I'm not. I mean your daughter might say that. She might, but I'm not. She can have his leg, that's fine. She can put his leg on her mantle, but it won't be on mine.

unknown 49:01

That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

I'll remember him other ways. I'll remember you in my mind. Yes. I don't need your leg. No, that's gross. Yes. I don't although I did, and there was somebody else in there that had a hysterectomy and they let her keep her uterus, and I was like, I'm gonna keep my shit. I don't know. I don't want to know what it looks like. I want I want it all. I don't. I want all. When mom well you can have mom's eyeballs and uterus and ovaries and all that hanging around. Um so nineties.

90s Music Concerts And Pop Culture

SPEAKER_02 49:39

What listen what'd you listen to in the nineties? Um, I listened to kind of everything. I liked the salt and pepper. Everyone does. Um I listened to them a lot, and I remember me and two other girls did a dance routine to that. To shoop? Yes. Did you see the TikTok chat where they have kids play shoop and their moms turn around and do the whole No. And the kids are like turn and look at them and they're like No, I don't I kind of listen, you know, you know how my memory is. I do. She is not very good at memory. No, but I listened to kind of everything. Alanis Morissette. She liked Alanis. I was a big Jewel fan. She was into the girl rock. Yeah. Alanis Morissette, Jewel. Um, who else was like in that category? Um Pink. The beginning. The beginning of Pink. She was like off the rails. Yeah. I feel like. I wasn't a big Britney Spears or Christina Aguilar. Well, that was also later, too. I was also older. Yeah. But 90s, who else? I like Tiffany. That was 80s, but yeah. Well, okay. New Kids on the Block. New Kids on the Block. Tiffany. There was another girl group. The two sisters and the other Wilson? The the world? Yes. Wilson Phillips. Yes, Wilson Phillips, yes. Enjoyed. Enjoyed the girl music. I do like the girl music. Yeah. Wasn't really into like the grunge, like Pearl Jam, Nirvana. I fucking hate Pearl Jam. All day long. Nicole fucking loves Pearl Jam. Gwen uh Gwen Stefani's bands. You were big Gwen Stefani, uh, no doubt. No doubt, yeah, yeah. Yes, I love me some Gwen Stefani. Not so much anymore. Yeah, she went off the rails too. She did, but her her beginning years, yeah. Well, you could Delia's was kind of like a Yes. I wanted to dress like her. That was the aesthetic. I wanted to dress like Gwen Stefani and Alanis Morissette. Yeah. I loved Alanis Morissette's hair. Did you go you didn't go see her in Ocean City when she was here, did you? No. Mm-mm. Jewel Jewel, I like Jewel. I had a lot of her albums. That Ocean's Calling Every Year is really our Ocean's festival. Yeah, it's huge. And it's like right up our alley. Like it's a lot of good, bad. I've never I don't know. I'm not a big fan last year. Violent Femmes were there. I'd love to see the violent femmes again. But yeah, no, I I You didn't go to festivals. Did you go see fish though? Yeah. In New York. My friend made me. And it was horrible. Not a big fish fan. She was boring. Boo. I did make her go see the Pesh mode with me. And that was an exciting thing. That was my actual I think that was my first concert. Wasn't it? I don't do I'm not a big concert person. I'm not a big concert person. There's too many people. It's too far. Far, late, yep, late. Yeah. But it's the peep there's too many people. I don't like to be with that many people anymore. I made her go to the Depeche Mo concert with me. Yes, that wasn't there wasn't that many people at that one. Hey. No, but yeah, that was my first concert. And we had a we had a um Dominatrix that sat behind us. No, she sat in front of us, thank God. Oh. So I could watch her. I have no idea what happened on in this. He could have been on fire. No idea. Because I was too busy watching her. Oh, she was so excited. I was. That was exciting. I've never seen one. Never. I was like, yes. And she yes. It's like the first time I ever saw a prostitute. Oh. Poor mom. She had to hear all. And then I had to take her to see it. I was like, Mom, come on, you gotta see this prostitute. And she was like, I don't want to. Like, no. Because just like metal trash cans in the city, I thought all prostitutes were pretty w pretty women. Yeah. Like, that's no, no, they are not. They are not. This especially not then. No, and this girl was in just like shorts and a t-shirt. Yeah, they wear regular clothes. Yes. I was shocked. I was just, I couldn't believe it. That's what happens when you grow up in a in a small town area. And I had to go get mom. And you just watch TV. And I said, Mom, you gotta come see this prostitute. She said, I don't want to. And I was like, but you but you really need to. She called me to tell me that there was, in fact, that she did get to see prostitutes, working girls. Working girls. In regular clothes. She was blown away. I was. I thought they'd be in thigh-high boots. I mean, I'm sure they are in some places. Maybe somewhere. High end, probably. Maybe, yeah. But this the couple, this couple that I saw. Probably like a chicken ranch situation. Maybe, because these I saw in Hawaii were not high, high dollar. No. They were in shorts and t-shirts. Like they were dressed just normal, and that was amazing. I couldn't believe that they dressed normal. I feel like they'd get popped more if they were like dressed like pretty women where they were like just walking on the street and thigh highs, they would probably get arrested more often. Because they'd be like wearing a giant banner that says, Hey, I'm doing sex work. I guess that's I guess that's true. But yeah, she just she got I got to hear about that and wire trash cans. Wire trash cans, yeah. But that's what I thought of. I've only seen them in movies. I didn't know that male men actually wore that little outfit. Because we don't have them here. I mean we do, but not where we lived. During Rehoba.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Yeah, yeah. In Ocean City. Which I thought was weird too, because Ocean City does have city carriers. So I thought, why have I never seen one in Ocean City? But I still haven't seen one in Ocean City.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

No, I've never seen a male carrier in Ocean City. So they're there. And they're all city. I know. I know. They wore a uniform. But until I got this job, I thought that they just wore that uniform on TV.

unknown 55:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

Yeah, I wouldn't have to. Yeah, because Janet didn't wore regular clothes just like I do. Yeah. Yeah. That outfit. She does. I could not wear that. That's no way. Not my cup of tea. But God bless them, because it's itchy and hot and it looks it. It does not look comfortable. It looks bad. Yeah. God bless them for wearing it. Ugh. That's and that's a tight, it's not flattering. It's not flattering. They really need to revamp that. They do. It's been this. All of those uniforms they need to revamp. Yeah. Let's make them a little more figure friendly. To the 2020s at least. Maybe even just to the 2000s. Yeah. But why are we wearing polyester? I don't know. Brown pants. Slacks. Those are slacks. They're not pants. They're sitting on their Davenports and they're slacks. They are. Um, so then now let's time jump. Okay. Because you wanted to have children before you were 30. I did. Because you wanted to be young when they got old. Yeah. Younger when they were older, so Matt and I could travel and not be. And what happened this week? This week Matt and I went to bike week in Gettysburg. Okay, she's a biker. Without our children. Yeah. And it was pretty cool. Yeah. You get to travel now without. They can stay home alone. Yeah. And you you have you said at his birthday party that you did your job and I'm all I can do now. I've done well pretty much once like 16, 15, 16. You've pretty much done all you can and you just hope it stuck. You hope you did the best you could. I did the best. Matt and I did the best we could, and they're good kids. Just hope that they're productive members of society is all I want. They're good kids.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

The ones that love.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

They're pretty good kids. Yeah. They're they're they're good kids. They don't really get into a lot of trouble. They're homebodies. They do like to stay home.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Even Adriana, you know, with her boyfriend, they they hang out at the house a lot. Um, that's nice. Yeah. And then Matt on his 21st birthday got drunk at the house instead of going to a bar, which is good. And that's how we were. It was funny to see him drunk.

unknown 57:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

And I heard him cuss for the first time. Really? Yeah, that was weird. I didn't like it, but I didn't say anything because it he was drunk and he was with his friends, and I didn't and I don't think he even knew I was there.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Did he drop the F-bomb?

SPEAKER_02 58:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:10

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

Yeah, he was looking for it. It was the way he said it too was really funny. I had to like not I I laughed internally, but I did not laugh out loud. And I forget what he was looking for something, and he was like, I'm gonna find that motherfucker. It was hilarious, but it hurt my heart a little bit that he's 21. Yeah, of course he cusses. You didn't smack him like our mother does. I did not. I mean, I've had he's cussed in front of me before, and I've told him that that's a no-no. We don't do that. No, no. See, no. We don't do that here. His parents do. His let's just his parents don't. His mother does. His father does not have a foul language unless he's very angry. Yes, his yeah. I don't think I've ever heard his father. Yeah, he's not much of a he yeah, he's gotta be pretty angry to drop the F. But you like the F bomb. I do. I do. It's very hard not to say it around the kids. Especially now that they're getting older because we can talk more freely. Yeah. I don't know why you'd hold back at this point. I just do. Yeah. I don't know why. I just I just don't say it. But it's you know, at this age it's weird because we can talk more freely about like the jokes are a little more adult. Yeah, more adult. And sometimes I have to tell little Matt to whoa, like I'm his mother. Let's blow this up. All right. Why not we have to tell our our this is another little this is one thing that I did want to bring up too, because our parents are aging and we have had to deal with that guy.

Family Movies And Growing Up With Dad

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Our father is trouble. And we were adults when they had their motorcycle accident and he spoke a little too freely seared into my memory. We'll never forget that. We've always been very close with our parents. Um we've had to work with them, we would see them like 14 hours a day, every day, and then come home and in the same house. And so you have a very similar with your kids. Like they're very they stay at your house a lot and blah blah blah blah. Like like we did. Um so that's good that you have that you are able to have that. Yeah. And we still have like not every night, but at least once or twice a week. They all pile into my bedroom and they sit down on the bed and we all have like a nice. And we used to do that with our parents. We would have like a and we would do like family movie. You know, the family movie night we don't really do much anymore. Um because while the dog destroyed our sofa, so we don't have a sofa. So we're all just plus we're all still excited that we have internet. So you're all interneting and different rooms. Yes, we're all interneting in different rooms. So when we were younger, we would have like we have our our favorite family movies. Like there's certain things that we watch. Yes, we do too. Yeah. Like uh, I'm trying to think. Like one is I I don't know if this is just a me and dad thing, or if you I I think you remember it too, but the big man on campus, which is a horribly, terrible, stupid ass movie with Bob Maluga Luga, Louga Luga, Luga. Yeah, I know. I I it's a terrible movie, and he he goes to order chicken in the the mall and he orders two faces because and that's my favorite part of the whole thing, because the guy says you can have it's like a hunchback of Notre Dame situation, like he's been living in the bell tower at this college. This is how many times we've seen the stupidest movie Big Man on Campus. If you're ever in the mood for something just you don't ever want to watch again, it's that. And so he his name is Bob Maluga Luga Luga Luga, and he's the hunchback, and anyway, he goes and orders Kentucky Fried Chicken or something like that, and then the guy who's showing him society says you can order any part of the chicken you want, so he orders two faces. I don't remember that. I must I don't remember that movie. And the Godzilla. Godzilla. Where were you? We all watched these Godzilla's. You know our I Bet You Were? Sleeping. What Godzilla? All of them. There would be like on Sunday afternoon. I mean, I do I remember the the one with the the Kraken and Medusa. No. What was that movie called? That is um Why can't I remember it? But it had didn't it have Godzilla in it? No, it didn't have Godzilla in it. The Kraken, though. Um The Kraken Medusa.

unknown 1:03:21

Hold on.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

There was another creature thing in it. Clash of the Titans. Clash of the Titans. I've seen that. Yeah, that's that was a family movie. And um, you don't have to have a point to have a point. I don't know what the name of that movie is. It's called the fucking point. Oh okay. That movie we've seen. I don't that's my dad's favorite. It's it's Ringo Star narrates it. It's really I mean, it does have good music in it, though. That's from the 70s. I mean, we watch that every Christmas, I think. It comes on at Christmas for whatever reason. It's not a Christmas movie. I don't know. But you don't have to have a point to have a point. You don't. And I mean, that's words dad has lived by. He took that movie. He did take it very Oblio has a round head, and everyone in the town has a triangle head. Yes. And Oblio doesn't feel like he fits in, so he runs away with his arrow. Before that, he did put, remember, it's almost you know what I you know what? Now that I'm thinking about this, it's very close to Rudolph. You know how Rudolph has the weird nose and then he puts the fake nose on. Oh yeah, yeah. Oblio wore the hat to make him look like he had a pole triangle. Yeah. And then it fell off, I think, and he got embarrassed. And he ran away. Just like Rudolph. Right. On his big long escapade. Yes. And then come to find out, he's pretty cool. Right. Because he doesn't you don't have to have a point to have a point. Right. And everybody was like, oh, we like him now. And it was big, yeah. That's the moral of the story. Our father is a is a big, I I feel like he is a big, you don't have to fit in. Oh yeah. Absolutely. He does not fit in. Like he's he can No, he's a square peg. Yeah. He is. For sure. He is definitely. We always say that my mom is the nor most normal of all of us. Yeah. Which is moms, but moms tend to be because I'm the most normal out of my family. We don't have a choice. Yeah, I guess. Nobody lets us be normal. I always call you as normal passing. Like you can pass for normal. Like you can suck it up. Like you can tame your weirdness to be out in public like enough. Um me and dad can't. You and mom can, but me and dad just can't. We lack that ability to be normal. I can keep it in, I guess. Yeah. Control it. I have I have control over my weirdness. He's a weird he's a weird guy. He is a weird guy. He's a weird cat. He didn't never, you do not have to fit in. He never, he never, I mean, he would make fun of me for being goth, but it was never like a why are you like it was a a thing. Him being dad making fun of him. It wasn't like him being a bad thing. Because he'd make fun of me, too. Yeah, you can't dress like that, or why are you drinking? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it would be the typical where's the funeral and you know, and then I'd say I'd say who died, and he'd be like, Oh oops. Oh. Because I lost a lot of friends then. Yeah. And uh Yeah. So you have the older kids, your kids are grown, and they're heading out now. And we have No, they're not heading out. Well correction, they are not heading out. They are not, but they're gonna be. They're still in my home. Are you worried about empty nesting? Or are they out enough doing I have no worries about empty nest. I don't I'm not gonna have to do that. They do a lot of stuff on their own. Yeah. I mean they're pretty feral. Yeah, they are. And Adriana is, as I've said, is a gymnast. They come and go as they please pretty much. I mean, they've kind of I've never really had to give Matt a curfew. He's always been home before midnight. Yeah. Adriana has a curfew, but she's always home on it. And I always tell them, you know, that they we trust them. They haven't given us a reason to not trust them. Right. And the day that that happens, they will see a whole different type of pair. After November. I still can, because she'll live in the house, in in our house. After November. Remember. What was the saying? You're still under my roof. I had a curfew at 21. I did not. Because I lived at home. Well, because I threatened to leave. After I came back from the University of Delaware and they tried that. I said I'll just move out. Yeah, they said I had a curfew. I and I mean it was when the bars closed, but dad said, I know the bars close at 2, and I know how long it takes to get from Secrets to this house. So you better be home by 2.15. Yeah. I did. I was always home. I could never just not come home. I mean, I don't think they needed to give to be honest, I don't think I needed a curfew because usually I'm in bed by like nine anyway. I mean, it wasn't I wasn't gonna be and if I was gonna be out, I was just spending the night at somebody else's house or half dead in a field somewhere. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:36

Yeah, I didn't have to I didn't have a curfew when I came home.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

No, we never we were never those kids that snuck out or anything like that. Well you couldn't. Well, no, his hearing then was pretty much. I know he can't pull it now. You know why? Because he used it. He did. He used all of it for kids. Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely I was telling I used to sneak out in front of them just to see if I could do it. Because of that window, you know, on the door. Well, I know. I was saying when we were doing the fire drill. I know. When we were doing the fire drills. And mom would look over and be like, what are you be like, uh, it's a fire drill, mom. I'm out alive. You're dead, but I'm out. You're not participating in the fire. I remember I always wanted to have a meeting place, but nobody would ever do it. So if the house ever caught on fire, we were screwed because we didn't have a meeting spot. There's literally like three houses around, so but we didn't have I would have been swimming around aimlessly. I thought it was that at the neighbor's house. There's probably dad probably said, I don't know. Jump in the lagoon and swim swim. That's probably what he said. You used to get that nasty lagoon rod. Lagoon rot. Yeah. Yeah. I don't wonder what that was. How come nobody ever took me to the doctor for it? I never went to the doctor for that. I joke a lot that no one cared about me, but no one ever took you to the doctor. No, I had open wounds from swimming in the water. Yeah, it was. Nobody thought, hmm. We should have that. Maybe we should get her looked at. I mean, it could have what if it was like it could MRSA or it probably was. It probably will be like the flesh-eating viruses. Maybe you're just too tough for it. I am. I mean, that's where our immune system comes from. Eating dirt. Yeah. Literally. We did eat all the and having open wounds that our bodies had to fight off. That's true. Not medicine. No. We did not get medicine. And if we did, it was like seriously expired. Yes. Or and it was like a serious situation. Like we were really sick. Like when I got mono, I did mom would give me like ibuprofen for my headache. That's it though. And my swollen throat. But yeah. Nothing else. I mean, they made when I broke my leg, they made me walk to the to the emergency room. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds about right. That's nice. That's nice of them. Let me make me walk with a broken leg. And they were irritated because she had a word of work. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, they were. Um so now we're in our I'm in my 50s and you're

Aging Kids Growing Up And Letting Go

SPEAKER_02 1:11:19

you're getting there. Yeah. You're gonna be there. How are you feeling about that? I don't like it. It's weird. Sucks. It's weird. It is weird. It's weird being old. What not? Yeah. It's I'm gonna have I don't know why, but I feel like I have I'm gonna have more trouble this year with Adriana graduating than I did with Matt. And I'm not sure why, because I love them equally. You know, I wanted to ask you about that. Because I don't buy them. I don't know if it's because she's the last one. I do not know. I love them. I'm not saying for you. I'm saying, and I don't think it's not that Nicole and I have discussed it because she definitely has a favorite kid. She can she she definitely she says I do get along with one of them better than the other two. They don't listen, luckily, but she does. Mom. Your mom's favorite. I was gonna say, Mom and I got along better. Yes. Up until you became a breeder. And then I was tossed to the waist. She still didn't care about me. No, it was just your kids. Yes. You were a means to an end. She didn't it was just get okay, here, let me have them. Let me have the baby. Then you leave. Get away from me. But you and Dad. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess Dad and I had to go to the house. And you know, your sporty spice. I did love the dump. Yeah. And he would take you surfing and you learn to golf with him and all that. Yeah. So I do feel like you you do have more personality wise. I'm not saying that you love one kid more than the other. One kid you do have a little more of a in common with. Yeah. Because of personality-wise. Yeah. Like Matt and Matt are like each other. Little Matt is a lot like dad. Like he really doesn't care. He's a square peg. Yeah. And he's fine with being a square peg. He always has been. He would go to school, roll right out of bed in pajamas, and really would not care. If somebody said something about his shoes, he would make sure he wore those specific shoes every single day. Yeah. Just to piss off that person. Right. Adriana's a lot like me. She's a lot feistier. She doesn't tolerate bullies. She does not. If somebody does something, she's handsy, she will put hands on people. I hope you should watch that. She has and she continues to put hands on people. But you know. She's so little too. She doesn't, she just doesn't. You'd never expect that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:04

She's we always called her a spider monkey.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

She is like a spider monkey. Yeah. She cares more what people think than than little Matt does. I mean, he really does not care. If you don't like him, you don't like him, and he's just like whatever. He really doesn't care. He's a lot like dad and his dad, and Adriana's a lot like me, where she wants she doesn't want to disappoint anybody. She doesn't want anybody to hate her. Right. But if you do say something cross to somebody else or to her, she will unleash on you. She's dangerous. She's a weapon. Yeah. She almost went after this guy at McDonald's because we were coming back from a meet. And when she gets hungry, she's hangry, just like her mother. She is not. We call her Adriana when she slips into these moods. Like when she's PMSing, it's Adriana. It is not Adriana anymore. And this guy, like you know, McDonald's has the two-lane things, which I hate. I hate that's stupid as fuck. It is. I don't know. And how does that make things faster? It doesn't. It doesn't. So we had ordered and I started to go, and this guy came and cut us off, and I thought she was she was she was had the door open, and I had to like tell her, like, let's bring it down. And then when we got up to the window, everything was all messed up because this guy cut me off.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

And I am not one to I don't say a whole lot. I it takes a lot, and I'll just keep my mouth shut. And she handed me the bag, it felt light. So I looked in it, and it was a cherry pie and a small fry. Oh no. And I was like, her and I can't. No. We will kill each other. So I had to tell the lady that it wasn't my fault. And she snatched it out of my hand. And I thought Adriana was going to crawl through the window. And she said loudly when the girl came back that it was not my fault that we had the wrong order, that it was the guy in front of us that cut us off. Like we're at Walmart or somewhere, and someone's cart is in the middle of the aisle. She will walk past them, trip, air quote, trip, over their cart, and she will literally fling herself onto the ground and make a scene. And I'm just like, oh dear lord. And she's like, ah, like she makes a scene to the point where the person's like, oh my gosh, and she will say, Well, if your cart wasn't there, this wouldn't have happened. Like it, it's almost it's embarrassing sometimes. Sometimes I'm like, oh my god. Where did she come from? So she is a lot feistier than Little Matt. Little Matt just lets the case. He's a laid back it. Everything rolls, yeah. It just kind of rolls off him. If you call him a name, he's like, okay. Yeah, he doesn't care. She's a lot like me. You call me a name or her brother a name, you're gonna get fists. Does he eat snakeheads? He doesn't, but she has gone after people for Matt, and she probably will continue to do that forever. Yeah, that's good. She doesn't she's dangerous, though. She's a weapon. She's li she's she's small. She's small but mighty. She is. I mean, she could she could do some damage if she wanted to. Yeah. She's very strong. She's very strong. And I don't people don't realize she's been a gymnast since how old was she when? She was four. Yeah. She was four when we She'd been doing this a long time. Because I put her in to make girlfriends. Yeah. So she didn't wasn't friends with Matt's friends anymore. Well, she needed to learn how to learn how to be a and she yeah, she needed to do things on her own and not what her brother did. Did yeah. Which she still does, but she does her own thing too. Oh God. That's our cue, I think, because usually he's our dad is down there I don't know, being annoying. Probably wanting to know why we're both here at the same time. He probably thinks he's gotta go to the hospital. That's the only reason we show up anymore. It's when he's going into the hospital.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:09

He's probably like, I'm not going.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:12

But anyway. Well, that was a see. It wasn't so bad. No, it wasn't horrible. No. See? Uh it's not that bad. No, it wasn't bad. Anyway, we'll try and get her back some other time with Nicole here because she'll really get going with Nicole

Nicole Shoutouts Grandkids And Goodbye

SPEAKER_02 1:18:29

here. Nicole gets her fired up.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:32

Nicole likes to agitate.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:34

Yeah. I mean Well, I've known Nicole since I was Yeah, little. Yeah. 92. 13. She came into our lives at 92. And I remember you made me show her my cheerleading routine in front of her. She remembers her ex-husband. She remembers that well, too. She loved it. But it was very embarrassing. She loved it because she didn't have a very good relationship with her own sister, so she got a new one. And of course, her and my mom. Her mom loves everybody more than us. I know. Sad. So sad. It is sad. I I always say our mom was born to be a grandmother. And she acted grandmom towards our friends. Yeah. Because she wanted to be a grandmom. How do you feel about being a grandmom? Are you ready for it?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:26

No, I mean not.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:27

Like I don't know. I don't know if my kids want kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:32

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:33

Adriana wants um six Yorkes. And Matt's not sure if he wants a kid because they ruined their your stuff. He's not wrong. And I said That's why I don't have kids. No shit. Look around the house, bud. I well, I always say that that was always what was nice about our family, that it was never I was never made to feel like it was wrong. Oh no. I was never pressured. Never from outside people, yes, but never from never from mom and dad. No, they don't. And mom really wanted grandkids. Yeah, and they never said, when are you getting married? When are you having kids? Never. No. Ever. I don't remember. No. Dad was mad when I got pregnant. And I was married. I was allowed. He didn't want to be a grandpa. No, I guess not. He didn't want to be a dad. We know. He wanted to be called Dave. We've we've been told. He didn't like being called dad. No, he made three mistakes in his life. Marrying my mom and having the two of us. Yep. The only three mistakes he's ever made. Don't don't let him fool you, though. He loves us. He doesn't love us, but he loves them kids. He loves his grandkids. He does. At least one of them. What about the other one? The big one I don't know about. The little one. He likes the big one. The big one in him now talk cars.

unknown 1:20:55

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:56

He found something common. Well, Matt's very proficient in cars. Like he is. Yeah. So, yeah. He always was a fan of he always wanted boys, and then he gets a grandson, doesn't know what to do with him. Yeah. Then he gets a granddaughter and he's like, that one I know. That I can deal with. Okay. We've gone on enough. We'll have her back sometime with Nicole now that she's loosened up and it's not as bad as she thinks because she never has to hear it again. Anyway, so I'll wrap it up. You can find us. Nicole will be back next week, I think. You can find us where you find all podcasts. Uh we're on all the socials at Like Whatever Pod on all of them. We have a website, uh www.likewhateverpod.com. Um you can like, share, rate, review, because that bumps us up. And this is the hard part for me. You can send us an email about how you want to hear her come back. Give her all the love to like whatever pod at gmail.com or don't like whatever. Whatever. Bye. Bye.